DL205 w/DL240 Stop working plugged in to LAN

Hello PLCs.

I need assistant with my current problems with the H2-ECOM100.

Machine configuration: DL205 with DL240 cpu, and H2-ECOM100 plugged into an unmanage switch as well as an HMI (EA7-T10C+ also plugged into the same switch.

The problem I have may be is that it is my first time with working with DL.

The equipment work flawlessly as long as the LAN cable is not plugged into the switch.

But as soon as I plugged the cable into the switch, the H2-ECOM100 appears to freeze up.

Status LED is Solid Green, 100MBit is Green, Active is Solid Green, and the rest are off when LAN is plugged in.

When LAN cable is plugged in, NetEdit detects the H2-ECOM, and other plc on network.

I can ping every address NetEdit scanned but the H2-ECOM for the mchine plc.

FYI, this will be a The 3rd module I have tried and the 3rd is NIB and I have not made any progress.

Any help will appropriated and thank you in advance.

Oh, I didn't mention that this is my first time with DL but I have worked with Allen-Bradley.


Regards


Rey

Have you made a list of the following:
Ethernet (MAC) Address, Module ID, Name, IP Address, Mask Address

I would review the ECOM Network Identifiers in the following manual.
https://www.automationdirect.com/static/manuals/hxecomm/hxecomm.pdf

Hope this helps you out.
Regards,

gclshortt said:

Have you made a list of the following:
Ethernet (MAC) Address, Module ID, Name, IP Address, Mask Address

I would review the ECOM Network Identifiers in the following manual.
https://www.automationdirect.com/static/manuals/hxecomm/hxecomm.pdf

Hope this helps you out.
Regards,

Click to expand...

Hi Garry.

Thank for the reply.

I have check what you have listed and also read the manual and appears to be correct on the ip configurations.

All five devices in the network has 10.27.16.xxx with 255.255.255.0 with ID 1 thru 5.

I am not at work at the moment and I do not have the mac address.

Regards


Rey

Do you have the module in the slot next to the CPU?

If so, that slot is special and will not work with the ECOM100. The ECOM100 needs to go in slots 1 through 7.

Also, have you checked your power budget? You may be over budget, especially if you are using an older non -1 base.

icky812 said:

Do you have the module in the slot next to the CPU?

If so, that slot is special and will not work with the ECOM100. The ECOM100 needs to go in slots 1 through 7.

Also, have you checked your power budget? You may be over budget, especially if you are using an older non -1 base.

Click to expand...

Hi icky.

Thanks for reply.

Ecom is in slot 5 and also tried in slot 7.

I am not exactly sure when you said power budget.
I will have to assume you may be referring to total current (amp) being drawn from rack ps unit?

I will check icky.

It is just really weird that the palletizer will work fine as long as I don't connect the switch to the plant network.

Thanks again

Regards

I'd check the Ethernet cable as well. Might be mis-wired, shorted or have some super ugly noise on it.

Hi Icky,

That was the very first thing I thought of when I started troubleshooting this problem.
I tested the lan cable with a cable but not capable of testing noises. The cable passed the test, but no luck.

The cable run was just outside and not in coduits so I traced the cable and removed from any noise sources such as from the light fixture that was laying on.

With same problem, I am just going to replced and re-run the cables.

Thanks again.

I just realized that, when the switch is connected to plant network... NetEdit 3 see other devices and I can connect to those devices.

Therefore, the cable use (from another switch) to connect to plant network is fine.

Icky, if I have a power budget issue, shouldn't the power supply let me know that I'm drawing over my limit?

Ok here's an update.

Devices in the rack:

Power Supply D2-09B-1 (2600)
D2-240 CPU (120)
D2-16NA (100) 3X = 300
F2-08TRS (670) 3X = 2,010
H2-ECOM100 (300)

According to THIS

It appears it's 130 overdrawn.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

How are the F2-08TRS modules wired? Do you need the isolated commons that that module provides? Or the N/C contacts of the last two outputs?

If not, you might be able to swap one of the modules for a F2-08TR. It would require rewiring to a different connector, but it would bring you under the power budget.

If you do need the isolated commons, or the N/C contacts, you might be able to use a D2-08TD1 connected to either some Ziplink relay modules like the ZL-RLS4-24 (need 2) or some slim relays using a breakout cable (ZL-D2-CBL10-1P).

Either of these options should not affect the program. Both modules are 8 point modules, so they shouldn't affect the I/O layout. It seems like the best way to get under the power budget to me.

Hi Brian.

Thank you assisting me with the issue.

Would you say that being over budget causing or preventing my unmanaged switch to join the plant network?

I really don't understand why it would work when not connected to the plant network and immediately stop (HMI can't find the PLC) when connected to the plant network, and ecom cannot be ping but NetEdit 3 detected the ecom in the slot also 4 other devices on the network.

Thanks in advance for the help.

rbkief said:

Hi Brian.

Thank you assisting me with the issue.

Would you say that being over budget causing or preventing my unmanaged switch to join the plant network?

I am really don't understand why it would work when connected to the plant network and immediately stop (HMI can't find the PLC) and cannot be ping.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Click to expand...

Hmm, for some reason, I thought the Ecom was locking up when you plugged the cable into it, instead of the plant Lan cable into the local unmanaged switch.

Well, I would say that being over power budget could cause unpredictable issues. Whether that is causing your issue, I don't know. Maybe the increased traffic is causing more load on the ecom's processor and causes the voltage to dip a little and cause problems. Can't really rule something like this out if you are over the power budget, but it would seem a little unlikely. That being said, I don't think anyone here would really recommend that you continue to run the PLC like that, whether it is actually what is causing the problem you are having currently or not.

The only things I can think of that might be a problem (other than power) would be a duplicate IP address on the Lan network that is matching the PLC address, a network loop being created when you plug in the Lan cable, or some device that is flooding the Ecom with traffic.

I'm guessing a loop isn't likely, as you would have connectivity to the plant lan already without needing to plug in the troublesome cable. The problem with loops is that they can cause something called a broadcast storm. Basically it generates huge amounts of traffic that will bring a network segment to its knees.

Have you tried pinging the PLC with the plant lan hooked up to the switch and the PLC disconnected? That should tell you if you have a duplicate device address on the network. Perhaps you inadvertently assigned the same address to the PLC as the router, or computer.

As far as the traffic goes, I'm guessing it's impossible to sniff the traffic on the unmanaged switch that's headed for the Ecom. Maybe you can monitor traffic at the other end? Maybe even just watching the activity light on the switch (or whatever it is) on the other end of the cable might tell you something.

Edit: Another thought occurred to me. Could you put the PLC in Stop mode, power it down and pull one of the output cards out, power it back up like that and try communicating with the Ecom? You can't run the PLC program like that, but it should tell you if the comms issue is power related or not. Things like pinging the Ecom and pulling up its internal website shouldn't depend on the PLC being in Run mode.