Description

Learn how to connect to a ControlLogix through another ControlLogix Gateway using ENBT.

Video recorded using: Ignition 7.9

Transcript

(open in window)

[00:00] In this example, we are going to learn how to connect to a control logix, through another control logix PLC, using ENBT modules. This is important when you have PLCs on two different subnets and your Ignition gateway is only on one of those subnets. By chaining the PLCs together, Ignition should be able to talk to both of the PLCs at the same time. The idea is fairly simple. From Ignition, we're going to go into our first control logix PLC through an ENBT module. We're then going to go out a separate ENBT module, into our second control logix PLC, where we'll be able to hit the processor. So in order to make this happen, we need to tell Ignition the route from the first PLC to the second PLC, and we do that with a connection path. If we look down here in the bottom right, here's the connection path that will make this setup work. Let's look at the connection path in a little more detail. First, when we come into the first control logix PLC, we need to go to the backplane. So the first value of our connection path is a one, to represent going to the backplane. From there, we are going to go out slot three, to represent going out the second ENBT module. So the next value is a three. We then want to go to the ethernet port of the second PLC. So we specify that with the number two. We then need to specify the IP address of the slot number on the second control logix PLC that holds the ENBT module. In this example, that IP address is 192.168.0.56. From there, we need to go to the backplane of the second control logix PLC, which again is a value of one, and then we want to end at the processor in slot zero. So we finish our connection path with a value of zero. This connection path tells Ignition how to route from the first PLC all the way to the second PLC. Let's take a look at a realtime example of this in Ignition. We are first going to want to come to the devices page in the configuration section of our gateway webpage. We then want to click the Create new Device link. We then need to select a driver for the end result PLC that we are connecting to, which in this case is a control logix. So I'm going to select the logix driver to connect to it. We then want to scroll down and hit the Next button. We then need to give our device a name. I'm going to name mine control logix ENBT and then the host name property will be the IP address of the first PLC that we're connecting to. In my case, it's 10.20.4.62. Finally we need to specify our connection path to the processor in the second PLC, in the connection path property. First, I need to go to the backplane of our first PLC, so I'm going to start with a value of one. My second ENBT module is then located in slot two, so my second number is going to be a two. We are then going to go to the ethernet port of the second PLC, so again, that's another two. We then need to specify the IP address of the second control logix ENBT module. In this case, my IP address is 10.20.4.65. From there, we then need to go to the backplane of the second control logix device, a one, and lastly we need to end in the processor, which is in slot zero. So this whole list of numbers would be our entire connection path, and once we have that in there, we can scroll down and click the Create New Device button. Once it has connected, and is given a chance to browse the second PLC, we can then scroll down, and go to our Quick Client under OPC Connections, expand the OPC-UA Server folder, and find our device with all of our tags inside of it.

You are editing this transcript.

Make any corrections to improve this transcript. We'll review any changes before posting them.