Using Wonderware to access MicroLogix 1100's via Radio?

[Darksabre]

Hello PLC ninjas:

To get a better understanding of my question, here is the layout I'm working with.

We have two remote pump stations with 1 MDS 900 MHz serial radio and 1 MicroLogix 1100 each. To grab information from both pump stations at the main water station, we have a SCADA PC running Wonderware 10.1 with ArchestrA and another MDS 900 MHz radio.

So, initially I had spec'd a MicroLogix 1400 PLC at the main station for communications, but it turns out our budget is too low...so, the ML 1400 was removed with the belief that Wonderware was capable of talking to the two ML 1100's directly.

I'm trying to find any information on how I would go about this, but not having much luck. Has anyone ever heard of doing this?

Thanks!
-Aaron

 

[diat150]

im not sure that wonderware has a driver that can communicate to the 1100 over serial. if that is the case you can use the modbus rtu function of the 1100 and then use the wonderware dasmbserial driver. another option would be to use a digi one iap to convert from df1 to cip and use the dasabcip driver. just using the modbus would be the cheapest option because you wouldnt have to buy anything.

 

[Darksabre]

im not sure that wonderware has a driver that can communicate to the 1100 over serial. if that is the case you can use the modbus rtu function of the 1100 and then use the wonderware dasmbserial driver. another option would be to use a digi one iap to convert from df1 to cip and use the dasabcip driver. just using the modbus would be the cheapest option because you wouldnt have to buy anything.

Hmm, alright. So I'd use modbus read and write commands on the two ML1100's to send/receive data to/from the Wonderware computer? I was hoping to use a single polling master to avoid any comm's overlap, but a little now and then will probably be fine.

 

[jgreenewv]

You should be able to set up the DF1 or Modbus serial drivers to poll the MicroLogix over radio without too many issues. You will probably have to tweak the update rates to try and slow down your updates so you don't bog down the radio network.

 

[Darksabre]

Ah okay - that was what I was leaning more towards. I've just never really gotten into tweaking the Wonderware's drivers, as they've always been set just fine for normal use (direct connections to master PLC's). This one's just a little strange. I should have the hardware here in a week or two to start and play around with. Thanks for the replies!

 

[diat150]

im not sure what you mean by single polling master. your ww pc would be the master and the 2 plc's would be slaves. you set the update interval in the dasmbserial driver for whatever you want. 5 secs, 10 secs, 1 min, whatever. ww sends out the request which goes over the radio link and the plc with the correct rtu address responds.

in the plc you will have to tell it which data files correlate to the modbus command.

0x
1x
3x
4x

0 and 1x has to be a B type data file and 3 and 4x has to be a N type. make a new data file and then you will have to map your data that you want to see into the new data file.

 

[Darksabre]

im not sure what you mean by single polling master. your ww pc would be the master and the 2 plc's would be slaves. you set the update interval in the dasmbserial driver for whatever you want. 5 secs, 10 secs, 1 min, whatever. ww sends out the request which goes over the radio link and the plc with the correct rtu address responds.

in the plc you will have to tell it which data files correlate to the modbus command.

0x
1x
3x
4x

0 and 1x has to be a B type data file and 3 and 4x has to be a N type. make a new data file and then you will have to map your data that you want to see into the new data file.

Ah, I guess I misunderstood what you said about using the modbus rtu in the ML 1100's. I guess I've never done modbus with the 1100's before. Plenty of KOYO's, but never the ML1100's. Thanks for the instruction on how to proceed with this one. I'll be tryin it out soon.

 

[Darksabre]

Soo, does anyone know how to setup a Wonderware driver that talks to a Micrologix 1100 over serial? I can only find Ethernet drivers.

 

[diat150]

this thread talks about slc500 df1, not sure if that will work with the micrologix because I have never used that driver.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=56539

besides that you can use the modbus slave function of the micrologix 1100 and then use dasmbserial like I recommended earlier.

 

[Darksabre]

this thread talks about slc500 df1, not sure if that will work with the micrologix because I have never used that driver.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=56539

besides that you can use the modbus slave function of the micrologix 1100 and then use dasmbserial like I recommended earlier.

Ah, Im unfortunately not familiar with the Dasmbserial. Is that driver on the latest Device Integration dvd? I tried looking for a serial driver on the dvd, but didn't find anything.

 

[diat150]

you can find dasmbserial underneath modicon plc

http://www.pacwest.wonderware.com/web/Support/Versions.aspx#ModiconDAServers

 

[Darksabre]

you can find dasmbserial underneath modicon plc

http://www.pacwest.wonderware.com/web/Support/Versions.aspx#ModiconDAServers

Thanks for the link. I have installed the DASMBSerial driver and started to set it up in the System Management Console. Any suggestions on which Object to use in the driver? COM_PORT, DataMODEM, or RadioMODEM? Not sure what the difference is between them.

 

[diat150]

I would start with com port and if it doesnt work experiment from there. they might explain a little more in the manual. I suspect that datamodem might be set for one of those old style dial up modems. radio modem might be for a modem going over a radio network. I would worry about it. just set the timeout on your reply for about 5 seconds to start and you should be good.

 

[diat150]

oh, and this program is very good to use in troubleshooting comm problems.
http://www.modbustools.com/modbus_poll.asp

usually the first thing I use when trying to connect to a modbus device.

 

[Darksabre]

I would start with com port and if it doesnt work experiment from there. they might explain a little more in the manual. I suspect that datamodem might be set for one of those old style dial up modems. radio modem might be for a modem going over a radio network. I would worry about it. just set the timeout on your reply for about 5 seconds to start and you should be good.

Thanks for the reply. I will start there and see what happens.