How to Connect TW to KepWare

[jdave1]

Hello, I can I connect Kepware to any PLC and read the data from that PLC?

Does Kepware work as an OPC server to read data from PLC? 

How can I read data from PLC if its Modbus ports are not opened? Can it be done with Kepware?

[rsharp-2]

Hi jdave1,

Thank you for the post. I can address these questions for you.

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@jdave1 wrote:

Hello, I can I connect Kepware to any PLC and read the data from that PLC?

Does Kepware work as an OPC server to read data from PLC? 

How can I read data from PLC if its Modbus ports are not opened? Can it be done with Kepware?

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For the first question: You can connect the KEPServerEX to many types of PLCs, could you tell me a bit more about the devices you wish to connect to assuming they are not Modbus PLCs?  We support Reads and Writes.

Second question: KEPServerEX supports OPC-DA/OPC-UA and many more client interfaces..

Third question: Modbus devices can be Master or Slave, most users are using KEPServerEX as the Master and the PLC as the Slave, assuming we are talking about a Modbus TCP Slave PLC we would need to be able to establish a TCP socket to some port the Slave is listening on. The default Modbus TCP port is 502. 

If the PLC is a Master and you need KEPServerEX to act a Slave we can do this as well, the Device ID you would set in the KEPServerEX is 127.0.0.1.1, this would create a Slave Node 1 in the KEPServerEX. You would then point the Master PLC, to read and write to our slave using the IP of the PC that is running KEPServerEX.

Let me know if this helps.

[jdave1]

Hello, 

Thank you for your response.  

I am working on Industrial IoT projects where I have to read the Seimens S7-300 controllers through Modbus. 

Problem is the Modbus ports on S7 300 are closed and manufacturers are saying that you can't read those Modbus ports unless you have an OPC license (which opens the port). In this case,

1. Can Kepware help read the Modbus ports without buying an OPC license? 

2. If yes, please tell me about the communication medium between S7-300 and Kepware, since I am new to the kepware.  Can I install Kepware on customized IoT Gateway connected to S7-300 through Modbus?

[aservetas]

Modbus is not the native protocol for an S7-300 device. Typically we would recommend connecting to those devices using our Siemens TCP/IP Ethernet driver If the vendor states that you cannot access the Modbus TCP port without separate components on their side, there is nothing within KEPServerEx that you can configure to circumvent that. When using the Siemens TCP/IP Ethernet driver to connect to an S7-300 device, our driver is designed to connect to a CP343 module that is installed in the same rack as the CPU, and that CP343 communications module needs to be configured to relay those communication requests to the CPU internally. Instructions for setting this up are shown in the help document for that driver in the 'Appendix: Configuring Siemens Connections' under 'How To Configure S7-300/400 Connections in STEP 7' starting on page 74 of the PDF. https://www.kepware.com/getattachment/b636f30a-8672-4169-8c9d-a7211a78990c/siemens-tcp-ip-ethernet-manual.pdf Kind regards, Andy Andy Servetas Senior Technical Support Engineer Kepware Technologies

[jdave1]

Okay. Thank you! I shall go through it.