CIP Comms: Bristol CWu RTU to AB ControlLogix PLC

Hi,

I'm trying to setup a ControlWave Micro (CWu) to read tags from an Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLC (L-61 CPU) using CIP comms.

The CWu needs to be the master and the AB PLC can not be touched as it is a vendor PLC which I am not allowed to modify.

I'm able to read the Services and Identity data of the EN2TR module but I'm unable to read Class, Instance and Attributes from the CPU as I'm not sure how / if the CWu can formulate a CIP message with the required data in it to make that possible. Also I'd prefer to use tag names but it doesn't look like the CWu CUSTOM block supports this.

Has anyone out there ever done such a thing?

I know how to setup an AB PLC to write to a CWu RTU using CIP comms using the AB MSG block and CWus CUSTOM block but in this cause I don't have the luxury of being able to edit the AB PLC.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Eric

Hi Eric,

To answer your question, I don't think you can access the L61 tags straight from the CWm, you have to have some sort of messaging blocks at both ends (CUSTOM in CWu and MESSAGE in L61). Has the vendor set the message block on the L61? Can you do it the other way around where the vendor equipment is client and CWu is server?

Now, you mentioned you know how to set up a Logix to talk to CWu. I'm trying to do this and I'm pretty much stuck at the point of setting the message block in Logix (CWu is server) as well as setting the parameters for the generic Ethernet module. The CWu program I have was used to talk to a SLC5/05, but I don't have a copy of the SLC program to draw some parallels. Can you shed some light please?

Thanks,

Andrei

My go to solution for this is to use a Red Lion Datastation+ (~$500). You can import the .L5K file directly into the Datastation and then retrieve the data via modbus or BSAP/IPB protocol. Works well and I can send you file/setup info from working systems.