Question about communication between PLC and Panelview

junke715

Member
J
Join Date
Jan 2020
Location
US
Posts
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Hello everyone,

I just started a new project but want to make sure I am heading to a correct direction before I am too far down the wrong way.

the set up: there are two stations A and B communicating through internet. station A has a micrologix 1400 and AB panelview plus standard(I brought this up because the standard version only can talk to one controller at a time). Station B has a micrologix 1400 and AB panelview plus standard. I want to make two duplicate panelview on both station. I am thinking doing all the controls in station A, and have both panelviews point to station A PLC. Panelview at station A is okay for sure, but I am wondering if station B's panelview is able to communicating to station A's PLC over the internet.
I have never done this before, if anyone has suggestions on how I should approach, I really appreciate it.
 
First, I hope you mean ethernet rather than internet.

I'm confused by your description. Sounds like station A and B have identical setup and you want to add one more PV+ at each station but pointed to the other station's PLC? I don't see why you couldn't do that.
 
harryting said:
First, I hope you mean ethernet rather than internet.

I'm confused by your description. Sounds like station A and B have identical setup and you want to add one more PV+ at each station but pointed to the other station's PLC? I don't see why you couldn't do that.
Click to expand...

I meant internet.
two stations are at different locations, I had internet tunneling set up between them so I can message between PLCs.
they do have same setup, but they are controlling different devices on these two PLCs.

I dont know if this is making sense? Im pretty bad at organize my language.
 
Is this for fun?

Are you planning to be able to control both PLCs from either site?

I would recommend going with SCADA and then "the internet" can be behind your companies firewall. If no control is required I would go historian and have data read only and behind IT firewall.
 
VAN said:
Is this for fun?

Are you planning to be able to control both PLCs from either site?

I would recommend going with SCADA and then "the internet" can be behind your companies firewall. If no control is required I would go historian and have data read only and behind IT firewall.
Click to expand...

It is actual company project, that setup is what provided to me.
I do want to be able to control from both panelviews. PLC wise, I try to do all controls in station A, station B will just be receiving run command.
 
Thanks for the details: "Internet tunneling" suggests a VPN with static endpoints, a less horrifying security situation.

But fundamentally if you bought PanelView terminals that communicate with only one controller (PV+7 Standard, not Performance) then you bought the wrong HMI devices.

Take a step back and think about your HMI functionality. Trying to make one station into an "I/O Slave" might be programmatically possible, but will very probably defeat the purpose of having independent controllers at each site.
 
Ken Roach said:
Thanks for the details: "Internet tunneling" suggests a VPN with static endpoints, a less horrifying security situation.

But fundamentally if you bought PanelView terminals that communicate with only one controller (PV+7 Standard, not Performance) then you bought the wrong HMI devices.

Take a step back and think about your HMI functionality. Trying to make one station into an "I/O Slave" might be programmatically possible, but will very probably defeat the purpose of having independent controllers at each site.
Click to expand...

I agree with you one hundred percent. and the Performance HMI would make this less complicated.

and the reason they have controller at each site is they have different devices to be monitored and controlled at each site. for example, station A's tank level has to turn on and off station B's mixer.

I know the setup is kind messed up, I try to work with what I have. so going back to the question I had, will that panelview talk to Station A's controller over internet?
 
Attached is a sketch of how I think you intend to connect this system; feel free to mark it up (I will attach a zipped PPT separately).

A MicroLogix 1400 could support four independent PanelViews as well as messaging back and forth to the other MicroLogix 1400, but it would be a little more heavily loaded than I would prefer.

Have the project designers selected or provided the VPN products yet ?

TwoStations.PNG
 
Attached is that image as a PPT (in a ZIP archive so the forum will support it).

The dotted red lines from the PanelViews at Station B will be their logical connections over the VPN link between the stations.

Their comms drivers (FactoryTalk Linx) will probably have to be manually configured to point to the IP address of the MicroLogix at Station A because FactoryTalk Linx uses broadcast packets to browse the Ethernet/IP network, which generally cannot pass through a VPN or router.
 
Last edited:
Ken Roach said:
Attached is that image as a PPT (in a ZIP archive so the forum will support it).

The dotted red lines from the PanelViews at Station B will be their logical connections over the VPN link between the stations.

Their comms drivers (FactoryTalk Linx) will probably have to be manually configured to point to the IP address of the MicroLogix at Station A because FactoryTalk Linx uses broadcast packets to browse the Ethernet/IP network, which generally cannot pass through a VPN or router.
Click to expand...

I actually only have one panelview on each station.(not sure I confused you guys by saying making two duplicate?) Station A panelview needs to be same as Station B' panelview. You had two dashed panelviews I am not sure what that means. other than that, that's basically what I have.
VPN is using Sonicwall.
 
Thank you for the clarification. Your description of "two duplicate panelview on both station" suggested a minimum of two additional PanelViews.

I think I understand now that you want only one PanelView at each station.

Because the PV+7 Standard terminals can only connect to one PLC, both PanelView Plus 7 Standard terminals will be logically connecting to MicroLogix 1400 at Station A.

If your VPN is transparent to the devices, then it won't matter where the PanelViews are physically located relative to the MicroLogix.
 
junke715 said:
I actually only have one panelview on each station.(not sure I confused you guys by saying making two duplicate?) Station A panelview needs to be same as Station B' panelview. You had two dashed panelviews I am not sure what that means. other than that, that's basically what I have.
VPN is using Sonicwall.
Click to expand...

Are you able to login to the SonicWall from the PVP?

The SonicWall I've used in the past required a client on users side and the customer would open and you remoted into a local workstation. Then connected to a device/network.

So the Panel Views that can connect to 1 device you'll switch manually between site a or site b depending what you want to look at?
 
Ken Roach said:
Thank you for the clarification. Your description of "two duplicate panelview on both station" suggested a minimum of two additional PanelViews.

I think I understand now that you want only one PanelView at each station.

Because the PV+7 Standard terminals can only connect to one PLC, both PanelView Plus 7 Standard terminals will be logically connecting to MicroLogix 1400 at Station A.

If your VPN is transparent to the devices, then it won't matter where the PanelViews are physically located relative to the MicroLogix.
Click to expand...

That explains everything. Thank you so much for patiently answering my questions.
I should work on explaining better next time. Lol
 
VAN said:
Are you able to login to the SonicWall from the PVP?

The SonicWall I've used in the past required a client on users side and the customer would open and you remoted into a local workstation. Then connected to a device/network.

So the Panel Views that can connect to 1 device you'll switch manually between site a or site b depending what you want to look at?
Click to expand...

I have not try this out yet. But I think as long as I can VPN into local network, I should be able to use VNC viewer to remote in from my laptop.
 

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