Taptone to Controllogix Communications

I am trying to communicate with a Taptone (T500) that has an RS232 serial port only. What would be the best way to convert this to ethernet and be able to pull information from it using a controllogix processor?

Below is some advice for Taptone, but they weren't able to give me much hardware or PLC advice.

Thanks


The T500 X-Ray machine supports a single command to output the counter information to the RS232 serial port. The request for this counter list output is "1.0" in ASCII text.
The machine will look for the 3 ASCII characters, 1.0, and respond with the following list: (x's indicate data in the response)


TapTone 500 - Ver x.x
Container Inspection System
(c) 1999 TapTone/Benthos
Product Type = x
Total = x
Pass = x

Fail = x
Rej 1 = x
Rej 2 = x
Sensor2 Underfill = x

Sensor 2 Overfill = x
Input #1 = x
Input #2 = x
Input #3 = x
Input #4 = x
Input #5 = x
Input #6 = x
Input #7 = x

Note: The serial port runs at: 9600 baud, 8 data bit, 1 stop bit, no parity.

Why not just communicate to it via RS232?

The Taptone is too far away. It is at least 100 - 200 Feet from my controller.

With our serial to EtherNet/IP gateway create 2 string tags in the plc. One for your incoming data and one for your out going data from the plc. Copy 1.0 into your out going tag.(The .LEN will change to the number of bytes you put into the tag) The gateway sees a non-zero (by polling the .LEN) We send the string to the serial device and reset the .LEN back to zero so you know we processed the data. Your Taptone will then send the the data you requested out. Our device sees the incoming data and will send it into your tag in the plc. We change the .LEN to the number of bytes sent. You monitor the .LEN. When it becomes a non-zero, process your data then clear the .LEN so we know your ready for more data.
I know this seems long but it is very simple. We have unit for the Logix family, SLC5/05 and PLC5.

http://www.rtaautomation.com/ethernetip/435nba/

And no, the picture of the support guy is not me!!

200 feet is easy for a 4-wire RS232/RS485 converter, which would be considerably cheaper and simpler than an Ethernet scheme.

But if you do use EtherNet/IP, the RTA unit will cut your development time and complexity to an absolute minimum. There are cheaper methods, but none of them are up and running as fast (or are as easy to troubleshoot) as the RTA device.

What about short haul modems?

What is a short haul modem?

bwwestbrook said:

What is a short haul modem?

Click to expand...

See link below

http://www.blackbox.com/Catalog/Detail.aspx?cid=381&mid=1122

Another solution would be to use the Red Lion DSPSX000 to poll the Taptone.

Then either:
- expose the values (as INTs, DINTs, or REALs) using our Ethernet IP Slave driver, that makes it look like remote I/O to the PLC.
- use our Native Tag Driver via L5K file to write directly to Controller Tags in the PLC.
- use the DF1 Master via PCCC/EIP driver, once you set up the PLC/SLC messaging in the PLC.

Regards,
Dan

Next FREE Red Lion HMI class is March 13th at the ADC DFW Training Facility in Dallas, TX.

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Joe_WaZoo