Driver for VesaMax Ethernet Adapter for a GE341

[Municipal Government]

We want to connect Lookout to a GE341 CPU through a VersaMax Serial to Ethernet Adapter. A GE 9030 Driver does not work and the VersaMax Driver does not support a 341 CPU. Any help out there for this problem.

Joe
City of Fort St. John

[cous]

Hi Joe,
I understand that you'd like to connect Lookout to a GE PLC with a 341 CPU. I have a couple of questions about your system as well as a reference to explore.

1) What model is your PLC? Is it not a 90-30 with a 341 CPU?

2) What version of Lookout are you using?

3) What do you mean when you say the GE 90-30 driver does not work? Can you not connect to it? Do you get an error?

4) Can you connect the VersaMAX Adapter to Lookout without the PLC?

5) Can you connect the PLC to Lookout by itself?

6) Can you see the PLC in the server explorer? The KnowledgeBase document "Connecting With A GE Fanuc Using The Server Explorer" might help with this. It is located at
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/B30983555A6690188525646000744903?OpenDocument

These questions should help us get closer to a resolution.

Thanks for contacting NI,
Marcus G.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Municipal Government]

Hi Marcus;

The answer to your questions are as follows;

1) It is a 90-30 341 CPU

2) Lookout Version 5.1

3) We can connect to the VersaMax adapter using the 90-30 driver but cannot read the registers in the 341 CPU.
We know this by getting no errors in as far as a connection, it sees the connection but we cannot read the
registers. If we connect using the VersaMax driver we can read the registers in the 341 CPU but only up to
R2048.

4) Answered in 3.

5) No. This CPU was originally transferring bits to another PLC via a CMM port. Then from that PLC to Lookout
via a serial connection. We now wish to connect to all of our PLC's directly via ethernet - hence our problem.

6) This question I don't understand. Where are you talking about. Where is this item configuration.

[cous]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the information. I will check to see if there is a way to configure these two PLC devices. In the mean time, I have a couple of more questions:

1) What OPC server are you using? The LookoutOPC server?

2) How do you have the system configured exactly? What ports are connected and where? For example, is the VersaMax adapter connected to the server computer's ethernet port, and are the VersaMax and the 341 connected by a serial cable?

Thanks,
Marcus G.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Municipal Government]

Hi Marcus;

Thanks so much for the help. The answers to your questions are as follows:

1) Yes, we are using Lookout's OPC server.

2) The 341 CPU is wired (422) to the VersaMax via the programming port. The VersaMax's ethernet port
is then plugged into a network switch. The computer that is running Lookout has it's ethernet
port plugged into the same switch. We do have a GE 364 ethernet ready CPU (using the 90-30 driver)
that is hooked into the same network that is several miles away that we are using with no problems
(if that little bit of information helps).

Hope this helps.

Joe

[cous]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the configuration clarification. Since the VersaMax works using the GE_VersaMax object in Lookout and you can see registers on it, it sounds like a PLC as opposed to a device that simply converts a serial connection to an ethernet connection. The question then is how the VersaMax uses it's serial port to communicate with the GE341. The VersaMax user manual as well as the folks at GE should be able to give us specific information on how this works.
What we need to know is if the VersaMax polls the GE341 registers? We also need to know what it does with the data it gets (if it is getting any) from the GE341. For example, does the VersaMax map the GE341 registers to it's own VersaMax registers, and if so, how? You mentioned earlier that you can't read some registers, but I'm not sure if you meant that you couldn't see the GE341 registers through the VersaMax, or if you couldn't see some of the VersaMax registers.
Another possible scenario we could have is that the VersaMax serial port shows up as a serial port on the computer with Lookout installed. If this is the case, then we can poll the serial port from Lookout and get values directly from the GE341. In this case, the VersaMax would be transparent to Lookout. In order to check if this is the case, look at your resources on the Lookout computer to see if you have a serial port for the VersaMax connected via ethernet.
If it looks like we won't be able to communicate with the GE341 through the VersaMax PLC, then another option might be to get a true ethernet to serial adapter such as the NI ENET-232/4 which you can read about at this url:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?lang=US&pc=mn&cid=3991

The information you gave about the GE346 working over the network is helpful because it shows that Lookout, it's drivers, it's OPC server, and the network all seem to be functional. The next step is for us to answer the questions of how the VersaMax serial port communicates with the GE341. As I mentioned above, the VersaMax documentation as well as GE resources should help us answer those questions.

Best Regards,
Marcus G.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Municipal Government]

Hi Marcus;

Let me try to further clarify some details of the problems we are having regarding the VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter.

The VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter is wired to the GE 90-30's programming port via 422 - the GE 90-30 341 CPU's programming port is 422/485. The VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter's Ethernet port is then plugged into a network swith, the same switch our Lookout computer's ethernet card is plugged into. At this point, if we use GE's Cimplity Machine Edition programming software running off of a laptop, we can see and program the GE 90-30 341 CPU through the VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter from anywhere within our network. If at this point if we program Lookout using the 90-30 driver for analog input 1(the actual analog input register in the PLC and not the VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter register - if it has any)on the GE 90-30 341 CPU we get the error "PLC Error connecting: Session establishment failed" and at the same time it kicks the GE Cimplity Machine Edition programming software offline from the GE 90-30 341 CPU. If however we program Lookout using the VersaMax Driver for the same analog input (the actual analog input register in the PLC and not the VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter), we can see the data from within Lookout plus it does not kick GE's Cimplicity programming software offline. In otherwords I can be looking at the data from within Lookout while at the same time our PLC programmer is looking at the same data on-line through the programming software. The problem with using the VersaMax Driver at this point is that we are limited to the VersaMax's Driver Native Member configuration of 0 - 2,048 in the "R" and "M" bits as displayed in Data Member Configuration Screen, if these data members could be extended to the same as in the 90-30 driver we believe our problem would be solved (I don't know if this is difficult or if possible to do).

We did check our computer and the VersaMax Serial to Ethernet adapter does not show up as a serial port via the ethernet.

I do hope that this helps and apologize if I did not make myself clear on previous points.

Regards;

Joe

[cous]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the detailed response. I feel like I understand the system much better now. The next step is to figure out if we can modify the registers of the VersaMax native member configuration. While I do that, it would help to know what registers you are able to see from the 90-30. Do you want to be able to see the same register locations as those available in the GE_9030 Lookout object, or is there a different set of registers that you need to access?
Thanks,
Marcus

[Municipal Government]

Hi Marcus;

Yes, we do want to be able to see the same register locations as those available in the GE_9030 Lookout object.

Joe

[Municipal Government]

Marcus;

Sorry I did forget to mention that we believe we are able to see all the registers available to us through the constraints of the VeraMax Driver configuration. We did try several different registers between 0 - 2,048 and could see those tried through Lookout.

Joe