bdoub1eu
Member
Hi all!
First let me say that I'm a Network Administrator so I don't know alot about PLC's. I'm helping our Engineers figure out a way to do this. If my explanation doesn't sound right or is confusing, email me back and I'll try to explain better.
As you know, most PLC's are now ethernet enabled, but there are some older PLC's that are RS-232. What our engineers are trying to do and test is dialing up to a remote customer site (That has an ethernet network and Serial Ethernet Servers to convert serial to ethernet. They are currently using a RADES9300 to dial in and then the ethernet on the RADES9300 is then connected to the Ethernet Serial Server (I think it's made by blackbox...PN# LES401A) which is then connected through serial to the PLC.
There is then software that uses the ethernet connection to search for the serial interface (I guess using the serial ethernet server). Once it sees it, it will create a virtual com port connecting the laptop to the serial interface. Easy enough right?
On the LAN, this works fine and the software sees the serial port and creates the virtual com port on the laptop. The problem is that these are at remote sites and they will be using dialup. When they dial into the RADES 9300, they get an IP and can ping the Serial Ethernet Server but when the software tries to create the virtual com port, it looks at the ethernet connection on the laptop to do it. The only problem is the laptop is dialed in and nothing is connected to the ethernet port. I talked to black box and they said it won't work because when you are dialing in, you are using a modem (COM) port.
Shouldn't matter should it? Once they are connected over dialup or ethernet, they have complete network capability as far as pinging everything but they can't create the virtual com port since that particular software uses the ethernet to look for the serial interface instead of any available connection the laptop has.
They can dial in dirctly to the PLC but overall, they want to dial into a device and be on the local LAN and communicate to the PLC's with a serial ethernet converter but this doesn't seem to be working over dialup.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Thanks in advance!
First let me say that I'm a Network Administrator so I don't know alot about PLC's. I'm helping our Engineers figure out a way to do this. If my explanation doesn't sound right or is confusing, email me back and I'll try to explain better.
As you know, most PLC's are now ethernet enabled, but there are some older PLC's that are RS-232. What our engineers are trying to do and test is dialing up to a remote customer site (That has an ethernet network and Serial Ethernet Servers to convert serial to ethernet. They are currently using a RADES9300 to dial in and then the ethernet on the RADES9300 is then connected to the Ethernet Serial Server (I think it's made by blackbox...PN# LES401A) which is then connected through serial to the PLC.
There is then software that uses the ethernet connection to search for the serial interface (I guess using the serial ethernet server). Once it sees it, it will create a virtual com port connecting the laptop to the serial interface. Easy enough right?
On the LAN, this works fine and the software sees the serial port and creates the virtual com port on the laptop. The problem is that these are at remote sites and they will be using dialup. When they dial into the RADES 9300, they get an IP and can ping the Serial Ethernet Server but when the software tries to create the virtual com port, it looks at the ethernet connection on the laptop to do it. The only problem is the laptop is dialed in and nothing is connected to the ethernet port. I talked to black box and they said it won't work because when you are dialing in, you are using a modem (COM) port.
Shouldn't matter should it? Once they are connected over dialup or ethernet, they have complete network capability as far as pinging everything but they can't create the virtual com port since that particular software uses the ethernet to look for the serial interface instead of any available connection the laptop has.
They can dial in dirctly to the PLC but overall, they want to dial into a device and be on the local LAN and communicate to the PLC's with a serial ethernet converter but this doesn't seem to be working over dialup.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Thanks in advance!