Can data from ION7650 (and any meter, for that matter) be accessed simultaneously by two softwares?

[sesa360183_brid]

An ION7650 by a customer is connected both via daisy chain to an EGX300 and via Ethernet to a PLC. Data from the EGX can be accessed via the EGX webpage, and also via the PLC. However, data does not show up in the PME. The meters time out. What is probably causing this? Anyone has a similar experience?

Also in another customer, one ION 6.0 and PME 8.0 are accessing the same EGX300 at the same time. When the EGX was disconnected from the other software (either ION 6.0 or PME 8.0), data was communicated. Is the should the EGX be really communicating to one software only?

Please enlighten me on this. Any feedback would help. Thank you very much!

[Yut]

1 ION7330 serial can be accessed by one host per port. If you want two hosts access you have to use another port for another host.

1 ION7650 serial can be accessed by one host per port too. If you want two hosts access you have to use another port for another host too.

But  1 ION7650 Ethernet can be accessed by 4 hosts simultaneously.

[sesa360183_brid]

Thank you! By "one host per port", you mean to say, one host per physical communication port (e.g. COM 1, COM 2)?

[Yut]

Yes, it is.

[Adam_Hardman]

The PM8000 supports 8 hosts simultaneously.

[Randi_Dolan]

Hi,

The EGX300 can be accessed by several different clients at once.  The issue may be that the timeouts in the system are not set correctly.  The timeout in the software should be greater than the timeout in the EGX300, which is 3s by default.  We recommend leaving this at 3 seconds.  SO, the software should have a timeout greater than 3 seconds.  The devices on the EGX300 are serial, which means that only one can be accessed at a time.  If a device is not responding, requests sent after the one to the device that's not responding will have to wait until the timeout period expires before they can be serviced.  I suspect (but am not certain) that the ION7650 handles only one request at a time, as well.  So, if the PLC is accessing the device, the other requests will have to wait until the requests from the PLC are serviced.

Randi

[Robert_Lee]

The ION line of products while they can communicate using Modbus protocol, this isn't typically how you would communicate to PME to those devices.  Using Modbus severely restricts the type of data you can get from those products to real-time type information.

Connecting the 73xx devices to an EGX will only allow you to add those devices to PME as a MODBUS device (you would NOT add them as an ION73xx as that would expect to communicate using ION protocol).  The EGX line of products is a simple Modbus TCP -> Modbus RTU conversion and are not meant to allow connection using ION protocol.

It sounds like you can access the 7650 since its connected TCP so you would enter it into the Management Console using its assigned IP address (not the EGX one).  If your 73xx devices have dual ports, you could theoretically use one of the ports on the 7650 as an Ethernet gateway communicating ION protocol and run two separate RS-485 loops (one for Modbus connecting all the devices to 1 port and to the EGX, and another loop connecting all the devices to one of the 7650 other Com ports... ex. Com1 for Modbus, Com2 for ION).

Only in this way can you have both the EGX and PME communicating using the preferred protocols.  Otherwise, you can add the devices to PME as Modbus devices but this will not allow you to configure, grab data recorders, waveforms, etc.  You will pretty much only get real-time type data.

NOTE: If you do use the Ethergate option for one loop, only 1 system may access the gateway at any given time, so you can't have for example ION Setup and PME operating on those devices simultaneously (PME would like have to be disabled for another system to connect to the gateway).

[sesa58945]

Correct me if I am wrong but it appears to me that the customer wants both the PLC and PME to access the data from the 7650 WITHOUT exposing the PLC to the network.  The current setup has the PLC reading data via a direct TCP/IP connection to the meter while PME is trying to go through the EGX which will fail unless you create a modbus device type to read the 7650's modbus registers.  PME wants to communicate to it by ION protocol which the EGX does not support.  I am not sure of the architecture at the site but if the 7650 is the only thing on the EGX you could use that to connect to the PLC and use a direct ethernet connection to the meter for PME.  That would allow the PLC to get the data via modbus through the EGX and PME to get the data via ION protocol without exposing the PLC to the network.  Please test it first but I believe it will work.

[Yut]

Take the EGX out replace it with Ethernet switch now you can share data if the PLC can read Modbus TCP (port 502) while the PME access meter with ION protocol.

[sesa360183_brid]

Hi Randi,

Thank you for this explanation. Useful insight.

[sesa360183_brid]

Thank you very much Yut Kijsamnong, Adam Hardman, Randi Dolan, Robert Lee, and Daniel Asplen for all the insights. I have laid out all the possible options and ideas to our customer and they really appreciate it. I will reply in this post which they have considered implementing.

Again, thanks, and have a great day!