Working on a project with a bunch of communications and wanted to make sure we're not getting ourselves into trouble.
We're going to have a Controllogix PLC with about 25 HMI's, VFD's, and Point I/O all in a device level ring. These are spread out in a few different control panels but relatively close to each other (150 feet max).
In addition we have another 50 Modbus/TCP devices (servers) that we are collecting data from with Prosoft cards in the PLC rack.
My understanding is that in order to break into the DLR, we should use a 1783-ETAP and then you can use ethernet switches on the other side of the ETAP for devices that don't have DLR network capability.
So my questions are:
Should the Modbus/TCP traffic be isolated from the DLR Ethernet/IP traffic?
If it can be run together, what is the best way to connect the Prosoft modules into the ring? Add an ETAP for each one?
Can we use unmanaged switches to connect all the Modbus/TCP devices together and then a single ETAP to get them into the ring?
Is this whole setup asking for trouble? This is a lot more ethernet devices than we've ever done before.
We're going to have a Controllogix PLC with about 25 HMI's, VFD's, and Point I/O all in a device level ring. These are spread out in a few different control panels but relatively close to each other (150 feet max).
In addition we have another 50 Modbus/TCP devices (servers) that we are collecting data from with Prosoft cards in the PLC rack.
My understanding is that in order to break into the DLR, we should use a 1783-ETAP and then you can use ethernet switches on the other side of the ETAP for devices that don't have DLR network capability.
So my questions are:
Should the Modbus/TCP traffic be isolated from the DLR Ethernet/IP traffic?
If it can be run together, what is the best way to connect the Prosoft modules into the ring? Add an ETAP for each one?
Can we use unmanaged switches to connect all the Modbus/TCP devices together and then a single ETAP to get them into the ring?
Is this whole setup asking for trouble? This is a lot more ethernet devices than we've ever done before.