We have Fanuc R30iA and R30iB controllers with the 'HMI Device' option enabled. This enables the GE SNPX/SRTP protocol communications. We have Pro-face HMIs interfacing with the R30s over the GE SNPX/SRTP protocol.
We recently begun the process of interfacing our SCADA applications with the R30 controllers. We're using the GE Ethernet / GE OPEN drivers from Kepware's KepServerEx suite. These are GE SRTP drivers. When we first attempted communications, we were able to successfully create tags and read in register values from the 30. Unfortunately, this created a communications failure between the HMI and Robot. It caused the robot cell to stop cycling.
Can an R30 controller support multiple GE SRTP sessions? For example, can it interface with two HMIs or, in our case, an HMI and a SCADA? Or, is it limited to one connection?
Thank you in advance!
Side bar question: Is it difficult to retrofit R30iA and R30iB controllers with EtherNet/IP communications? Is this a better approach for HMI instead of GE SNPX/SRTP? We have a lot of AB PanelView expertise, but not all of machine builders do.