EBC serial port

[PLCGuy]

Did you guys develop the T1H-EBC? What is the serial port on the EBC for? I was told awhile back I could not hook up a C-more to it. Why is that? Has or will this change in the future?

[franji1]

If you are trying to use the EBC100 as a remote serial port on a PLC system that uses ERM to talk to the EBC, then ADC Tech support is correct, you cannot use it as a remote serial port.

However, if what you want to do is have the c-More talk to the EBC100, then yes you can, via K-Sequence or Modbus/RTU.

Check out this FAQ on the EBC100's serial port:
http://www.hosteng.com/FAQFiles/EBC.htm#FAQ0075

[PLCGuy]

Okay you lost me. I have a H2-ERM connected ethernet to a T1H-EBC. That is working. How do I connect a C-More micro or C-more to the serial port?

[franji1]

You cannot.  ERM does not support remote serial ports on EBCs, so you cannot use c-More to access the PLC CPU (e.g. a 260).

The standard PLC CPUs and the ERM do NOT support these remote serial ports.  They also can NOT access the "emulated" PLC memory in the EBC module.

The functionality that is there would be useful for direct manipulation of I/O on the EBC base, or to write to "emulated" PLC memory existing in the EBC itself.  You then could have Think-N-Do or some other PC based or other remote device accessing that information via Ethernet.

If you need remote access, you might try RS-485 which can run longer than the normal 50 ft.  Or if wiring is an issue, ADC sells wireless radio modems - serial or Ethernet.

[PLCGuy]

The functionality that is there would be useful for direct manipulation of I/O on the EBC base, or to write to "emulated" PLC memory existing in the EBC itself.

So the C-More micro can not manipulate I/O on the EBC BASE unless there is some fancy software being used?

[PLCGuy]

I changed the C-More micro to modus and it seems to be communicating, there are no plc errors on the screen. Can I turn on an output on the EBC rack? The rack starts with Y40.

[franji1]

The functionality that is there would be useful for direct manipulation of I/O on the EBC base, or to write to "emulated" PLC memory existing in the EBC itself.

Yes, but you can NOT have ERM also connected to it.  You can only have 1 Master publishing I/O.  If ERM says turn Y40 ON, but c-more says turn off the first output (this is Y40), who wins?  ERM is CONSTANTLY publishing I/O to all the EBCs, as fast as possible, almost every PLC scan.  Also, there is no mechanism to assign indivudual output points or even slots to be mastered by different masters.

So the C-More micro can not manipulate I/O on the EBC BASE unless there is some fancy software being used?

No, this is not correct.  If you took the EBC OFF the ERM network, and connected a C-more do it, you could write to the Modbus outputs and turn values off an on.  At this point, there is no such thing as "Y40", this is a 205 PLC CPU term.  There is no 205 CPU in this configuration.  So you would write to Modbus Discrete Output 1, which would turn ON the very first output (I believe).

[PLCGuy]

I was wrong, I disconnected the EBC, connected the micro to it and it does not communicate. I can not make the micro communicate on modbus. I tried Automation Modbus and the Modicon modbus RTU and nieither worked. I will call it a failure and leave it at that. Would have been cool to be able to connect.

[franji1]

Did you look at the FAQ link from below?
What are the meanings of the Port Mode settings for the EBC/EBC100 that are seen in Serial Port Settings of NetEdit?

You need to run NetEdit and configure the Serial Port settings.  It should have worked.  If you did do this, let me know your settings (baud rate, parity, etc.) on both your c-More and the EBC serial port.

[PLCGuy]

I read the FAQ, did not mean much to me. They give no example. The answer is not for a person like myself. I see what they are saying, but they do not tell how to use it. This is the problem I see with many help files. They give lots of info, but do not say how to use it.

In any case, I have both set to 19200 , stopbit=1, databit=8, odd parity. I tried setting the EBC to both slave and master. I also tried the AD modbus and Modicon Modbus. In all cases I get the "Comm port timeout". Now it is becoming a challenge. I hate to give up until I get it to work. I made a simple push button to turn on the first "Y", if that is wrong, will that give me the time out error?