SLC 5/05 Communication Problem

I've been attempting to establish comms with 3 different 5/05's. Two of them faulted while running, probably due to a power failure at the plant. The other one is right out of the box. I am using a test rack in the shop and I am able to establish comms with a 5/03,5/04 on the same rack and using DF1 and the 1747-UIC. However I am unable to establish comms via the UIC or eithernet with any of the 5/05's now. I have tried resetting (vbb to ground for 60 sec),and also tried to use the bootp utility as well with no luck. I have tried with the J4 in protect and program mode. Seems like I've tried everything and still cannot see these 5/05 in RSLinx Professional. I was able to communicate with one of the 5/05 via eithernet after changing the network settings on the laptop, however I managed to screw that one up by trying to change the internet ip address in the bootp utility. The key here is the bootp utility saw this 5/05 until I made the change. The other two are not seen using the same setup.
Sorry for the long post, but I am getting very frustrated, hope someone can point out the very simple thing that I am missing.

Thanks

I'm going to be nice, 'cause you're new.

First, about that 1747-UIC device. It's a DF1 to DH485 converter. You'll always have DH485 protocol on it's RJ45 port (it's RS485 isolated 2-wire, NOT ETHERNET !!!!) and on it's DB9 port.

Your DB9 port on the SLC-5/05's is set for DF1 Full Duplex right out of the box. You need an ordinary serial port or a regular USB/RS232 converter (I strongly recommend the Keyspan 19HS) to connect to the serial port of these controllers out of the box.

You might want to go ahead and call a local Allen-Bradley distributor to see if they can gently illustrate to you how to connect to SLC controllers using serial cables.

I was not pluging the eithernet cable into the DF1. I have a hub I am going through. The DF1 is working on the other models 5/04 and 5/03. I do have a keyspan as you describe and I am not able to establish comms with it either. I maybe using the wrong cable though, I am using ab's 1747-CP3.

When you say Hub do you mean a hub attached to a ENI card? I would think that at this point I would grab a serial cable with a null modem and go thru the RS/232 Port on My PLC's and get rid of the fault. To setup a driver for thisI would first delete my old drives out of RSLinx. Then setup a new RS/232 link. This will let you get online and get everything running again.

Make sure the J4 jumper stays in the Protect position.

So, brand new out of the box, the 5/05 will be faulted. That is normal as there is no program loaded. The RS232 port will be configured for DF1 full-duplex. Lets concentrate on the DF1 setting before we get into the ethernet portion.

So assuming you have reset the 5/05 controllers using the VBB & GND then all should be back to default. The first thing I would suggest is to go to an existing 5/03 or 5/04 that you have been successfully communicating with and in the RSLinx driver configuration, do an Auto-Configure. Now sometimes with these USB converters that function doesn't work, so if it doesn't, that's fine. Verify that you can talk to those controllers using the DF1 connection.

Then, post a message here with the RSLinx configuration settings that worked and perhaps we can tell how why that won't work on the 5/05.

It is possible that the other controllers have their DF1 configurations different than your 5/05.

OG

The DF1 setting will be the same for the 5/03, 5/04, and 5/05 by default. My first guess would be that that the settings of the Channel 0 DF1 have been changed on the processors that you already have in your plant

As far as the Ethernet, what is the IP Address of your PC and what are you setting the SLC too. Need to get it pinging before you bother with RsLinx on that end

EDIT - Operaghost beat me too it while I was eating but I like his method. Go to RsLinx and do the auto configure on one of the processors that you can communicate with and post the settings it comes up with.

By the way, you did try an auto configure in RsLinx on the 5/05 didn't you

OK, everything is working now. I revisited the use of my keyspan since I have the same model as recommended. After setting to factory default I was able to go online through the RS232 port. After that it was just a simple download and I was able to go online via eithernet. To answer the question above, I am using a Linksys Eitherfast 10/100 5-port workgroup hub, model EFAH05W.

Doesn't really matter now, but, I still could not get the UIC to connect. I even tried it after I was able to get on with the Keyspan. Just bugs me that I was unable to get it to work.

Thanks for the quick and useful responses, even if I am new.

The SLC-5/03, /04, and /05 controllers "Channel 0" serial port can be configured for DF1 protocol, for DH485 protocol, or for ASCII protocol. Out of the box, it's configured for DF1 Full Duplex.

The 1747-UIC is a DF1 to DH485 converter. Therefore, if you are able to "go online" with a controller using the 1747-UIC, then it's serial port must be configured for DH485 protocol.

MicroLogix 1000 controllers can "auto-switch" to DH485 from the default DF1 setting, but all MicroLogix 1100, 1200 and 1500 and all SLC-5/03, /04, and /05 controllers must be manually configured for DH485 protocol on their serial port.

So, if you are online with a Keyspan USB/RS232 converter using DF1, you won't be able to get online with a 1747-UIC using DH485. The two methods are going to be mutually exclusive.

Thanks, that helps.

awmasparky said:

OK, everything is working now. I revisited the use of my keyspan since I have the same model as recommended. After setting to factory default I was able to go online through the RS232 port. After that it was just a simple download and I was able to go online via eithernet. To answer the question above, I am using a Linksys Eitherfast 10/100 5-port workgroup hub, model EFAH05W.

Doesn't really matter now, but, I still could not get the UIC to connect. I even tried it after I was able to get on with the Keyspan. Just bugs me that I was unable to get it to work.

Thanks for the quick and useful responses, even if I am new.

Click to expand...

If your hub is not a true switch, you'll have problems when other devices are connected to it. If you are only connecting your laptop to the processor, you can use a cross-over cable without the hub in between. Many new laptops have auto-sensing ethernet ports which eliminates the need for a cross-over cable too.

Yep, I usually just use the cable; however when I started reading up on the subject it seemed like that having the hub was the proper way to do it. I have very little knowledge of networking, as might be noticed, so I do allot of trial and error to get things done. Unfortunately, PLC work is only a small part of my job and I tend to forget quite a bit between the times that I am actually working with the PLC's.



Again thanks for the help.