In search of suggestions REMOTE CONNECTION

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Hi everyone,

I need help because I need to connect my pc to a PLC on the other part of earth.

Usually I use a Router installed in the machine but this time it was not installed and i need to connect to edit the software… Any suggestions?

Kind Regards

Matteo

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Hi Matteo,

In order to connect to the PLC, your PC must be on the same network. This means that there must be a route for packets going from your PC to the PLC and vice-versa. Here are some ideas:

  1. B&R offers a premade Secure Remote Maintenance solution. This is easy to use because you buy a device which is configured to work with B&R devices. This device is connected both to the PLC and to the internet (via Ethernet, WiFi, or Cellular) and then you can connect your laptop to the PLC from anywhere in the world. You could send one of these SiteManagers to the machine site and have your customer install it, however if you’ve never used one before you may want to be on site to set the first one up.
  2. You could tunnel into your customer’s network via a VPN. This is essentially what B&R’s SRM solution does, but if your customer has something preconfigured and is willing to give you access, that might be faster in this case.
  3. Someone at your customer’s site can set up a laptop with Automation Studio and connect it to the machine. You can then access this laptop via Microsoft Teams or TeamViewer. This is a little clunky but it gets the job done in a pinch.
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One other suggestion. If you just need to make an edit, you could also send them a premade CFast or Compact Flash card with the new program on it. Of course you have to be sure your update will work because there is no online debugging with this method. But if something goes wrong, they can always just replace the new card with the old one.

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Dear Marcus,

Thank you for your answer, at the end I installed a AS version on a pc located in the area and then i’ll connect to it via AnyDesk.

Not the best solution but efficently.

Kind Regards

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I can also suggest for the future a laptop on location, with anydesk installed.
Anydesk has the option “TCP Tunneling”.
The laptop has to be in the same IP range and connected to the machine, but besides anydesk, nothing is required.
You will connect to the remote laptop, TCP tunnel the port of the online connection, 11169, to the IP of the machine, and on your laptop, you will use AS and setup an online connection to 127.0.0.1.
Now you are online with the machine.
Used this solution extensively over the past years. Only downside is that it doesnt seem to work for PVI versions < 4.6, in which case I use Team Viewer VPN + PVI Manager on the remote laptop.

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Thank you for your answer!
I just watched about it, but i don’t know for what reason i can’t get it to work!
So i’ll try again next time.
Maybe here in my location i can do some tests before.

Best regards.

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Could You explain me better this solution? if you can, please

Best Regards.

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Sure, here we go with a concrete example with pictures:

  1. here is a picture of the structure of the remote network, with a computer with IP 10.21.3.80 and 10 machines controlled by B&R APC2200 with IPs 10.21.3.81-90
    image

  2. the remote PC has anydesk installed, I connected to it, and in the TCP tunnel configuration I did the following setting, in order to connect to machine with IP ending with 90:

    image
    image625×635 11.1 KB

    Important is the port 11169, used by ANSL online connection. this will be forwarded from your laptop (with AS and the project) to the IP specified in this window

  3. In AS on your laptop, configure an online connection to loopback adapter, like in the image below:
    image
    This is because anydesk is routing the data from the remote machine to your laptop on that specific port (11169) used by ANSL online connection

  4. Connected!

    image
    image843×94 8.71 KB

    to the remote machine with IP ending in 90, that is in the same network with the remote PC with IP ending in 80. Only anydesk required on remote machine!

Hope this makes sense!
If not, please come back for details, or if I inserted some erroneous information anyone feel free to chip in with corrections.
Cheers!

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Alin i can’t thank you enough for your help!

This morning i’ve tried here in my office with this procedure and it was more easy to do than explain it!

Maybe this discussion can help more developers again!

Best Regards!

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