I am looking for some additional information to help determine the best way to integrate the R30iBP controller on a production machine that has a Beckhoff CX5140 PLC. The PLC will communicate with several IO-Link master blocks using EtherCAT and with a Red Lion HMI using modbus TCP.
EtherCAT/Modbus TCP Options:
FANUC offers the EtherCAT Function (J753 EtherCAT Slave option) but from what I have read in the manual, I don't think it will provide the access to certain information that I want such as PR() information. The modbus TCP option is also available form FANUC but the information available is also restricted to DI, DO, GI, GO, UI, and UO.
IO-Link Option?:
I'm not familiar with using racks 72 and 73 for IO-LINK II master/slave capabilities and I'm not sure what data is available but I have a feeling that it is the same information available with Modbus TCP and EtherCAT.
EIP Option:
The EIP option looks to be about the most flexible solution available but this also means that I would be adding a protocol to the machine so I want to investigate the previous mentioned methods as much as possible first. Otherwise, using the FANUC Advanced EIP Scanner option with a Beckhoff EIP slave module is possibly the best setup I can come up with and it would give me access to PR() data using HMI with the HMI option (or explicit messaging with the PLC?). I could use FANUC EIP Adapter option but the Beckhoff EIP Scanner is a fairly new product and possibly not as robust as I would need.
Also, if anybody has experience using a Beckhoff controller to access and change point data using the SNPX functionality or any other method I would most certainly be interested in learning how to accomplish that.