Rockwell / ProSoft Modbus TCP/IP Modules

[dalporto]

Hi.


My Lumen guy isn't answering me and we're almost ready to complete the conceptual part of the design and we'd like to order soon.



The setup is stupid but we have to deal with it:


-3 x 1756-L82
-PLCs all talks with a "remote" InTouch Station using SuiteLink;
-Each PLC will poll different Modbus devices (power meter, etc, 4-5-6 devices each);
-Each PLC will be polled by a "gateway" which is in fact a Fanuc which work in Modbus and pass the data to the actual remote SCADA station which I don't know nor care what it is, we won't be touching that part. I also could need to poll the same data on a redundant setup soon (we may add redundant Eaton SG-4260 instead of direct serial connection to the Fanuc).



So I need Modbus TCP/IP master / slave modules which can support more than one connection to make this work. There are 4 models here and I'm not sure which:


https://www.prosoft-technology.com/Products/Rockwell-Automation-In-chassis



Any of you have any experience with that?


https://www.prosoft-technology.com/Products/Rockwell-Automation-In-chassis


Looks like what I need would be the MVI56E-MNETC but it's not clear enough if it's the good one or overkill.


I used the DNP3 ProSoft a couple years ago and it was a complete mess to work with, I'm hearing Modbus ones are just a little better.


Is there any better option on the market to do that with Rockwell PLCs? I was in fact trying to find something with 2 ports so I could ring the comm between the ESW to make it a little more solid because as it is it's single point of failure everywhere.


Also, these modules aren't listed in Logix? Do I need to have it in the backplane to add it in the program?


I found AOI instructions online last month that looks like we could do Modbus without any 3rd party module, havan't tried it yet, but I'm kind of sure it will be limited at some point.



Thanks.

 

[ASF]

I've got some experience with the 1756 in-chassis MVI56E-MNETC for talking AB Control Logix to Modbus TCP. I don't love it, but once you get it set up it's proven very reliable, and I haven't found a better one yet.

Doing Modbus TCP with logic (as opposed to hardware) is doable but I would personally steer clear. It gets pretty complex and a lot of the headaches you'll have/problems you'll have to solve have been solved already by the hardware solutions.

FWIW I have one customer who has three racks of L8 Control Logix with Prosoft Modbus TCP, Siemens and SQL interface modules for doing data concentration and analysis. As far as I know they've never had any reliability problems with them.

 

[amberman]

I've used MVI56E-MNETC quite a few times, as well as stand alone gateways for CompactLogix systems and got used to the old Modbus RTU modules too, so by now I find them pretty straightforward. Never had any issues with any of them over a period of about 10 years.

You can write the software in advance. Download the EDS and their manual which does explain what to do although there is a lot of guff in the manual too to confuse you. I don't think it's very difficult to use personally but as I say, I've been using Prosoft for years so maybe my head is just in their zone now.

I'm pretty sure you can use Modbus without a gateway for an L82 but it's not something I've needed to pursue. In our case the gateways are used for customer interfacing so we do use them as an actual gateway between networks rather than just an overspecced Modbus port.