Historian ME installation Question

I was given the job of upgrading the code for an AB plc with multiple RIO. The panelbuilders installed the ME module in one of the RIO. I'm setting up the modules now, and can switch it, if necessary.


Will this work, or should I move it to the same chassis with the plc?

I have done one project with the Historian Module and found it to be a big PITA.

That being said the purpose of the Historian Module is to keep the data logging going in the event of loss of network communications. So if your network fails between the module and the data storage computer then the Historian will keep logging until you can establish communications with the Computer.

Given that is how it works I would move it to the main rack with the Processor. That away if you lose the network you can still log some of the data.

Hope that helps.

Justin OtherPLC said:

I was given the job of upgrading the code for an AB plc with multiple RIO. The panelbuilders installed the ME module in one of the RIO. I'm setting up the modules now, and can switch it, if necessary.


Will this work, or should I move it to the same chassis with the plc?

Click to expand...

I assume you mean remote IO Chassis when you say RIO but when you put RIO people take that to be Allen Bradley Universal Remote IO which most people term as RIO.

I agree with Bullzi though the historian ME module is for local data colletion and storage and if used with Historian Site Edition or Enterprise Edition it's a data buffer if the connection is lost, Server Issue, etc.

It would be the most fault tolerant to be in the same chassis with the PLC and will also give better performance and time stamping because you will not have the latency of the network.

Thanks guys. Yeah, I meant distributed IO using the EN2T modules. In the main chassis I also have a DHRIO module, and I'd just finished setting that up. Sorry for any confusion. The high speed of the ME module is nice, but in this application isn't critical. I this chassis drops out the plc it's collecting data from will also be off.

I found out the latest firmware version allows the module to be set up like this. Before this update the module had to be located in the same chassis as the plc it was collecting data from. I'm not sure of all the things this unit is now capable of, but it should work well in this application for the data we're collecting.