Controllogix to Adaptive sign

Kev77

Member
Join Date
Mar 2008
Location
Beaverton, Or
Posts
410
I am thinking about trying to connect a Controllogix version 19 to a Adaptive BigDot sign. It looks like this can be done from the serial port on the processor but I need to do this over ethernet. I have the ethernet adapter for the sign but I don't think it will work with ethernet/ip. I currently have a 1756-ENBT card in the rack but am wondering if I need to use an 1756-EWEB card. I was thinking of trying to use a message and addressing it to the sign but am unsure how to configure the message. I have done something like this before but not with an ENBT card.

Has anybody done this before?

Thanks,

Kevin
 
Is this something a customer purchased or did you purchase it for your company? I ask becasue this unit is really not setup to read from a plc. It is primarily for putting safety and sales messages in that run at timed intervals.

IMHO if possible you would be better of to return this thing and buy a marquee that is meant for connection to a plc.

You could make it work as it has a active x interface but it would be a real PITA.

Just my 2 cents.
 
A unit from EXOR or similar would be better suited for this application as they are setup to work directly from the plc and made to use the ethernet /IP protocol.
 
The sign is something that we had laying around and was trying to keep from buying something else. I was looking around and found this which looks like it would work but need to dig into it some more. I will check out the EXOR interface as well. Thanks for the reply.

I like a challange!
 
Is this the same company as Adaptive Displays? I used one via a serial port on a CompactLogix a while ago. It was easy as it wasn't really made to use with PLCs. I had to study the very extensive and complex command language. The send the ASCII strings out the serial port. Another sign would have saved a lot of time!
 
Yes it is a adaptive display. I found a company that makes an adapter that converts ethernet to ethernet/ip. The sales guy says that there is a UDT that is loaded and a single string tag is sent to the sign. They are made for the adaptive displays. The only issue is that it costs $675.00. I asked for some more information to see how easy it is. It is a new module that covers all AB plc's. It is made by Real Time Automation.
 
Well that's pretty cheap. I spent way more than that in programming time to get it to work! The sign cost like $5k.
 
I'm not familiar with the big dot display, however, it probably uses the standard Adaptive protocols. I have an Adaptive 9160c with a built in ethernet and it it fairly simple to send messages to it using the standard Adaptive protocols or the software that comes with it. I also have 2 Adaptive 7120C that have only serial rs232 and rs485 connections and for them I use a Lantronics UDS (universal device server) Probably similar to this one http://www.rtaautomation.com/ethernetip/adaptivemicro/
If I have time I'll try to look up the BigDot and see if it's the same. If It is then a cheap UDS may be all you need. I found it easier to set up with the Adaptive software to make sure the communications from the PC to the UDS to the Sign was all working. If you don't have the software send me an email I may be able to lend you a copy.
 
Thanks for the reply. The Lantronics units look the same as the RTA units. I spoke with our local Rockwell group and they suggested that I move to version 20 on my RSLogix because with the new version and the 1756-EN2T card it will do some of the same functions as the 1756-EWEB card as far as socket connections. I did this in the pas and it is a real pain but they assured me that it is much improved from the EWEB module. I'm under Support so it will not hurt to give it a shot but if it turns out to be a pain, then I am going to try one of these gateway servers.
 
Can you provide an example of the code required to communicate over 232 with this display? I've been working on this for a while with no luck.
 
Use the Real time automation gateway . It is very simple to setup way easier than with the en2t card. I did a nice little project with the same kind of sign. It rotates through a bunch of tank levels and and how many cans had run run on different lines. and then when something specials happens it jumps out of that and displays the alarm or message. Also threw in some safety messages to boot. I also RTA gateways to send messages to our VideoJet printers.
 

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