Controlnet/Ethernet tunnel with Wonderware

[dginbuffalo]

Hello all-it's been awhile.

We recently bought a used machine and have made some modifications. The original machine had a Wonderware computer that had a Controlnet adapter to reach the various stations. Our new Wonderware station does not have the adapter. We are hoping to go through the processors ethernet port and use the backplane to reach the Controlnet stations. I guess my questions are:

Is this possible?
What is the path structure when setting up the OPC/DDE topics to reach them?
Can I also use this to troubleshoot remote Controlnet nodes in Logix 5000?

Thanks for any assistance!

 

[ASF]

I can't help you with the wonderware/OPC side of things, but you can definitely get online with the remote controlnet nodes via the ethernet port and backplane. A factory I used to work at did exactly that:

PC > Ethernet Network
CLX Rack 1 ENBT > Backplane
CLX Rack 1 CNB > ControlNet Network
CLX Rack 2 CNB > Backplane
CLX Rack 2 CPU

Worked well, although of course it means both PLC's have to be online to make it all work.