A manufacturing site needed alarm and status data from an Allen-Bradley PLC exposed to a BACnet/IP building management system. Chipkin QuickServer turned PLC-side DINT arrays and bit-level status points into a stable BACnet/IP handoff that the site team could validate from both sides.
This was a practical plant-floor integration, not a lab exercise. The customer had to bridge production-side PLC data into a BAS environment, keep the PLC and BACnet networks separated, and make sure individual alarms were visible as meaningful building-management points instead of opaque integer values.
At a Glance
- Industry: Manufacturing / industrial automation
- Customer: Manufacturing controls and building automation team
- Facility type: Production facility
- Client role: PLC and building automation integration stakeholders
- Project scale: 70+ PLC alarm-array elements plus additional status arrays exposed to the BAS
- Protocols: From: EtherNet/IP → To: BACnet/IP
- Chipkin product: Chipkin QuickServer Dual Ethernet FS-QS-2X10
- Project start: February 2023
Allen-Bradley PLC → EtherNet/IP → Chipkin QuickServer → BACnet/IP BMS
EtherNet/IP to BACnet/IP Challenge
The upstream/server side was an Allen-Bradley PLC programmed in Studio 5000. The downstream/client side needed those values on a BACnet/IP building management system. The project therefore depended on more than basic connectivity. It required a clean way to translate production-side arrays into BAS-friendly alarm and status objects.
The central challenge was data structure. The PLC stored multiple alarm states inside DINT arrays, including status groups that had to be represented as distinct BACnet points. That is a common real-world integration problem in manufacturing environments: the PLC is optimized for control logic, while the BAS expects individual alarms and status values that can be discovered, trended, and consumed cleanly.
There was also an architecture constraint. The PLC network and the BAS network lived on different IP segments, which made dual-port gatewaying part of the delivered design. The team had to preserve that network separation while still making the EtherNet/IP values available to the BACnet side.
Why Chipkin
This was a strong fit for Chipkin because it combined PLC-side data modeling with BAS-side presentation requirements. Chipkin QuickServer provided the bridge, but the real value came from translating the PLC arrays into a BACnet/IP structure that the site team could use without reworking the whole controls strategy.
Chipkin support also worked well in the collaborative middle ground that these projects often require. The BAS side, the PLC side, and the gateway side all had to line up. Chipkin helped keep the handoff moving while the customer’s PLC engineering team refined the transfer structure and the BAS team validated the resulting BACnet/IP presentation.
The Solution
Chipkin configured Chipkin QuickServer to read the PLC data over EtherNet/IP using Data Table messaging and then expose the relevant points to the downstream/client BMS over BACnet/IP. The design used separate network paths for the PLC and BAS sides so the customer did not have to collapse existing network boundaries to make the project work.
The implementation focused on translating array-based PLC data into BAS-friendly objects. That meant aligning the PLC-side data layout, the QuickServer mapping, and the BACnet-side expectations until the alarm and status points presented cleanly on the destination system.
As the project matured, the PLC engineering team simplified part of the source-side transfer approach, which made the final handoff easier to validate. That collaboration mattered. It turned the job from an abstract data-type problem into a working manufacturing integration pattern the customer could repeat.
PLC-to-BMS Integration Results
The project delivered a working EtherNet/IP to BACnet/IP handoff for a production facility.
Project proof points:
- 70+ alarm-array elements were incorporated into the PLC-to-BMS integration scope.
- Dual-network connectivity let the project preserve separate PLC and BAS network paths.
- Bit-level status points were made usable from the BAS side instead of remaining trapped inside PLC-side arrays.
- The customer confirmed smooth BACnet/IP operation after final validation on both the PLC and BMS sides.
The final customer confirmation was clear and public-safe:
“I was able to get everything talking on the Metasys side and I believe Bishop was able to get the PLC side working. The information seems to be coming through smoothly at this point.”
— Building automation engineer
Have a Similar EtherNet-IP-to-BACnet Project?
Need to expose Allen-Bradley PLC data to a BACnet/IP BAS without rewriting the plant controls architecture? Chipkin can help with QuickServer mapping, dual-network gatewaying, and PLC-to-BMS commissioning support. Tell us about your project.