Remote connection to slc 5/04

I need to be able to communicate remotely with a slc 5/04 and was wondering what my options are. Where the plc is to make thing hard doesnt have a telephone line. The nearest telephone point is about 1km out to front office. We do have wireless Internet though. Can I hook up wireless Internet to serial port or something.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Data-Linc Group makes an EtherNet/IP to DF1 bridge (http://www.data-linc.com/custom.htm).

When you say 'communicate', what are you trying to communicate. Historical data. Change controls (for example,recipes)?

A Red Lion Data Station (or HMI) gives you multiple options to attack this problem. It has an Ethernet port and will directly convert the AB protocols for you. You can then connect the Ethernet port to something like a Buffalo Ethernet Converter to talk to your wifi.

For example, use the RL to store data from the AB DF1 into the RL's local memory, then ftp the data using the Ethernet/wifi to your remote PC. Or setup a web page on the RL that presents your data and controls, then connect to that web page over the Ethernet.

Hi thanks for the feedback. What we want to be able to do is get online through the serial port on our slc 5/04 from a remote location which could be 3 hours drive or more away. Where the plc processor is we don't have any telephone lines but do have mobile phone reception.

We need to be able to communicate to perform diagnosis in a breakdown, code changes, review stored data.

I found this on the net does anyone think it would communicate via serial port to our slc 5/04

http://www.bestit.net.au/products/b...rial-3g-cellular-router-ethernet-serial-.html

Your cellular router kooks like a good candidate for the 3G to Ethernet or serial. But you'll need something to do the conversion from DF1 protocol to Ethernet or serial: that's why I suggested the Red Lion. It will convert from DF1, provide access to your SLC registers, store to flash, provide an ftp client and allow you to build up web pages.

Will the red lion allow changes to the code though or only view only access to registers

You can read and write registers through the Red Lion. But as far as writing new ladder logic to the PLC, I don't know: I will have to defer to my other esteemed colleagues here.

The Red Lion supports virtual serial ports but I do not know if that will work to/from a DF1 port. Anybody out there used a Red Lion to write new code to their PLC DF1 - or know of an alternative that will?
My apologies I missed that requirement in your reply...

No that's cool any assistance is great. I'm not sure if you can do it at all so that maybe the best ability we can get at the end of the day.

Thanks for your help

For using RSLogix remotely, I would recommend looking at the Digi One IAP for Ethernet to DF1 conversion. It is very compact, has two serial ports so you can also remotely access another serial device (HMI if present).

I believe that pass through using the Red Lion G3 to RSLinx (required for RSLogix) requires extra software to do the comm port redirection on the PC side.

Paul

Hello,
You can connect to your AB PLC remotely through the DSP or G3 HMI and transfer a new configuration into the PLC. As OkiePC has stated this does require a Virtual Serial Port program to be active and running on the PC. I commonly use a program from HW Group.

Thanks
Jeremy