SLC 500 alarm and event through Phone call

We have a request from a customer, and we don't know how to solve it.

The customer has an Allen Bradley SLC 500 PLC connect to a PC which is use as an HMI with FactoryTalk ME
He has a Para Vox system to send alarm and events through sms and phone call to maintenance and supervisor crew, but they reach the limit of the system, and they want another option.
We try to offer him the (e won) flexy 205 device.
But he wants to be able to add or delete phone number at any time easily with the HMI so the Flexy is not an option since you will have to log in the Flexy and manually change the phone number.
We can manage the HMI and the ladder programmation but we have no clue how we can send sms and phone call.
Do you guy have any clue how we can achieve the customer request.
Thanks

Well in a sane world I would tell you to switch the HMI to Ignition, but then the PLC is also a SLC 500..... So yeah gasoline and a book of matches. Then start over.



P.S. I know you didn't want to hear that.

P.P.S. Get him a Panel PC with windows that just boots to chrome kiosk mode pointed at the e WON.

P.P.P.S. e WONs are junk get a TosiBox. I switched to them after I got tired of e WONs flaking out.

Our go to setup for email alerts is Red Lion with a Stridelinx VPN router for internet access along with a AuthSMTP account for authentication. I have some Crimson tags and logic set up that I paste into the HMI application that will make it easy for the operator to edit the contact info by simply entering a name, phone number and pick their carrier so that the messages are routed through the carrier email to sms gateway and end up as text messages if they prefer that over an email. If they need voice calls, Ignition software with the Voice Notification module is great. It converts any alarm text you can dream up to a very clear voice message.

I have shared an example Crimson file with the hard part already done somewhere on the forum, but my really slow internet is making it hard for me to hunt it down. We've used this set up for about 15 different customers over the past 6 years with very few troubles. Those few troubles were usually either a cell phone carrier blocking alerts or ISP blocking common email ports and were overcome with a phone call to the right tech person who could open the right ports.

Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community !

What model of SLC-5/0x controller is it ?

How exactly does the ParaVox system connect to the PLC ? Is this a Paradox VD710 voice dialer, or something else ? My brief reading of their user manual is that they used dry contact closures, not a serial interface.

So they can't program phone numbers or messages using the HMI now, and that's a new feature they want to implement.

Are they planning to stick with the POTS analog telephone line for their voice dialing, or are they going to connect their new device to the Internet to allow it to take advantage of SMS and E-Mail and Text-to-Speech or other methods of notification ?

Don't try to skip ahead to "what can I connect to this hardware". Figure out what functions and features your customer wants first.

What you need is an Auto Dialer

https://www.scadalink.com/products/alarm-callout/alarm-dialers/

setup an output from the PLC to an input on dialer and it calls your cell phone
These have been around and in use for over 30 Years in one form or another

What model of SLC-5/0x controller is it ?

we don't know yet. we are early in the projet. We have a meeting with him later to gather more information.


How exactly does the ParaVox system connect to the PLC ? Is this a Paradox VD710 voice dialer, or something else ? My brief reading of their user manual is that they used dry contact closures, not a serial interface.

you are correct, dry contact from the PLC. He wants more input, 4 is not enough for him and he doesn't want to add more ParaVox box since it is not user friendly and add way more complexity.
They want to get rid of it.


So they can't program phone numbers or messages using the HMI now, and that's a new feature they want to implement.

You are correct, phone programming is not user friendly. He wants to be able to map cell phone number depending to who on the clock and be able to be able to temporary disable cell phone number when a guy is out of the office.


Are they planning to stick with the POTS analog telephone line for their voice dialing, or are they going to connect their new device to the Internet to allow it to take advantage of SMS and E-Mail and Text-to-Speech or other methods of notification?

They want the cell phone to ring until someone answer. so, SMS or email is not the main feature they are looking for but is a nice added feature. I think POTS is our best option.


Don't try to skip ahead to "what can I connect to this hardware". Figure out what functions and features your customer wants first.

it is early in the projet and customer only want a cell phone to ring until someone answer and I am trying to figure out if it is possible with the hardware they have right now. They want to be able to modify the contact list from the HMI for more flexibility and ease of use. The only system I know of is **** and the kind of alarm system that they already have which will not let them modify the contact list from the HMI.

GaryS said:

What you need is an Auto Dialer

https://www.scadalink.com/products/alarm-callout/alarm-dialers/

setup an output from the PLC to an input on dialer and it calls your cell phone
These have been around and in use for over 30 Years in one form or another

Click to expand...

customers want to be able to change the contact list from the HMI. This system seems to the same thing has they have right now.

Well, Win911 + a cell modem will do exactly what your customer wanted.

A word of caution on Win911, the current version gets really bogged down if you go over a large amount of tags, says over 1000+?

AutomatisationBSL said:

customers want to be able to change the contact list from the HMI.

Click to expand...

Assuming, depending whom is on call that weekend/night is the lucky winner (poor guy)... I have done this with a Viking, the Viking can store X amount of phone numbers, use a PLC to tell it what one to call and use the HMI to tell the PLC what one to call, just make an array with the phone numbers in the PLC/HMI and this will signal the Viking what number to call and what message to call

harryting said:

Well, Win911 + a cell modem will do exactly what your customer wanted.

A word of caution on Win911, the current version gets really bogged down if you go over a large amount of tags, says over 1000+?

Click to expand...

I was about to say nearly the same thing.

As much as I hate win911. It will do what the OP wants.

I Would say +1 for Ignition if they can Upgrade it, if standalone you can limit the clients and tags to get the cost down a bit if prohibitive, or even look at Ignition Edge, But i know this isnt always feasible.



If you want addon software, There is also Exele Topview if you dont like Win911. we have it set up to be changeable by an HMI as well.

Id like to see Okie's Redlion Setup too thats pretty nice.