Introduction

The Siemens multi-protocol (M-Prot) Driver communicates with Siemens S7-200, S7-300, S7-400, and S7-1200 PLCs, as well as VIPA's Speed7 device using Siemens PPI, MPI, ISOTCP, and MPI protocols encapsulated in Ethernet MPI (IBHLink).

The PPI protocol must be used only with the S7-200 series, by using an RS232-PPI/MPI converter cable provided by Siemens.

The MPI protocol can be used with the S7-300 and S7-400 series using an RS232-PPI/MPI converter cable provided by Siemens, or also with VIPA's Speed7 series on the MPI port using a common RS-232 cable.

The ISOTCP protocol, which is also known as ISO over TCP, RFC1006, or S7-TCP/IP on several hardware vendor brochures, can be used with the Siemens S7-300 and S7-400 series by using a CP-3XX, CP-433, or CP-443 Ethernet card. For the S7-1200 model, and also for VIPA's Speed7 series, directly on the CPU's Ethernet port. For the S7-200 model, there is a special variation of the ISOTCP protocol for use with the CP-243 interface. This protocol is called ISOTCP243.

For PLCs without an Ethernet port, an alternative could be the Ethernet/MPI IBHLink converter provided by IBH Softec or Hilscher, which works on the FDL level. By using this converter, the advantage is a faster nominal speed, up to 187 kbps on an MPI network, while using a serial converter the speed is only 38.4 kbps. Using this converter is an alternative to CP5611 or similar boards.

Another similar alternative is the NETLink PRO Eth converter cable provided by Softing, which converts from ISOTCP to MPI.

This Driver does not support using Siemens PPI/MPI adapters via USB interface.

This Driver does not support CP5611 or similar interfaces to access an MPI network. Use the S7Functions or Siemens SIMATIC.NET Drivers to communicate with these boards, by using the included OPC Server.