The Ewon® Flexy is a device that allows for simplified connection of industrial machines to the internet. For innius we've created a component that publishes Ewon tag values to innius.

Which Ewon is needed?

You will need to use an Ewon Flexy 205 gateway. An Ewon Cosy is not suitable, as this is not programmable.

Sometimes there may be an existing Ewon Flexy (205 or other versions) already in use on the machine. Our advice is always to add a new Ewon Flexy to reduce the risk of technical problems.

If the machine (line) has 1 PLC, you can use an Ewon Flexy to connect up to 2500 data points to innius. If you connect more PLC’s to the Ewon Flexy (max is 3) you can connect up to 1500 data points to innius.

Using an Ewon to connect a machine to innius consists of two parts. Firstly, connecting the Ewon to the PLC and secondly connecting the Ewon to innius.

 

 

Before starting

The port numbers which need to be open in the firewall to make the connection with innius via internet are listed in Appendix A.

For further information user manuals from Ewon manufacturer HMS Networks can be found here: Ewon Technical Documents

 

Part 1: Connecting the PLC and Ewon

This part describes the steps to connect the PLC to the Ewon.

Step 1: Define datapoints

The first step is to define the problem you want to solve with innius. Based on that you can work out which datapoints you need to provide the correct information.

Step 2: Configuring the Ewon Flexy

In this step the Ewon Flexy gateway is configured to connect with the PLC.

• Power up the Ewon, using a 12 – 24v DC power supply.
• Connect the Ewon to your laptop via a UTP cable.
• On your laptop, you need the eBuddy programme to configure the Ewon. If you don’t have this, you can download and install the eBuddy programme here: https://ewon.biz/technical-support/pages/all-downloads

 

 

• Start the eBuddy progamme, it will search for any connected Ewon devices and list them.
• It may be worth updating the eBuddy via the Tools menu option and clicking on ‘update eBuddy’.

 

 

• Select the Ewon Flexy which you need to configure.
  • Update the Ewon Flexy with the latest Firmware, by clicking on the button ‘Firmware’ and following the wizard steps.
  • Note that the firmware version 14.2s1 is not compatible
  • Note that the firmware version 14.2s0 is compatible.
• You then open a webpage for the Ewon Flexy to configure this by clicking 'Open browser'.
• The default login details are: Login: adm Password: adm
• Follow the rest of the steps of the installation wizard.
• Once the installation in completed the Ewon name can be amended if required.
• Always change the login details for the Ewon Flexy and save them somewhere safe!
• For the ‘Date and time’ settings, choose for clock updates (synchronisation) via NTP (ntp.talk2m.com) and place a tick for the setting ‘Record data in UTC’. For the update interval we advise 120-240 minutes.
• Go to Internet Connection Test: turn it on! If green, the internet connection is OK.
• Optional: Set up a VPN to allow remote access. Then download the programme Ecatcher, from the same location as the eBuddy.

 

Step 3: LAN setup (for communication between the Ewon and PLC)

This process takes place in the Ewon menu: Setup>System>Communication

 

 

• Fill in the LAN IP-address. This is the IP-address of the Ewon gateway itself. This IP-address must be within the same range as the IP-address of the PLC(s).
• Reboot the Ewon gateway, which can be done using the menu option in the bottom left of the screen.

 

Step 4: Configure the IO server

This concerns the PLC connection with the Ewon.

• You can also refer to the manual from Ewon manufacturer HMS Networks here: Flexy Family User Guide and a manual specifically for working with Siemens PLC’s Polling Data from Siemens PLC – Using Ethernet Protocol

 

• Set the Poll rate at 1000 if your innius sensors have a frequency of 1 data point per second.
• Set the Global Device Address. The IP address of the PLC and the slot number. For example: 192.168.101.100,03.01. Then tick the ‘Enabled’ option.

 

 

 

• In the ‘Global Settings’ section ‘Advanced Parameters’ also tick the option ‘Disable Tags in Error’. This prevents healthy tags from being affected by an error tag status.

 

 

Step 5: Define which values are extracted from the PLC

This is accessed via the menu item 'Values'.

 

 

• Define which data points you wish to receive in innius. Do this by setting the mode to ‘SETUP’ and then click Add.

