S7 Explorer Blog
Articles, guides, and tutorials for S7 Explorer.
Siemens S7-1200 vs S7-1500: Which PLC for Your Project
Siemens S7-1200 vs S7-1500 compared. Performance, memory, I/O count, motion, safety, PROFINET, price, and which Siemens PLC fits small machines vs large process lines.
Read articleS7 Protocol vs OPC UA for Siemens PLCs: Direct or Standardized
S7 protocol vs OPC UA for Siemens PLCs compared. Native direct access vs the cross-vendor standard, performance, security, setup, and when to use each.
Read articleHow to Read a Siemens S7 Data Block (DB) Over the Network
How to read a Siemens S7 data block. DB number and offset addressing, data types, the rack/slot connection, enabling PUT/GET, and reading S7-1200/1500 DBs.
Read articlePROFINET vs S7 Communication: What's the Difference
PROFINET IO and S7 communication are not competing protocols: they coexist on every Siemens controller. PN-IO is the deterministic fieldbus for cyclic I/O; S7 is the acyclic read/write protocol over TCP port 102. Ports, RFC 1006, RT/IRT timing, GSDML, and macOS tooling explained.
Read articleS7 Communication Protocol Guide: Memory Areas, Addressing, and Data Types
How the Siemens S7 protocol accesses PLC memory. Data blocks, inputs, outputs, markers, timers, counters. Rack/slot addressing and data type mapping.
Read articleConnect to Siemens S7-1200/1500 from macOS without TIA Portal
Read and write S7-1200/1500 data blocks from a Mac without TIA Portal or a VM. Covers enabling PUT/GET in TIA Portal, the security trade-off, and connecting over port 102.
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