Trouble Connecting to PLC

RyeGuy · Sep 23, 2019

Hello,

I am very new to this new hobby and am having difficulties connecting to my PLC CPU. I am not sure if I am doing something completely wrong but this is the setup;

Mac running windows 7 VM, I have thunder to VGA adapter which plugs into the PLC CPU and I cannot get it to link. I have my thunderbolt port bridged on the VM, and it is recognized in on the VM. But when I try connecting using the DirectSoft software it doesnt make connection.

Connecting UDP/IP I tried manually putting in the IP address of the driver and that doesnt make a difference

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

mk42 · Sep 23, 2019

RyeGuy said:
I have thunder to VGA adapter which plugs into the PLC CPU

I'm not familiar with DirectSoft, but I'm thinking a VGA adapter, even if it might happen to have the right number of pins, is not the right solution. VGA is for connecting to monitors.

For connecting via Ethernet you would need 1) an Ethernet cable 2) an IP on your computer that is in the same IP range as the device you are connecting to. Make it sure it isn't one of the IP addresses already in use.

RyeGuy · Sep 23, 2019

Gotcha, I was hoping that would be an easy solution - Ive seen some that are RS-232 connectors but this specific one has the 15 pins.

Unfortunately this particular CPU (DL-250-1) uses a RJ11 6pin connector which I dont have, but I may have to go that route and purchase one

Steve Bailey · Sep 23, 2019

You didn't say which model PLC, but port 2 on the DL06 is a 15-pin high density Dsub which looks like a VGA port but is actually a serial port that can be configured as either RS232 or RS485.

RyeGuy · Sep 23, 2019

Steve Bailey said:
You didn't say which model PLC, but port 2 on the DL06 is a 15-pin high density Dsub which looks like a VGA port but is actually a serial port that can be configured as either RS232 or RS485.

It is the 250-1

So if I were to use the port 2 I would need to get an adapter for that VGA cable(or is it a whole new cable?) to serial before connecting it to my laptop?

Lare · Sep 23, 2019

You gonna need special rs232 cable.

Steve Bailey · Sep 23, 2019

You won't be able to use a standard VGA cable. You need to match the signal designations at both ends of the cable. I'm not familiar with the MAC's serial port but a typical PC RS232 serial port uses pins 2 and 3 for the data lines and pin 5 as the signal ground. Sometimes you also need connections to pins 4 and 5.
I don't have the pin designations for the DL250 handy, but the DL06 has +5V on pin 1. You probably should not connect anything from the MAC side to that pin

RyeGuy · Sep 23, 2019

Steve Bailey said:
You won't be able to use a standard VGA cable. You need to match the signal designations at both ends of the cable. I'm not familiar with the MAC's serial port but a typical PC RS232 serial port uses pins 2 and 3 for the data lines and pin 5 as the signal ground. Sometimes you also need connections to pins 4 and 5.
I don't have the pin designations for the DL250 handy, but the DL06 has +5V on pin 1. You probably should not connect anything from the MAC side to that pin

Thanks. Seeing as that something else I didn't think about and something new, how would one go about reconfiguring pins?

Lare · Sep 23, 2019

Because there is no standards for that.
Think it like when phone charge pin didnt have any standards.
There was lot of different pins and volts before USB charging and even now it can change.

Steve Bailey · Sep 23, 2019

The pin designations at both ends are fixed by the hardware. You will need to purchase or build a cable for the specific purpose.
At minimum for RS232 connection:
You need to wire the transmitted data pin on the MAC end of the cable to the received data pin on the PLC end.
You need to wire the received data pin on the MAC end of the cable to the transmitted data pin on the PLC end.
You need to wire the signal ground pin on the MAC end of the cable to the signal ground pin on the PLC end.

Edit:
My unfamiliarity with the MAC is showing. If the serial port on your MAC is USB, you will need a USB/RS232 converter.

T Gibbs · Sep 23, 2019

I'd just order the correct cable from Automation Direct. They're cheap

RyeGuy · Sep 23, 2019

T Gibbs said:
I'd just order the correct cable from Automation Direct. They're cheap

Sounds like an easier option. However shipping to Canada makes that 20$ cable 60$ canadian by the time it gets here. Time to have some fun creating my own cable! haha

Appreciate the help !!

T Gibbs · Sep 23, 2019

By the way, AD has great tech support, and it's FREE.

Lare · Sep 23, 2019

If you can solder and port is rs232 on both ends you only need schematic of connection.
But using wrong cable can take smoke off somewhere, even that rs232 have usually some protection

OkiePC · Sep 23, 2019

For port 2:

https://www.plccable.com/automation-direct-koyo-usb-d2-dscbl-1-port-2/

But you may be better off connecting to port one in which case I like the two piece solution using a generic USB to RS232 adapter and the Click programming cable. The generic adapter will have a multitude of other uses in this field. Port 1 (RJ12) will almost always be set up to work with programming software. Port 2 (HD15) can be set up for a variety of different protocols.

https://www.plccable.com/usb-to-rs232-plc-programming-cable-special-plctalk-net/

plus:
https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/cables/plc_programming_-a-_expansion/d2-dscbl

That 2nd link is to a cable that will work with several different A/D PLC models which use the RJ12 connector on their RS-232 ports.

Trouble Connecting to PLC

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