Wireless IO

TheWaterboy

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TheWaterboy
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I am familiar with some of Phoenix's offerings and a search through the forum revealed Banner as a contender, Prosofts offerings are EOL so maybe there is newer stuff available I need to know about.

From a high level, ideally I would have a single "master" device that could wirelessly read/write the remote I/O status of a few bits and an analog each from 2 identical portable trailers.

further this perfect system "master" would just plug into ethernet network , mount on a building exterior and be handled by the Controllogix PLC directly, without the need to duplicate the physical IO. (wireless POINT or FLEX IO maybe?)

If you know of such a thing, please let me know.
 
I'm not sure what you are attempting, but I would like to make the following observations.

the plc reads or reads/writes I/O over a wireless network.

what happens when the wireless network dies, gets its signal jammed?

if you are filling tanks, the plc reads the same value when the network dies and doesn't know anything is wrong.

the same for the I/O.

we have had our wireless network and lan go down and the plc
is just as happy as it can be.

the machine operators know the system isn't working correctly and do not know what's wrong. we lost a 24 port Ethernet switch.

regards,
james
 
Data-Linc Group has exactly what you are looking for.
http://www.data-linc.com/cixfamily/cix6400.htm (sorry about the quality of the web page).
The CIX6435 or PLR6435 would be your master and the CIX6430 or PLR6430 would be the remotes. The master can be connected to the PLC via Ethernet or DF1 (or Modbus/TCP or Modbus RTU) and the PLC would do message instructions as if the 6435 was another SLC or MicroLogix PLC. Remote 1 is represented by integer files “N10:0 thru N10:9” for all of the discrete inputs/outputs and Analog inputs/outputs. Remote 2 is “N11:0 thru N11:9” and so on. You can also monitor the status of the RF connection via status bits for each remote. This system removes the need to have discrete and/or analog input and output cards in the PLC and is a Rockwell approved product.
 
FireJo
No kidding about the website. A little dated to be polite. Makes me wonder about the device, book by its cover and so on. But it does offer what I am looking for.

GTUnit
I didnt see a point to multipoint offering on the **** site. (why is the word "****" blanked out ???)

Mickey
Schneider device looks possible too. Battery powered is not my first choice, but I can get around that.

Thanks all.
 
Last edited:
TheWaterboy said:
FireJo

GTUnit
I didnt see a point to multipoint offering on the **** site. (why is the word "****" blanked out ???)
Thanks all.
Click to expand...

You don't need a "Master" anything with Ethernet.
You need 2 wireless IO modules and a wireless router.

It's no different then your home WIFI network.
Wifi router plugs into your Wired Ethernet network.
E w o n Flexys establish a wireless connection to your router.
Once the 2 Flexys are on the plant network any IO scanner can read their data.
 
we never had much luck with the banner wireless. the analogs would drift tremendously, especially on hot days. I got banner support involved and they never could figure it out. I setup a plc in my shop with the same type transmitter connected to a banner wireless unit, and another going direct to the plc. when it started getting hot outside, you would see on the trends that the transmitter reading going thru the banner wireless would drift off big time. not like a few psi, like 30-60 psi or more. long story short we spent alot of money on their products and they didnt stand behind them.

we started using b&b wireless IO and they work great.

http://www.bb-elec.com/Products/Wireless-Cellular/Zlinx-Xtreme-Modems-and-I-O.aspx
 
The analogs would drift? Thats just so wrong. Thanks for BB link. I know them pretty well, didn't even consider them. Limited to 2 DI might make this a bit more of a challenge, but certainly worth looking at .
 
Don’t let the web site scare you. The products are very sound and work very well. I designed the spec and control the quality but have no control over the web site. DLG offers demos so if this is a serious application give them a call. You can test the application and the quality of the products.
 
GTUnit, just for my curiosity, how does the **** unit’s interface with an Allen Bradley PLC (EtherNet/IP)?

TheWaterboy, keep in mind that (in my opinion) doing wireless I/O via WiFi is a mistake. WiFi has become a very crowed RF spectrum and compared to Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum is not nearly as robust. 900MHz is also much better at range, robustness and reliability than 2.4GHz.
 
FireJo
Of this I am aware.

I'm looking at the Datalinc stuff now.
I would like to communicate to the "master" using CIP msg over ethernet, will I find that?
 
Sort of. You message to it as if it were a SLC or MicroLogix. If you’re using a Logix based processor you will write a message instruction using a “SLC Type Read” or “SLC Type Write”. Just as if you communicating with a SLC or MicroLogix you need to “Map PLC/SLC Message…” (under the Logic tab in RSLogix5000) to map a tag (you create) to a file number which with the 6435 will be 10, 11, 12, etc… depending on the remote number your getting data from (or too). At some point in the future we will have Produce/Consume but we aren’t there yet.
I’ll send you a message with my contact info. It’s easier to describe this on the phone then in writing.
 
OK, I get that. I have had to do that mapping when working with PLC-5 to ControlLogix MSG. The P/C tag would indeed be a nice addition.

But it looks quite a bit more expensive than I anticipated. $1800 for master and $1400 per Remote. That's $4600 and is quite a bit higher than I would budget for this particular application. Maybe I am being unrealistic (or have received wrong pricing), but I can put my standard licensed telemetry radio and a Micrologix in these for the less than that.

But I do thank you for the information. It would appear to be oversized for my needs.
 

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