How can I connect Ignition with Profinet

Ignition
1

Could you help me? We are trying to use ignition for look on variables in a s7400 that has profibus configuration

2

Ignition doesn’t have any support for profibus or profinet. You would need to connect to a 3rd party OPC server that does.

2 Likes
3

When the Ethernet port (Profinet) of your S7-400 CPU is connected to the same Ethernet as the Igntion Gateway, you can use Ignitions Siemens driver. All S7-400 Profinet CPUs support standard Ethernet connections on the Profinet port.
The process data of the Profibus devices should be mapped to I/Os, so you can read them with the driver. In fact you can read anything that can be shown in Simatics variable status when you are connected to the cpu over Ethernet.

4

@chi That’s true, but OP @erbn91 has PROFIBUS, not Profinet…

5

The title of the post is ‘How can I connect Ignition with Profinet’, so i assumed OP wants to connect via Profinet to a CPU that has additional Profibus Slaves. Maybe OP can provide some more details.

1 Like
6

Sorry I get confused, what I need is visualize and edit some variables in a s7400 that has only profibus configuration

7

The easiest and cheapest way is an MPI to Ethernet adapter for your S7 400 (like this: https://www.process-informatik.de/9352-LANCON_s7-lan.html/?lang=en_)

1 Like
8

Thanks for your help

9

We are purchasing a machine that uses a Siemens S7-12000 CPU (1215C) which has 2 Profinet ports. My supervisor would like to know if we can connect to one of these using the Ignition driver?

10

Yes, ignition will communicate with the 1200 cpu. You don’t need to plug in directly to your plc. You can connect to anywhere on your profinet network, I.e a switch or hmi etc.

To add… you say you are purchasing a machine with the 1200 cpu. Some settings in the plc need to be set to allow connection. If these are not set by the machine manufacturer you will have to request it, alternatively do it your self if you have the Siemens software and access/permission in the plc to make these changes.

11

We do not have a profinet network. I would like to connect the 1215C CPU to the network our Ignition server is on via ethernet.

Are you referring to this section of the Ignition manual:

Considerations for 1200 and 1500 Devices

The following considerations and configurations changes must be made when using the S7-1200 and S7-1500 drivers:

  1. Only global DBs can be accessed.
  2. The optimized block access must be turned off.
  3. The access level must be "full" and the "connection mechanism" must allow GET/PUT.
  4. Reads and Writes can not be used in TM/CT areas.
12

Correct, regarding the settings and you will have to enter the relevant IT details into your PLC to get it on the same network as your server.

1 Like
13

To add also, I’m sure you have read it on here multiple times. Be careful what you are having the server do to the PLC, from a safety aspect. If the server goes down you have no control, so bear that in mind if you are intending to control something.

14

Of course! This is a purchased machine for which we just need to monitor (no control) a few tags.

15

When the manual says

What are TM/CT areas? Timers and counters?

16

I believe so, someone else could better explain that.

But you can get around that by moving / converting them to Ints or Reals in the PLC. But this would involve having PLC access for programming.

17

Yes, timers and counters. Ignitions driver uses a legacy protocol that does not allow reading of timers or counters in S7-1x00 plcs.
But more important is this part:

If your supplier meets the Siemens programming guidelines, all relevant data will be in optimized data blocks. Maybe you are lucky and they still use global flags and not optimized blocks, but i would not rely on this.
There are reasonably priced 3rd party OPC-UA servers with full support for S7-1x00 plcs.

1 Like
18

If they are willing to work with you, they could supply you one DB that has all the monitoring Info you need.

They can do move blocks to get the info over to there, which keeps the main program DB’s all optimized as Chi explains above.

1 Like
19

Hi, I am looking for something similar. I hace some questions regarding this adapter:
First, have you use this modules to connect MPI/Profibus to ignition? Is this a transparent process or does it requiere custom configuration? Can you explain a litle more about it? I dont have access to edit anything in the PLC.

20

The MPI to Ethernet adapter is used to connect a legacy Siemens processor (S7-300/400) to Ethernet. The Ignition Siemens driver can access the processor with that connection. The processor itself is the gateway to the MPI/Profibus network. What data is available depends on the plc program, but at least all Profibus I/Os should be accessible to read.