I am in the envious position of needing to replace two ancient lauer 900 pcs units with 2 PV+700s.
The current system of communication is SLC5/04 RS-232 Port (Using DH485 protocol) into a 1747-PIC coming out as RS-485 and the cable is then commoned to both HMI's RS-485 port.
The PV+700 does not support RS-485 and there is no add-on board for this, Rockwell tell me they are dumping RS-485 as fast as they can and one can hardly blame them for this.
I have been advised that 1761-NET-AIC+ is the way to go.
There are a few snags in cable lengths, the 2 HMI are too far from the SLC5/04 for RS-232, and the 2 HMI are too far apart from each other for RS-232.
If the AIC+ were viable, I would need 1 per HMI and 1 at the PLC, all 3 would talk to each other using RS-485, with a short RS-232 spur to each AIC+'s relevant device.
I have been told by Rockwell support, that the 1747-PIC at the PLC to convert RS-232 to RS-485 is entirely non-standard, ill advised and not supported. In fact, they keep pointing it out. Thanks for that guys.
So I guess I am wondering if 3x NET-AIC+ linked to each other with RS-485, each with it's own RS-232 line to a device, is actually viable. Rockwell have, on one occasion said, "Yes, it's your only option" and on another occasion said "No, this can never work, your only option is 1767-NET-ENI"
Let us pretend that the consensus is "Yes, 3x Net-AIC+ does work", what configuration for the PV+ comms driver would be needed? I have 3 I could apparently choose, DF1, DH-485 and Serial-DH485.
DH-485 seems like a non-starter because it does not seem to ask what port it would use and the literature suggests it would be used for a RN6 add-on board anyway.
DF1 seems like a non-starter because I am told by Rockwell and other posts on this board that you can only use node "1" in a PV+, therefore you could not have 2x HMI on the network as they could never be distinguished from each other by the SLC 5/04.
This leaves "Serial-DH485" which seems to look about right in terms of options and config settings, but I don't actually have it functioning yet which I believe to be a cabling error I have yet to resolve.
Let us suppose that AIC+ can never work, looking at the literature for the NET-ENI RS-232<>Ethernet coupler, it seems that DF1 would be used at the SLC 5/04 and the coupler uses the 0-49 node address in the manner 192.168.0.DF1NodeAddress for ip addresses. Seems easy enough.
I guess my actual real question is, having already bought 2 AIC+ modules is what communication drivers are applicable in the PV+ configuration, and if none are, will the NET-ENI work instead?
Great board by the way. Wish something like this had been around last time I looked at any of this controls systems nonsense ten years ago.
The current system of communication is SLC5/04 RS-232 Port (Using DH485 protocol) into a 1747-PIC coming out as RS-485 and the cable is then commoned to both HMI's RS-485 port.
The PV+700 does not support RS-485 and there is no add-on board for this, Rockwell tell me they are dumping RS-485 as fast as they can and one can hardly blame them for this.
I have been advised that 1761-NET-AIC+ is the way to go.
There are a few snags in cable lengths, the 2 HMI are too far from the SLC5/04 for RS-232, and the 2 HMI are too far apart from each other for RS-232.
If the AIC+ were viable, I would need 1 per HMI and 1 at the PLC, all 3 would talk to each other using RS-485, with a short RS-232 spur to each AIC+'s relevant device.
I have been told by Rockwell support, that the 1747-PIC at the PLC to convert RS-232 to RS-485 is entirely non-standard, ill advised and not supported. In fact, they keep pointing it out. Thanks for that guys.
So I guess I am wondering if 3x NET-AIC+ linked to each other with RS-485, each with it's own RS-232 line to a device, is actually viable. Rockwell have, on one occasion said, "Yes, it's your only option" and on another occasion said "No, this can never work, your only option is 1767-NET-ENI"
Let us pretend that the consensus is "Yes, 3x Net-AIC+ does work", what configuration for the PV+ comms driver would be needed? I have 3 I could apparently choose, DF1, DH-485 and Serial-DH485.
DH-485 seems like a non-starter because it does not seem to ask what port it would use and the literature suggests it would be used for a RN6 add-on board anyway.
DF1 seems like a non-starter because I am told by Rockwell and other posts on this board that you can only use node "1" in a PV+, therefore you could not have 2x HMI on the network as they could never be distinguished from each other by the SLC 5/04.
This leaves "Serial-DH485" which seems to look about right in terms of options and config settings, but I don't actually have it functioning yet which I believe to be a cabling error I have yet to resolve.
Let us suppose that AIC+ can never work, looking at the literature for the NET-ENI RS-232<>Ethernet coupler, it seems that DF1 would be used at the SLC 5/04 and the coupler uses the 0-49 node address in the manner 192.168.0.DF1NodeAddress for ip addresses. Seems easy enough.
I guess my actual real question is, having already bought 2 AIC+ modules is what communication drivers are applicable in the PV+ configuration, and if none are, will the NET-ENI work instead?
Great board by the way. Wish something like this had been around last time I looked at any of this controls systems nonsense ten years ago.