Skip to Content
Home └Getting started: Arduino-based PLC └WiFi & BLE

Getting started: Arduino-based PLC

0 %

Completed

Course content

WiFi & BLE

Prev Next
Fullscreen Share

Arduino based PLCs with WiFi and BLE incorporate an ESP32 as a secondary board, which provides the WiFi and BLE communication options to the PLC.

WiFi & BLE is an optional communication. Only the M-Duino and Ardbox PLCs with the additional communication board can use it.


Hardware 

The WiFi and BLE functionalities are provided to the PLC by an added ESP32 module, which communicates with the Arduino main board of the PLC using Serial TTL. In order to use the WiFi and BLE, both the Arduino board and the ESP32 need to be programmed separately.

Each of the boards has its own port and connector, you will need:

  • A USB type B to USB cable, used to program the PLC. The port for the USB type B input is located on the top zone of the PLC.
  • A micro USB type B to USB cable, used to program the WiFi&BLE board. The port for the micro USB input is located on the left side of the PLC.

Remember to properly power the PLC with a 12-24V power supply.


Software 

As it is needed to load a program into the Arduino and into the ESP32, make sure that you have installed the last version of the corresponding boards. For that, go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager and search by industrialshields-avr and industrialshields-esp32. You will also need our arduino-SimpleComm library, which is used in the examples.

For the software implementation there are needed two different codes, one for the Arduino and another one for the ESP32. Follow the next steps to program both for WiFi and BLE implementations.

WiFi

  1. Select your Board at Tools > Board > Industrial Shields AVR Boards, either for M-Duino or Ardbox.
  2. Select your Model at Tools > Model
  3. Select the port used at Tools > Port.​
  4. Download the following code and load it into the Arduino. In the example are used the WifiModule and SimpleComm libraries to access to the serial port for the internal communication between the PLC and the WiFi module.


Arduino code

  1. Select the Board at Tools > Board > Industrial Shields ESP32 Boards > WiFi Module
  2. Select the port used at Tools > Port.​
  3. Download the following code and load it into the ESP32. This code receives the packet previously created in the Arduino code using the Serial2 as the port for communication.

ESP32 Wifi Module code

BLE

  1. Select your Board at Tools > Board > Industrial Shields AVR Boards, either for M-Duino or Ardbox.
  2. Select your Model at Tools > Model
  3. Select the port used at Tools > Port.​
  4. Download the following code and load it into the Arduino. In the example are used the WifiModule and SimpleComm libraries to access to the serial port for the internal communication between the PLC and the WiFi module.


Arduino code

This code makes the LEDs of the PLC, from Q0_0 to Q0_5, to switch on sequentially every second. Meanwhile, the PLC prints out the messages received from the BLE communication. This example represents a simple game that consists on checking the Q0_3 LED each time is received the message STOP, and if the LED is HIGH, you won.

  1. Select the Board at Tools > Board > Industrial Shields ESP32 Boards > WiFi Module
  2. Select the port used at Tools > Port.​
  3. Download the following code and load it into the Arduino. In the example is used the SimpleComm from Industrial Shields, which allows the boards to communicate with each other.


ESP32 BLE module code

With this code is created a Bluetooth device named ESP32test so that you can connect to it with your mobile phone. Whenever a message is received through Bluetooth, the message will be stored in the message variable and then sent to the Arduino board using SimpleComm.

Serial Bluetooth App

To send send messages via Bluetooth from your mobile to the PLC you can use the app Serial Bluetooth Terminal, which is available on the store. Once the Bluetooth Terminal application is installed on your mobile, establish a connection with the Bluetooth device named ESP32test, which is the name the PLC takes with the example programs. To establish the connection, go to Menu (three horizontal lines) > Devices > ESP32test and then click on the Connect button on the top of the screen.

After connecting establishing the connection with the PLC you can already start sending messages via the terminal of the application. The blue messages are the sent ones, whereas the green ones are the received.


Rating
0 0

There are no comments for now.

Join this Course
to be the first to leave a comment.