Spectrum Web Port V2011 6.17

Spectrum WebPortSpectrum WebPortHands-On LabsHands-On Labs

Training Lab ManualTraining Lab Manual

DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS_____________________________________________________7

SPECTRUM WEB PORT___________________________________________________________8

CLASSROOM ARCHITECTURE AND SETUP___________________________________________8

ECATCHER – VPN APPLICATION________________________________________________11

RSLINX AND RSLOGIX5000 THROUGH THE VPN “TUNNEL”___________________________15

WEBPORT FEATURES________________________________________________________20

Extra Task and help the instructor!_____________________________________________26

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Document Conventions

Throughout this workbook, we have used the following conventions to help guide you through the lab materials.

This style or symbol: Indicates:Words shown in bold italics (e.g., RSLogix 5000 or OK)

Any item or button that you must click on, or a menu name from which you must choose an option or command. This will be an actual name of an item that you see on your screen or in an example.

Words shown in bold italics, enclosed in single quotes (e.g., 'Controller1')

An item that you must type in the specified field. This is information that you must supply based on your application (e.g., a variable).

Note: When you type the text in the field, remember that you do not need to type the quotes; simply type the words that are contained within them (e.g., Controller1).

The text that appears inside of this gray box is supplemental information regarding the lab materials, but not information that is required reading in order for you to complete the lab exercises. The text that follows this symbol may provide you with helpful hints that can make it easier for you to use this product. Most often, authors use this “Tip Text” style for important information they want their students to see.

Note: If the mouse button is not specified in the text, you should click on the left mouse button...

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Spectrum Web PortIn this lab you explore the features of the Spectrum WebPort module. This module should be useful for OEMs and small / medium size users without heavy IT support that need to support automation equipment at a remote location. Using this module an OEM can connect to a controller in a customers plant, upload, download, and view the running program using RSLogix. Once the connection is made, its just like directly connecting to a controller locally, except the performance is reduced. However its still much faster than driving or flying to a customer to diagnose a problem!

This lab works best when two stations are used, so work with a partner if possible. One station will be used to represent the OEM or Local side, and the other station will be the Remote or User location.

Classroom architecture and setup

Local or OEM side – The PC running RSLogix 50001. Connect the lab PC to the “outside world” network in the classroom. 2. Change the network settings to obtain an IP address automatically

3. Make sure that you receive an IP address from the Rockwell infrastructure. It should look similar to this:

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Stratix 2000Stratix 2000

PC with:RSLogix 5000

10.X.Y.Z /22 (DHCP)

Rockwell AutomationBuilding IT Infrastructure

DHCP, Security, Email, I nternet Access

Remote Side – Controller > WebPort > Sprint 3G network

4. Verify these IP addresses:Lab PC – 192.168.1.2 /24CompactLogix L45 – 192.168.1.11 /24

5. Download and run VPN1.ACD from the LabFiles folder on the desktop to the CompactLogix L45. This is a simple ladder program with a start/stop rung, a free running timer, and counter that counts up each time the timer times out. There are also some other tags created that you will be able to see once the VPN connection is established.

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6. Make sure you understand the “Remote” side architecture before continuing. Refer to the diagram below:

The CompactLogix and the Lab PC are connected to a local switch so that the ACD file can be downloaded. This would also enable some local management of the Spectrum WebPort module. The switch is connected to the LAN side of the WebPort.

The WebPort is a router with 4 LAN ports and one WAN port which is connected to the CraddlePoint router. The WebPort functions as the Gateway to other networks for the 192.168.1.0 /24 subnet.

The CraddlePoint router was selected for this lab because it has 4 LAN ports, and connects to the Internet using a USB 3G broadband device.

Verify the 3G LED heartbeat on the Sprint USB broadband unit

CompactLogix192.168.1.11 /24CompactLogix192.168.1.11 /24

Stratix 2000Stratix 2000

Spectrum WebPortSpectrum WebPort

CraddlePoint RouterCraddlePoint Router

RSLogix 5000192.168.1.2 /24RSLogix 5000192.168.1.2 /24

Sprint 3GSprint 3G

192.168.1.1192.168.1.1WANWAN

Now that the Local PC is connected to the Rockwell Automation infrastructure, and the L45 and WebPort are connected through the Sprint 3G, lets see what it takes to get them to communicate via the Internet.

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eCatcher – VPN application

When a customer receives a new WebPort, they are instructed to run a configuration wizard that creates a software key that relates to that particular module. That key is used to setup an executable called eCatcher on the Local or OEM side that allows communications with the module. This has already been done for you.

When the WebPort accesses the Internet it tries to communicate with to a known IP address of the Talk2m server and establishes communications. By now, the WebPort should be already connected to the Internet, and to the Talk2m server. You now need to connect the Local PC to the same server.

7. From the desktop double click on eCatcher to launch the application.

8. Fill in the Login information as shown below.

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9. Click the Login button to display the main eCatcher screen.

10. Select the WebPort module as shown in the eWon list, the buttons will become active. This list

shows the devices you are can tunnel to. Click to establish the VPN tunnel. You are now connected to the Talk2M web server.

Now you are connected to the WebPort module in the classroom, that is connected to the Internet via the Sprint 3G USB device.

