Functions of PLC Serial-to-Ethernet Data Acquisition Gateways

Device networking and data acquisition represent the initial steps in transitioning traditional industries towards smart manufacturing, enabling real-time interaction among factories, workshops, equipment, personnel, materials, and the environment.

 This facilitates the enhancement of enterprise informatization levels and promotes industrial upgrading.

As a critical component of automated production, PLCs necessitate networking modifications and data acquisition. By implementing data collection and monitoring management for PLCs, enterprises can gain real-time insights into equipment operational status and process parameters, receive alarm notifications for timely management and control, ensuring a safe and stable production environment.

 Additionally, leveraging multi-dimensional data analysis aids in achieving goals such as capacity optimization and risk reduction.

In earlier PLC devices, serial communication was predominant due to its simple wiring and low project costs, albeit with the drawback of low transmission efficiency.

 Conversely, most modern HMI systems employ Ethernet communication, rendering them incompatible. Therefore, to facilitate communication between serial PLCs and Ethernet HMIs, expansion modules are typically required for protocol conversion, coupled with integrated data acquisition capabilities to minimize costs.

In response, WideIOT (formerly Wutong Bolian) offers data acquisition gateways capable of converting serial PLC connections to Ethernet, enabling device networking and remote monitoring.

 These gateways support protocol parsing and data acquisition for PLCs from various manufacturers, including Siemens, Mitsubishi, Omron, Schneider, Delta, Inovance, Beckhoff, and Keyence. They facilitate real-time communication with HMIs and cloud platforms via 5G/4G/WIFI/Ethernet, swiftly establishing an IoT data transmission system for factories with advantages of high efficiency, reliability, and low cost.

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Functional Characteristics

1. Southbound Data Acquisition: Collect data from various devices such as PLCs, instruments, machine tools, robotic arms, and power equipment, while also supporting customized protocol development.

2. Northbound Cloud Platform Integration: Support simultaneous integration with diverse cloud platforms and software, enabling remote software platform access through protocols like MQTT, MODBUS, SQL, and HTTP databases.

3. Serial and Protocol Forwarding: Enable serial port forwarding for multi-master, single-slave configurations and protocol forwarding to convert multiple protocols into Modbus for rapid local system integration.

4. Edge Computing Capabilities: Support various edge computing functions such as intelligent data collection, data filtering, alarm calculation, jump triggering, formula calculation, and grouping strategies.

5. Comprehensive Device Monitoring and Self-Healing: Embedded with multi-level hardware and software watchdogs, featuring device anomaly monitoring and self-healing capabilities through watchdog timers, network reconnection, breakpoint resumption, and functional safeguarding.

6. Rich API Interfaces: Provide extensive API interfaces for software developers, enabling data acquisition, bidirectional control, and remote management of field devices through WideIOT's open platform format APIs.