Aveva Plant SCADA integration with Nais FP2 PLC

Hi Lee,

I never heard of this PLC so I had to look it up. I found it is from Matsushita / Panasonic and supports the MEWTOCOL (serial) and MEWTOCOM  (ethernet) protocols natively. AVEVA Plant SCADA has native drivers for both protocols, available.for free on the Support Site.

From what I can find in the user manual, the CPU you mentioned does not have an onboard ethernet port. So communication would be limited to the (serial) MEWTOCOL protocol. If an ethernet card like the ET-LAN is installed, you should be able to connect over ethernet using the MEWTOCOM driver.

I don't have any experience using this PLC or either of these drivers, so I hope this bit of information is enough to help you on your way.

Good luck.

Hi Patrick,

Marvelous!!! Your explanation was detail and clear. I myself never use this PLC as well. However, since both you and Richard recommended MEWTOCOM driver. I believe I can study that driver and test it out with the FP2 PLC. 

Thanks a lot for assisting to look into my concern. 

It's been a great help.  

No problem, glad to be able to help.

If you need FP2 manuals, I found them here:

https://industry.panasonic.eu/downloads?group_label=PLCs%20-%20Programmable%20logic%20controllers&category_label=PLCs%20-%20Programmable%20logic%20controllers&lineup_label=PLCs&series_label=PLC%20FP2%20-%20FP2SH&file_category_label[]=Manual&langreferrer=panasonic-electric-works.com

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the complete support! No worries, I have do my homework before hand for the FP2 PLC, the only issue was when looking into Aveva Plant SCADA to search for the driver information, surprisingly it was less compare to previous CitectSCADA time. Due to time constraint, it's faster to post question here to get answers from expert. 

Never the less, as long Aveva Plant SCADA still hold the 140 manufacturer driver, as partners we are comfortable to push for it.  

However, I still want to thank you for the support effort that you have put in. 

Keep up the spirit!! 

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the complete support! No worries, I have do my homework before hand for the FP2 PLC, the only issue was when looking into Aveva Plant SCADA to search for the driver information, surprisingly it was less compare to previous CitectSCADA time. Due to time constraint, it's faster to post question here to get answers from expert. 

Never the less, as long Aveva Plant SCADA still hold the 140 manufacturer driver, as partners we are comfortable to push for it.  

However, I still want to thank you for the support effort that you have put in. 

Keep up the spirit!! 

Note that Plant SCADA comes with less drivers, but the drivers from previous releases are still available as individual downloads from the website. That's so they can track which ones are used by more customers. See this note from the Plant SCADA 2023 Readme:

5.3. Driver Classifications

As part of an ongoing effort to set clear expectations and provide better support to our customers, we have introduced a classification system for our driver portfolio to communicate the level of ongoing maintenance and version updates that customers can reasonably expect. These classifications and status of each driver can be found online at https://gcsresource.aveva.com/PlantSCADA/Drivers/.

In line with these classifications, we have limited the number of drivers included by default on the Plant SCADA installation media to a reduced set of ‘core’ drivers that have undergone recent updates, however all other drivers continue to be available for download from the AVEVA Knowledge & Support Center at https://softwaresupport.aveva.com/. It is recommended that you visit on a regular basis and subscribe to the forum so that you are alerted to any updates that occur.

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the information. This list look much comprehensive. Well, at least we have a site to refer all the driver that's available for Plant SCADA. 

However, I do like to suggest that if the list would to include a column to link to the driver documentation would be more effective. Cause I still need to go to Aveva support center to search for the communication driver information to find out whether the driver support current hardware. That's kind of tricky. 

Hopefully Aveva can consider this suggestion and improve the website. 

Thanks and regards.

Yes, it would be helpful if you could access the driver documentation directly from the website before downloading and installing the driver. You can at least filter for manufacturer to find drivers most likely to work.

Also, if you click on the Documents tab, there are supplementary files available for some drivers. That may provide everything that's in the help and more.

Nice comment! In a long shot I guess we will have it easy to access.. :-)