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External PLC Communication Bundle
External PLC Communication Bundle

What's included in the communication kit provided by Matics and guidelines for positioning the access point on the production floor

Shahaf Carmeli avatar
Written by Shahaf Carmeli
Updated over a week ago

Bundle components

To pass the information from the PLCs on your production floor to Matics, you'll make use of the following components:

  • FortiGate 60E-POE Router

  • FortiAP 221E wireless access point

  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B data collector

  • (optional) Cellular modem, usually it'll be a Huawei 4G USB Wingle E8372

Connecting the components

  1. Connect the router to the customer's network via DMZ (or any other preference they may have), using the WAN1 port. This provides Matics with internet access to the cloud server.

  2. Connect the wireless access point to the router's LAN1 port using a Power over Ethernet (PoE) cable. Refer to the manufacturer's documentation regarding electrical grounding requirements.

  3. Connect the Raspberry Pi data collector to the router's LAN2 port.

  4. (Optional) Connect the cellular modem to the router's USB port. This is for redundancy, to ensure internet access if for some reason the customer's network is down or unavailable. When redundancy is needed, the router will switch automatically to the cellular modem.

Diagram of communication connections

Positioning the equipment on the production floor

The guiding principle is to ensure a strong signal from each machine's PLC and/or tablet. The access point usually covers an area of 40 m length and 60 m width. It depends on where it's mounted, and where it's located in the production floor.
Refer to the manufacturer's documentation for instructions on mounting the access point on a wall, and always use the mounting equipment provided by the manufacturer.

Troubleshooting

Weak signal

If the signal is weak the remedial action* is to change the positioning of the machine's PLC / tablet in relation to the access point.

You can use Wi-Fi signal analyzer apps to determine the optimal positioning of PLCs and tablets.

*There's also an option to add access points to enhance the signal, when doing so you can use LAN4 to LAN8.

Cellular modem faulty communication

The Huawei 4G USB Wingle E8372 cellular modem indicates that it's communicating properly by lighting up two LEDs--one blue, and one green. If the two lit LEDs are green, connect the cellular modem to your laptop. If the faulty communication persists (the two lit LEDs are again green), the problem is with the modem.

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