can an RIO Network be used between two PLCs?

[jonfarrugia]

I was wondering if a 1747-SN installed in two racks containing PLCs could be used to exchange data with each other or RIO?

 

[OkiePC]

I don't think you can do it with that hardware. A PLC-5 may have a channel configured as a RIO adapter in order to share information with a scanner from a different PLC.

For two SLCs, you could use the 1747-SN in one of them and the 1747-DCM in the other. We have a PLC-5 that communicates over blue hose to 4 SLCs each with a DCM module.

 

[JeffKiper]

I second Paul SN to DCM.
what processors do you have? You could use comms. to make it work. That is my prefered method to make systems talk

 

[Ken Roach]

You're both correct on the 1747-SN to 1747-DCM being the way to use RIO to interlock two SLC-500 controllers. There's a Knowledgebase document, number 29223, that describes this connection in detail.

You could also do this using ControlNet with 1747-SCNR modules, or using DeviceNet with 1747-SDN modules, but the most common method to "interlock" SLC controllers over a network is ordinary MSG instructions.

 

[JeffKiper]

ken do you setup the SDN as 1 master ans the others as slaves? Isn't there a way to explicit messaging in Dnet? or is that just one of the things I had a dream about?

 

[jonfarrugia]

The project will contain a PLC5 communicating to an SLC rack and an Motoman robot. The PLC5 will be the master. Is the DCM card still they way to go?

 

[JeffKiper]

Which controller do you have for the Motoman? Do you have a MARIO card (Motoman Allen bradley Remote I/O)? What communication to you plan on using to and from the Robot? That will make a world of difference.
If you have a DeviceNet anybus card in the Robot then why go RIO? That is just an example of what you may have.

If you are going to talk RIO and have the PLC5 as the master then yes the DCM is the way to go.

What do you want to be the master? PLC5 or SLC