Remote Ethernet PLC Networking and Control
Norbert Gal, V. Parvan · 2009
Nowadays, in our highly automated, high-tech society, programmable logic controllers PLC are as common as our personal computers or laptops. They are more resilient and more compact than conventional computers, they can be programmed to be very specific tasks and they can be used in all kind of environments. The paper presents one of the built-in technologies that stand behind the remote operation capability of PLCs, namely the Ethernet module. A low cost flexible platform is build around this module. Two case stud ies are provided: a remote monitoring and control system for passive greenhouses and a PLC matrix for industrial applications. The industrial controllers are more and more presen t in our life. Mankind will always be on the mission to conq uer new territories. Sometimes those territories are unfrie ndly not only too humans, but also to the technological obje cts. In this case most of the state of the art personal computer s, servers, will fail, due to the unfriendly conditions and fre quent main- tenance problems will jeopardize the projects. The solution is to find new ways, new computer architectures and new tech- nologies to overcome these problems. In this paper it is presented one kind of architect ure, which can serve as a platform for many remote application s that need wireless networking. This platform encapsulate s some industrial very task specific equipment, like the F X3U industrial programmable logic controller (PLC), and the FX3U-Enet Ethernet module (2, 3). This PLC, as any other PLC, is a very resilient industrial computer, with no moving parts except some rough duty relays, consumes less power than a PC of any kind so it is perfect for unsuperv ised operation. The FX3U-Enet module is a dedicated Ethernet module for the FX3U PLC, allowing remote connection to the PLC, from any other location, via internet and satellite connection.