MPoole
Member
I work at a manufacturing plant that has most everything running on some sort of PLC. The controllers are linked by a "data highway" so they can be seen and programmed from a computer in an office. When the computer is shut down some of the panel views have data connection problems and the machine cant be operated until the computer is restarted and RSLinx is running again. The question I have is does that computer sitting in the office have to be running, connected to the data highway, and running RSLinx for the equipment out in the plant to operate properly? Im basically the IT department here and I was replacing the computer that does this and every time I shut the computer down or restarted it and such people went to calling for maintenance because their panel views werent working. And from an IT perspective this just seem completely counter intuitive that if anything at all happens to that computer half your plant basically shuts down. I asked the electricians and PLC programmers about this and they couldnt really give me an answer. Thanks