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11. Verify that you can see the IP address of the WebPort module in the Active Connection list.

12. Minimize the eCatcher window. You will need it a little latter in the lab.

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13. Run IP config again and note that now you now have a VPN connection, with an IP address on the to the Talk2m network, in addition to the RA address.

14. With the CompactLogix physically connected to the eWeb, Trace Route to its IP address: 192.168.1.11. This shows one “hop” from your pc on the 10.8.129.160 over the router to the 192.168.1.11 address of the CompactLogix. This hop is just over the VPN tunnel. The WebPort is on the 10.8.0.0 /15 network.

This shows one “hop” from your PC on the 10.8.0.0 /15 subnet over the router to the 192.168.1.11 address of the CompactLogix. You just see a single virtual hop in the tunnel, not every router between the PC, Rockwell, ISP, Talk2m, the Sprint network, and the WebPort. If we could tracert to the actual address of the Sprint 3G card, we would of course find a much more complex route. You can see why this is referred to as a VPN tunnel.

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15. You can ping the L45 as well.

RSLinx and RSLogix5000 through the VPN “tunnel”

OK. We can ping the controller, but what else can we do?

Creating an Ethernet Devices driver in RSLinx16. Open RSLinx Classic

17. Select Communications

18. Choose Configure Drivers from the list

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19. Select the “Ethernet devices” driver from the list

20. Enter the IP address of the L45 controller

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21. Click and drill down in RS Who to the AB_Eth-1 driver. You should see you controller.

22. Check the network properties of the 1768-ENBT and you will find that the Default gateway has been set to 192.168.1.1. If this gateway address was not filled in, you would not be able to communicate to it over through the tunnel.

The Gateway addresses that we can control are 192.168.1.1 for the LAN, and 10.8.129.165 for the WebPort WAN side.

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23. Can you see the controller under the AB_ETHIP driver? Why?

Broadcast review

Your controller has an IP address of 192.168.1.11 and your PC has an address of 10.8.1.60, or similar. The EtherNet/IP driver uses an Ethernet broadcast to determine which devices are on its network. A “broadcast” message is sent to the broadcast address, by sending a “who’s there?” message to the broadcast address of the LAN.

The broadcast address of a subnet is the highest address on the LAN. In this case it would be 10.9.255.255 /15. The broadcast would need to be repeated, or directed to a remote subnet to be able to find a device on the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet. The eWeb is the router in this case, and it does not forward IP directed broadcasts. Therefore you need to hardcode the address to the controller at 192.168.1.11 using the Ethernet devices driver in RSLinx Classic.

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Running RSLogix5000 through the VPN tunnel24. Double click on VP1.ACD in the Lab Files folder on your desktop to open the project in

RSLogix5000

25. Go Online. You may have to wait as long as three minutes. Remember you are connecting across a corporate intranet, and internet through a 3G connection.

26.

27. Open the Main Routine and you should see this simple ladder running.

28. Note that you can view the timer accumulator changing.

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You should be able to change the timer preset quickly, and monitor the inputs when you push the buttons on the demo.

Can you see the value of this solution for your OEM customers? They can save airfare, travel time, and get the customer up and running quickly.

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WebPort features

Just being able to communicate to a controller over the Internet is a valuable aid, but the WebPort has a few other features that may be of interest to OEMs that work even when they are not connected remotely.

29. Open the eCatcher software window that you minimized earlier.

30. Under the Active Connection section in the top pane, double click on the IP address link to open the eCatcher WebPort management software.

31. Enter the login information as shown

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One of the features of this module is that we can monitor I/O without running RSLogix5000.

32. Select View I/O from the WebPort menu bar. You should see the timer ACC tag from the PLC. Click the Update link, and….the value will update.

Adding tags to the list33. Click in the menu bar.

34. Then select , and click on the VLAN_timer acc tag.

This will bring up the tag identification screen. You can see how the tag is configured.

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35. Go back to the Tag Setup screen

36. Click in the box all the way to the left, then select Create New Tag (like first selected)

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37. To read SSW4, the alias for DI3 ( the first selector switch on the L45 demo), edit this page to look like this:

38. Click Add/Update Only

39. Go to Main Menu, then View I/O to see the new list. Change the position of the selector switch and then push “Update” in the menu to see the change.

But what if something changes when we are not looking at the screen?40. You are going to look at the graphs that are available in the WebPort, so some history is

needed. Open and close the DI3 switch ten times over a period of a minute allowing the WebPort to collect some data.

41. Check the boxes to the left of each tag as shown

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42. Select

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43. Enter the graph “From” and “To” times. The date form is Month / Day / Year. So enter todays date.

44. Set the time to indicate the last five minutes.

45. Click Update Graph and you should see a graph similar to below with the timer and selector switch overlayed.

So the module can collect data for retvival at a latter date.

Files Transfer

46. File transfer is another useful feature. Click to open this screen

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47. Double click on the SSW4 Historical log and you can retrieve detailed information about the operation of that switch.

Extra Task and help the instructor!

The Web Port also collects real time and historical alarm data. The alams are setup by tag in the tag setup screen. Look at the Alarm Summary and Alarm History pages

Before going on to the next lab please delete any tags you may have added,

Please do not delete the original timer.acc tag

End of Spectrum WebPort Lab

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