Red Lion and Micro800 PLC's

Hi Guys,

I have an opportunity coming up where I have free range over choice of PLC and HMI.

So, I have always wanted to have a proper play with the Red Lion HMI's and the new Micro800 PLC's from Rockwell, so having no real time constraints I figured this was a perfect chance.

I have been on Red Lions website to check out cables etc but there is no mention of the Micro800 PLC's.

Has anyone used a Red Lion with the 800's? and if so which cable did you use?

Also how easy where the comms to set up.

Thanks

Mark

You should be able to use the DF1 master or slave interface on the HMI and under the plc you can select it to be a MicroLogix. Depending on your application you may also want to consider IDEC for your PLC needs. I am hooked on them for their ease of programming, free lifetime support (with a one time purchase of software) and processor speeds, not to mention their cost is a lot less.

Stig said:

You should be able to use the DF1 master or slave interface on the HMI and under the plc you can select it to be a MicroLogix. Depending on your application you may also want to consider IDEC for your PLC needs. I am hooked on them for their ease of programming, free lifetime support (with a one time purchase of software) and processor speeds, not to mention their cost is a lot less.

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Are you sure the Micro 800 series supports DF1? I have read a brochure that states Modbus, ASCII, and DSI.

I have not used one yet (Micro 800), but I would think Modbus should be a guaranteed way to exchange data with it using a 3rd party HMI.

OkiePC said:

I would think Modbus should be a guaranteed way to exchange data with it using a 3rd party HMI.

Click to expand...

Looks like I am in for a long (good) learning curve here. I can't wait, this is the project I have been waiting for.

The PLC type I use could be anything really, its the Red Lion I am excited about using, I have been waiting for this opportunity.

As a process/project engineer I don't always have the time to 'play' with new stuff, and I want to prove that Rockwell ain't all that.

Look out for lots of questions on this one me thinks.

Mark

OkiePC said:

Are you sure the Micro 800 series supports DF1? I have read a brochure that states Modbus, ASCII, and DSI.

I have not used one yet (Micro 800), but I would think Modbus should be a guaranteed way to exchange data with it using a 3rd party HMI.

Click to expand...

Looks like it depends on the model. See PDF

Has anybody else tried a Red Lion HMI with the Allen Bradley Micro800 PLCs?
Has anybody been successful?

Thanks!

Yes, I built a machine whose control system used a Micro 830 48-point controller and a Red Lion G304K. I used ordinary Modbus RTU as the serial connection protocol.

I had to create Tags for HMI interface purposes one at a time in the CCW software and add them to a table of Modbus "map" entries, then create corresponding tags in Crimson 3 with the same Modbus addresses. It took a few sheets of graph paper but nothing really too complex.

I would strongly prefer it if the Micro 800 series supported DF1 and native tag addressing, but I understand that a register-based protocol is far more efficient, especially over a low-speed serial link. If you're going to do just one register-based protocol, it may as well be Modbus RTU.

I forgot about the Modbus gotcha.....

The Red Lion Modbus device configuration window has a "Ping Holding Register" feature, default value of 1.

By default, this periodically reads Modbus Holding Register 1 (40001) to make sure the PLC is still connected. Pretty much every Modbus device ever implements at least one Holding Register, so that's a safe bet.

But on the Micro 800, the Modbus registers are defined one at a time and I had not started at 1, so the Red Lion gave a timeout error attempting to "ping" read that register.

Ken Roach said:

I forgot about the Modbus gotcha.....

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Thank you very much!

Ken good gotcha.