In the context of Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025, China’s industry is accelerating intelligence and informatization. Its main manifestation is that traditional enterprises realize unmanned office work through IoT wireless technology. For example, assembly line work that was completed mechanically and manually in the past can be completed unmanned production through IoT devices. This requires networked devices to upload the data collected by the sensors to the cloud to achieve remote monitoring of the equipment and big data analysis. Especially in the field of traditional industrial control, the main controller is PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), which has gradually realized the needs for data networking to the cloud, remote monitoring and data transmission. Therefore, PLC networking may have become a pain point for many engineer friends today. We all know that most of the PLCs currently on the market do not have network ports, especially the stock market of PLCs. So what if PLCs without network ports are allowed to network?
There are two solutions for realizing PLC networking. One is to connect to the Internet through the serial port server, and the other is to connect to the Internet through the PLC cloud gateway. What I will introduce to you today is mainly how PLC realizes network communication through serial port server.
The main function of the serial port server is to transparently transmit serial port data to the network. It is the most commonly used device networking method since the rise of industrial networking. It is also the most experienced networking method in the Internet of Things.
As shown in the figure above, the serial port of the PLC is connected to the serial port of the serial server, and the network port of the serial server is connected to the router. Through simple settings, the network transmission of the PLC can be realized.
How to operate? You can operate it through the introduction in the serial port server manual. You can download the manual of the popular serial server product 410s to view it; you can also check the article “Understand the principles and usage of the serial port server in one article”.
According to the introduction in the manual, although setting software is required, compared to PLC networking, the operation of the serial port server can be said to be fool-proof. And no matter what brand of PLC you are using, whether it is Mitsubishi or Siemens, as long as it has a serial port and you want the PLC in your hand to be connected to the Internet, choosing a serial port server can completely solve the problem. It is also simple and convenient to set up, improves efficiency and solves problems at the same time. In addition to the serial port server solution, there is also a PLC cloud gateway that can also help PLC achieve networking.
Regarding how the PLC cloud gateway implements networking, we will explain it next time. If you want to choose a serial port server, how can you choose the most suitable one?
From the rise of industrial Internet to the present, serial port servers have existed for many years, so there are many serial port servers on the market. There is inevitably a choice syndrome when there are so many brands. Objectively speaking, among the old serial server brands, MOXA and Zhou Ligong are also familiar to senior engineers. The disadvantage is that the prices of these two brands of serial port servers are on the high side.
Let’s talk about the newbies. Zongheng Intelligent Control is the most outstanding one among the newbies. It is simple, easy to use and reliable in price. When everyone goes to buy a serial port server, in addition to the brand and price, they also need to examine the product quality and service. Only after making a comprehensive evaluation can you buy the most cost-effective serial port server.