How to access data in the SINUMERIK 840 D Pl using echocollect?

This application note summarizes the possibilities to access data in the Sinumerik 840 D PL. Echocollect supports only the Simatic S7 PLCs officially, not the Sinumerik CNC in general. However, the Sinumerik 840 D PL contains a S7 PLC internally, which memory can be accessed by echocollect. This PLC can be accessed over the X122 connector (MPI PG port, at 187,5 kBaud) only. Only the “DPR” machine memory is accessible with this approach. Unfortunately, the machine vendor usually provides no documentation about the internal data organization in the PLC memory. Therefore some reverse engineering may be necessary. Due to these facts, Softing support cannot assist you in this case. Only the model Sinumerik 840 D PL was tested by our customers, other models of Sinumerik are probably not compatible.

How is the PLC connection limit defined?

Each PLC connection in the NetCon main window is counted. If the connection is created multiple times, it is counted multiple times as well. E-Mail, OPC-UA, MQTT, OPCpipe, database or FTP connection is exempted from the limit. The connections are bi-directional, i.e. read and write is not calculated separately. It is possible to toggle the PLC connections on and off.

Is there any limitation on the number of items, accessible over the OPC-UA or OPC Pipe?

The access itself is not limited by the license. However, this license limit on the symbol table is still applicable (10.000 items).

NetCon cannot discover the echocollect gateways?

This occurs, if your network is not correctly configured. This is usually caused by the wrong default route or net mask configuration. In this case, the connection over H1 could help. Moreover, be sure, that only one Ethernet interface is active on your PC. If, e.g., your wireless adapter is switched on, the discovery over Ethernet won’t work due to the Windows internal limitations. The used ports for discovery are 997 and 982, please be sure that they aren’t blocked via firewall.

Which OS versions are supported by NetCon?

The NetCon is tested with the following Windows version: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016.

Which OS is used in the echo devices?

Custom hardened operating system based on Linux Kernel

How many characters are possible for echocollect data base connection with the connection name and user name password?

The name of the connection is limited to 30 chars. For usernamepassword are maximum each 16 characters allowed. The available special characters belong to ASCII-Code, others may are not supported.

What is the size of the Store & Forward queue on the echocollect?

The S&F queue for MQTT is unlimited (except the size of the sd-card). The echo buffers in the ram, and after it collects a bunch of messages, they were copied to the sd-card. To use the S&F feature, QoS 1 or QoS 2 must be used.

Which databases are supported by echocollect?

These databases are tested regularly by our QS department for compatibility with echocollect. Other versions might be compatible as well, but they were not fully tested. Oracle V10 V11 V11.2 XE DB2 V10.1 V9.5 V9.75 MsSQL 2005 SYBASE ASE 15_0 MySQL 5.5

Which cloud platforms does echocollect support?

We support with all Softing gateways (echocollect, uaGate, edgeGate) the Microsoft Azure Cloud, Amazon AWS Cloud, IBM Bluemix Cloud and other cloud providers, which are using MQTT for telemetry data.