communication woes

All,
I have recently inherited a new process. This process consists of 30+ SLC 5/04 that used to run on DH+. In order to establish a new SCADA (ignition) application, they gutted the DH+ and opted for purchasing 30+ MOXA NPort W2x50-Plus Series to place on each serial port. Now please forgive my ignorance with networking terminology, but when I inquired with MOXA about RSLinx support they said I would need to purchase another serial server device that was compatible with RSLinx. Well currently we are using Kepserver version 5.?? and it is communicating with the PLCs fine and there is no way I can replace these modules. Tech support mentioned that this device is just a bridge with no special functionality to convert RS-232 DF1 to E I/P. My question is, isn't there a software package that allows basically a virtual comm port to be installed onto a laptop that might allow me to link up with these SLC via RSLinx using a DF1 driver and this virtual comm port? Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

There is, and MOXA makes it. Check here first, look at the management suite. Do you have the CD yet for the NPort?

From the manual:

NPort Windows Driver Manager
NPort Windows Driver Manager installs remote NPort serial ports as new COM ports on your
Windows PC. When the drivers are installed and configured, devices that are attached to serial
ports on the NPort will be treated as if they were attached to your PC’s own COM ports. The
NPort serial port must be configured for Real COM mode when being mapped to a COM port

Click to expand...

When you are saying that "they gutted the DH+" does it mean that they've completely eliminated the media (Blue Hose)?
If you still have the the old physical network installed and you need software connectivity to the SLCs beside the SCADA/RS232 you could pick one of the DH+ network ends and run it to a PC containing a 1784-PKTX DH+ interface PCI module or a 1784-U2DHP USB to DH+ cable.
This setup will allow you to interface with the SLC 5/04s using a RSLinx AB-KT-x Data Highway Plus driver using Comms Channel 1 of the CPUs (configured for DH+).
To make a long story shorter, if they are using the CPUs Serial Ports for the SCADA system you won't be able to run any other software online with the SLCs unless you "disconnect" the SCADA process or you are using the "spare" comms ports, which for the SLC 5/04 family are configurable to DH+.
Another long shout would be the installation of a ControlLogix 1756 chassis on a location which would allow physical connectivity to the DH+ "daisy-chain"; the chassis will contain a 1756-DHRIO with a channel configured as a DH+ node (connected to the "blue hose") and a 1756-ENBT bridge carrying a LAN subnet IP address( connected to the plant LAN).
RSLinx Gateway allows you to configure the newly created 1756 "Gateway" in such way that the 1756 Ethernet/IP bridge coud be addressed from anywhere within the LAN and then, using an Ethernet or Ethernet/IP RSLinx driver, you could "hop" any RA software into the DH+ network via the 1756 chassis backplane.

Problem with DH+ is that it is not really performant enough for so many PLCs. Even splitting into 2 DH+ networks with a 1756-DHRIO (which has 2 DH+/RIO ports) is a really satisfying solution. Depends on the amount of data of course.

As to the simultanous SCADA and programming with the suggested MOXA ethernet/serial gateways, then I think it can be solved if RSLinx Gateway is used in stead of Kepware Kepserver. RSLinx Gateway has OPC support, so it can do the same as Kepserver can do.
Additionally, it allows other PCs to use RSLinx Gateway as Router for a remote RSLinx (even Lite). So I think RSLinx Gateway will take care of the simultanous access to one PLC from both the SCADA and RSLogix.
This assumes that it is possible to get access via DF1 and the Moxa serial/ethernet gateways and virtual COM ports. Is it even possible to define so many COM ports on one PC ?

edit: You can make a test to see if it works. Try to make one virtual COM port connection with one of the Moxa gateways actually connected to one SLC5/04. If you can get online with RSlinx and RSlogix, then try to setup 30 virtual COM ports, even if you dont actually have all 30 Moxa gateways up and running. If that goes OK, I think it will work and you can buy one RSLinx Gateway.

I am looking into this MOXA management utility at the moment and hoping it can be something this simple and there isn't competition for the serial port.
But I didn't think to add the DHRIO module. That would be the best route to go. I know the DH+ is connecting the PV1000s to the SLCs. I will have to verify that they didn't not break the chain. The PLCs do not communicate w eachother. We are slowly retiring the SLCs and moving to compactlogix. But I sure wouldn't have a problem managing the two networks in the meantime.

dogfart said:

I know the DH+ is connecting the PV1000s to the SLCs.

Click to expand...

You forgot to mention that in the original post. So is there one PV1000 per SLC5/04 ? Or just one or a few ? Or are the PV1000s going to be replaced by the Ignition SCADA ?

You don't want more than about 7 to 10 nodes per DH+ network. Every node on each network must take turns passing the token and doing its communications. Even if machine A and machine B have no messaging going on between them the mere fact that they are all on one network sharing ONE token is what will slow them down exponentially as you add nodes.

I think Jesper has a perfect reply.

Success!
I think I can only view one PLC at a time but we found a software package serial to ethernet ($100 by Eltima Software) that has allowed me to get Linx to talk to the SLC using a DF1 driver.
I appreciate the help and suggestions. And confirmed that "we" I say loosely cut the excess blue hose. So each SLC 5/04 talks to a local PanelView utilizing the SLCs DH port, but there is no networking between machines except ethernet.

So you have 30+ SLC5/04's and 30+ PV1000s, at the moment running with one SLC5/04 and one PV1000 connected to each other per machine and not with anything else.
Connecting all these together in one or two big DH+ networks and additionally to a SCADA, that would never have worked.