SLC to Micrologix comms issues

Hello all,

Need some help from you guys!

Currently I'm commissioning a new system consisting of a SLC 505, two micrologix 1100 and two panelview 600+.

The slc is located in the main panel with a Hirschman spider connecting two remote control panels containing the micrologix and panelviews respectively. The remote panels are approx 50 mtrs away from the main panel.

When up and running all the comms are o.k.

The problem I'm having is this, when I power either of the remote panels down and then back on again, the micrologix do not re-establish a communication with the SLC. Panelviews and SLC are ok at power up.

Would apprieciate some quick feedback, but I understand you may need some more info!



Cheers

What are you communicating over ?

Ethernet ? Net-ENI's ? or DH 485 ?

edit:

It would be good if you could give specifics........

Panelview and micrologix part numbers?

Network Used ?

cable used ?

Any - NET - units ?

How its wired ? ie do a simple wiring diagram in MSPaint (including for instance all 4 dh485 wires if thats how its wired?)

Forgot to say.......

When this happens what does RSWho show ?

I have googled "Hirschman spider " but it doest tell me a lot ?

The Hirschmann Spider is an Ethernet Switch, so I'm guessing you are just running Ethernet out to your remote panels.

Like 504 bloke says, we need some more information on the layout to be able to help you out.

Just a guess off the top of my head, look at the Ethernet Messaging Logic in the SLC reading the data from the MicrolLogix. It is possible that when you lose the comms from the MicroLogix (i.e. when you turn the remote panel off) something may be latching up in your SLC program preventing comms from being re-established on power up of the remote panels.

Tim.

Sorry about being a bit vague:-

Network – Ethernet
Cable Cat 5
Hirschman Ethernet switch
Micrologix 1100 newest firmware version (to my knowledge)
SLC 505 version C

Physical Connections

SLC patched into Ethernet switch (main panel)
2 cat 5e cables from PV 600+ and ML 1100 (remote panel 1) to Ethernet switch (main panel)
2 cat 5e cables from PV 600+ and ML 1100 (remote panel 2) to Ethernet switch (main panel)



Further to this, the SLC tries to read / write to both ML1100 continuesly even when comms are broken.

Like you said Tim, this might be my problem. Therefore is there anyway the SLC can discriminate between which ML is offline?



Oh and I can’t find them on RS who or by Pinging them…



Regards

Jim

Silly Question - Are all your ips and subnets correct ?

Next Question - Whats the 1100 say on its display ? Ip address or blank ? Any Fault codes ?

Yes all the necessary network bits are correct..
The network operates ok providing nobody isolates any of the panels.

If this does happen, the only way to get the ML1100 back on the network is for me to connect locally with a crossover lead.
I then establish a connection straight away. All i do then is reconnect the patch lead and off we go, the ML opens its comms..

Sorry I forgot to say, no alarms and no messages.
There is a small comms indicator on the LCD for both com statuses.
Neither are lit when this problem occurs

Jim

Not sure if this will help

http://domino.automation.rockwell.com/applications/kb/RAKB.nsf/0/C08E66097836A77D85257092005DBF0B?OpenDocument

Cheers Mickey,

I came across this issue when setting up the system in the office.
Thanks for that anyway!
Jim

oafcjimbob said:

Sorry I forgot to say, no alarms and no messages.
There is a small comms indicator on the LCD for both com statuses.
Neither are lit when this problem occurs

Jim

Click to expand...

You should be able to get the ip address up in the lcd display on the 1100, it will either be a proper address or .../.../.../... ?

It sounds like when you cycle power to the MicroLogix 1100's that they are failing to re-establish an Ethernet link.

Your statement about connecting with a crossover cable, and then reconnecting to the switch is what strikes me as suspicious.

The Hirschmann Spider has two LED's per port. The bottom one is the "Link/Activity" LED, and it should be solid green when an Ethernet link is established between the switch and a controller. The top LED is off when a port is running at 10 Mb/s, and orange when the port is running at 100 Mb/s.

Describe the state of the LED's on each port of the Hirschmann switch when the system is running normally.

I suspect that the switch ports connected to the MicroLogix 1100's are not showing the Link LED when the problem occurs.

I have not used the Micro 1100 controller in person yet. Does anyone know if you can hard-set the speed and duplex for that controller's Ethernet port, rather than letting it autonegotiate ?

Yes you can. Go to channel configuration in RsLogix and select Channel 1. Uncheck Autonegtieate then select the speed and duplex under port setting.

But are you saying he doesn't have his cables wired properly?