rslogix 5000 read/write to ethernet radio

Hi All,

I'm not an AB expert by any means, but have been given a project to do with RSLogix 5000. I'm picking most of it up pretty quick, but am having a problem with communication set-up to an ethernet radio gateway.

Products involved are:
PLC-Compactlogix L32E
Radio-Elpro 905U-E

The PLC is connected to an ethernet switch and we have wonderware, another vendor AB PLC and the radio connected to this switch. I have configured the PLC for the data exchange between the vendor PLC and my PLC. (Pretty simple both AB).

Problem comes in when I'm trying to configure the read/write or data exchange to the ethernet radio which is polling two other remote stations.

Any suggestions or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Stache

why would you need to poll the radio?

I guess all the ethernet radios I've used were "transparent" ... they acted like a long cable plugged into both ends. After the radio's are setup and working I just MSG the other PLC's as normal as if they were next to me.

If there are 3 radios.. one will be the AP (access points) and the other 2 remotes.

what model/brand radio? btw

The radios are Elpro. The master radio is an Ethernet gateway and the remote radios have onboard remote i/o. So in essence I need to message the gateway which inturn is polling the remote I/O.

Stache

I don't have direct experience with the Elpro 905U-E, and just read the brochure briefly. I'm posting because I am very familiar with the CompactLogix.

What are the exact models of remote radio ? The Elpro 905U-E itself looks like it has just one input and one output, and I don't see what protocol you can use to acess that data. It seems like the only industrial application level protocol that the 905U-E natively processes are Modbus/TCP and Modbus RTU, and the CompactLogix does not support either of those natively.

Sorry Stache I didn't see your first post with the radio info..lol

I did find this.. it involves your processor but a 905U-G

http://www.elprotech.com/UserFiles/File/Applications/app_105-905G_EIP_1.4.pdf

hope that give you a direction

Ken Roach said:

I don't have direct experience with the Elpro 905U-E, and just read the brochure briefly. I'm posting because I am very familiar with the CompactLogix.

What are the exact models of remote radio ? The Elpro 905U-E itself looks like it has just one input and one output, and I don't see what protocol you can use to acess that data. It seems like the only industrial application level protocol that the 905U-E natively processes are Modbus/TCP and Modbus RTU, and the CompactLogix does not support either of those natively.

Click to expand...

if the radio only handles modbus tcp, you could use a digi one iap to do protocol conversion for you.

Hey Stache,
I'm not positive but I believe that the radios are smart and act as routers. I don't think you need to acess the radios at all. Just hook them up to your devices and you should be able to see the devices in linx. If you can see them in linx then you don't need to do anything else. The radios follow the tcp/ip protocall. It's like you said there just like a long wire.

The master radio is an Ethernet gateway and the remote radios have onboard remote i/o. So in essence I need to message the gateway which inturn is polling the remote I/O.

Stache

Click to expand...

I was looking at the .pdf http://www.elprotech.com/UserFiles/File/Brochures/bro_905e_2.0.pdf
for the radio you listed in the original post and they support many comm formats. Among formats supported is router 10/100 baseT. You should be able to configure the radios to router, set the IP's for them and viola, one big ethiernet. Then you can talk device to device without acessing the radios at all.

Hi Stache,

I recently did a project with radio's as well. I agree with JimFun71, the radios should basically just act as one long wire. You set it up and it should work. You might have to set up one radio as a master and the other stations as slave, but i'm not sure on that. We had a radio guy set up the radios. He basically setup all the parameters in the radio and i just hooked up my plc and it communicated fine. Make sure there is a line of site to the radios. Can you ping the radios? Can you ping the PLC's? If not than there is something wrong with your radio settings. I think we used freewave radios.

I think you are missing where he is not using multiple.. PLC's. He is using the remote I/O. so I believe he will have to message the gateway to get the I/O data.