• You then add tag names as you wish to have them in the Ewon with the IO-address from the PLC.
• Note the Ewon Tag names, you will need these for the Sensor Physical IDs in innius.
• Always select a Tag group, otherwise the data will not be transferred to Innius. If it is done at a later point, the BASIC IDE script must be restarted.
• After creating the tags for your setup you can check if the connection is working by viewing the tag values. If there is a red cross in the tag line it is not working.
• The data in the PLC can be read at bit-level! It is also possible to send data to the PLC - which is NOT ALLOWED. To prevent this, the check mark ‘Force read only’ should be checked when defining the address (see picture below).

 

 

• Appendix B shows the options for the Syntax Tag Address in the Ewon.
  

• As a final step please select one of the TAG Groups, A, B, C or D. Select a TAG group according to the frequency you want to send the data to Innius. A sensor in innius can have a frequency as mentioned in the table below.
  

 

After completing step 5, the connection between the PLC and Ewon has now been established.

 

Part 2: Connecting the Ewon and innius

The next thing to do is to make the connection between the Ewon Flexy and innius.

Step 1: Create a machine in innius

Create a machine in innius. For information on how to create a machine refer to our article How do I create my machine

Now you can create/edit the sensors in innius. For information on how to create a physical sensor in innius refer to our article How to configure a physical sensor

The important thing here is that the sensor's "Physical ID" (1) in innius, must match the actual sensor's tag name in the Ewon Flexy.

 

Step 2: Add a connector

Once you have a machine, you need a connector. This is done as follows:

• Go to the innius Admin app
• On the home screen, click the button 'Connectors' (2)

 

 

• Click the top menu button and click the option 'Add' (3)

 

 

• This opens the Add new connector wizard. Give the connector a clear name and click 'Next'. 

 

• Choose the connection method "Connect using an Ewon modem" (4) and click 'Next'.

 

• The next step is to select the machines created in innius which will be connected through the connector (5). You can select multiple machines if applicable.

 

• Click on the "Create Connector" button, and the connector will be generated. In the next step you can download the connector. 

 

 

• Click "Download" (6) to download the connector.

 

 

Step 3: Install connector on Ewon

Once you have created the connector you have to install the connector on the Ewon. This is done as follows:

• Extract the downloaded .zip file.
• Make the FTP-connection to the Ewon Flexy device.
• Copy the files to the \usr folder on the Ewon Flexy device, except the file 'program.bas'.
• Login to the front-end of the Ewon Flexy device as described above and import the file 'program.bas' (contains the BASIC script) via BASIC IDE by clicking on the 'Import' button.
  • • In the basic script the frequency is declared for the 4 groups (see red box text in the picture below) It is not allowed to change those frequencies. Note that changing those frequencies can increase the monthly subscription costs.

 

 

• Enable the BASIC script via BASIC IDE by clicking on the 'Script execution' toggle, to switch it to 'Running'. (see picture below)

 

 

 

• Turn the Autorun option on, otherwise the script will not autorun if the Ewon is restarted.

 

 

• Check the lowest part of the screen to see if the script is executing.
• Check in the innius Admin app that the machine status has changed to 'Connected' (7)

 

 

• Check in the innius Insight app that the sensor values are coming in.
• Congratulations! Your machine is connected to innius!

 

Further notes:

• After creating sensors innius, it is best to switch off and restart the script (Basic IDE) in the Ewon so that all data configured in the Ewon is reread.

• Even if a Tag is created without a Tag group and later assigned as another Tag group, the script must be restarted !!!

 

 

 

Appendix A: Port numbers for firewall settings for the internet connection to innius.

 

For the Internet connection

The following port must be configured “outcoming”:

• 80 (TCP) for HTTP

 

For the VPN connection (optional)

The following ports must be configured “outcoming”:

• 443 (TCP) for openVPN
• 1194 (UDP) for OpenVPN

 

For Firewall rules (optional)

• “openVPN” service must be allowed
• *.talk2M.com domains must be accessible

 

For MQTT communication (does not go through the VPN)

The following port must be configured “outcoming”:

• 1883 (TCP) if not over TLS/SSL
• 8883 (TCP) over TLS / SSL

 

For HTTPX communication

The following port must be configured “outcoming”:

• 443 (TCP) HTTPS over TLS / SSL

 

Appendix B: Syntax Tag Address in the Ewon.