Lantronix Seeks to Network-Enable Serial Devices

When Schneider Automation (North Andover, Mass.) was looking for a way to connect its industrial automation devices to Ethernet networks, it turned to thin server solution from Lantronix. The resulting agreement between the two companies created an Ethernet bridge product that translates Modbus to TCP/IP—effectively unifying device and corporate networks into a single, enterprisewide communication network.

The Modbus Ethernet bridge connects to the Ethernet network with a single 10BaseT port, while the Modbus interface can be either RS-323 or RS-485.

Schneider Automation's move represents the growing trend toward network-enabling the billions of dollars worth of installed industrial equipment. Although this manufacturing equipment is often computer driven, it is usually in a proprietary way.

"This proprietary aspect is beginning to change as customers want greater flexibility for management of these products as well as interoperability with other products and software packages," says James Staten, senior industry analyst with Dataquest (San Jose, Calif.). "By connecting these products to the LAN this is much easier to accomplish."

According to Staten, there are two major reasons for connecting factory floor equipment to LANs: monitoring and instruction delivery. "By connecting this equipment to the LAN, managers—either on or off site—can be alerted immediately to the status of a machine and give the machine instructions to quickly avoid a problem or correct an error," he says. "This greatly reduces the cost of routine maintenance of these products as often an error is software related. It also allows a company to make a change to a construction or creation program from their desk and have it quickly implemented by the machine."

As a maker of thin server technology, Lantronix (Irvine, Calif.) is helping to provide the necessary ingredient that will enable industrial devices from vendors like Schneider Automation to participate in the growing Internet/Intranet phenomena.

For example, quality data can be collected via sensors connected to a Lantronix thin server and processed online. This allows the plant operator to control the quality of the product being built in real-time as opposed to previous methods where data was collected in real-time but processed through manual steps, creating a window in which a certain amount of production was wasted.

Thiel notes that industrial applications for thin servers is near limitless - everything from controlling production lines to providing a Web managed interface for devices and machines. "The ratio of microprocessor controlled devices to PCs is about 30 to 1," he says. "Network enabling computers is something the Ethernet card vendors started doing 10 years ago, now the time is right for this type of [access to the Internet and other shared networks] in the manufacturing automation field."