Modem Commands

[Tim Chavis]

Hey, At one point yall said somthing about having full modem suport for the 888 model, what I'm wondering is if the PLC (without TL server) with a external modem could dialup to a mail server and send an email. is this posible with the current commands? My problem is that their wont be any internet access anywhere where these plcs are going to be (remote locations), so a phone line is as close as were going to get. Thanks

P.S.  Sorry about the post in the freqently ask questions section.  I made this post and it didnt show up on the Technical support section "so i hit the back button like a dummy" and posted it again "in the same place" sorry!

[support]

Yes, you can use the T100MD888+ with an external modem. Is your TLServer version 2.0? If not please follow the upgrade.htm document in your CD-ROM to obtain an upgrade from our website. TLServer 2.0 implement a modem function that support auto answering of incoming calls. The PLC can dial the modem and make a connection to the TLServer. After connection is established it can then proceed to send an email via TLServer or to open a file on the PC to save/append data on the PC. After it has done what it needs, then it can hang up the phone. There are sample "Dialmodem.pc5" TRiLOGI files that demonstrate how to do that easily.  You can also view the following link for more information:

http://www.tri-plc.com/dialup.htm

[Tim Chavis]

Will TL server 2.0 automatically dialup to the internet to send an email.  The problem i was refering to was that i dont have an "Always on connection" so some way that connection has to be made to the internet. Thanks Tim

[support]

Your PLC need not be connected to the PC that does not have the internet connection. TLServer can be running on any PC in any office LAN as long as the PC is able to access an SMTP server to send emails. . The PLC can be connected to this PC (that has the Internet access) via modems in order to send email. Of course it means that this PC must also have a modem to answer the phone call from the PLC.

Currently, the TLServer does not have the ability to perform the dial-up networking function. Honestly, I am not sure if the O/S will allow an application to quietly dial up the internet on its own and send out data. That sounds like a great security risk to me!

[Tim Chavis]

I'm almost finished with a visual basic project that is currently dialing up and sending emails to my cell phone , without any input from me, so this is posible. This project is a PC based HMI for your MD888 model. If you would like to see the email portion of this code, it came strate out of the MSN Library samples directory. If you cant find it let me know and I'll send it to you. If Visual Basic can do it, I'm sure java can to.  P.S. have you reconsidered a DLL for us  Visual Basic users, that would be nice to have all the funtionality of TLserver at our disposal. Thanks again, Tim Chavis  tchavis@cei.net

[support]

Well, we will have to feedback this to the product development team as a "Wish list" item and let them decide if it is useful to add this feature. Since the PLC is mostly used in an industrial environment a LAN with permanent network connectivity there isn't really much demand for dial up access.

Currently we are able to provide a Java API library for Java program to write their own GUI to connect to the TLServer. We will look into providing similar connectivity for Visual Basic in future. Meanwhile, if you want to write VB program to interface to the PLC directly via COM port there is already sample program that you can download from the following link:

http://www.tri-plc.com/applications/VBsample.htm