PLC5 PV+ Ethernet limitations

I have a PLC5 1785-L40B/E Processor with a 1785-ENET ethernet sidecar connected to an ethernet network talking to five PV+ touchscreens a data archiving pc and a development pc running RSLogix5 and RSView ME. It seems as if the response time to each PV+ has gotten slower as this system has grown and more PV+'s have been added.

I also notice RSLogix5 runs very slow while I'm connected, in fact the little spinning ladder icon barely turns while I'm monitoring or editing the program.

Is this a limitation of the PLC5 processor over ethernet?

Are their settings in the processor or PV+'s that have effects on the network loading?

Will my response time be improved if I upgrade the processor to an ethernet style?

If I do upgrade to an ethernet style, how will performance be if I use both the processor ethernet port and the 1785 sidecar at the same time?

If this is a limitation of the PLC5, should I consider upgrading to a ControlLogix processor and controlling all the 1771 IO from it?

Thanks
Rollie

Is your side car 10M or 100M? How much free memory do you have? How many tags are your PV+ applications using? How fast are the tag updates on the PV+ applications, data archiving?
Are you using a managed or unmanaged switch,or a hub?

I assume the side car speed is limited to 10MB only on a PLC5.

Memory used: 36601 Words.
Free Memory: 12551 Words.

Most PV+'s are 15" with an average of 60-80 tags per page update rate set at 1 second.

The data archiving pc is grabbing about 50-100 tags, once per minute.

Netgear unmanaged switch.

The Ethernet side car is now available in 100Mb. However your processor firmware should be rev K or later. You can buy a firmware upgrade kit. You can also upgrade your processor to an Ethernet processor but you will have one less DH+ port.
The most in expensive route would be change the side car to 100Mb. You must flash the firmware. In some older processors you will have to change out some EPROM chips. The later processors only requite a flash upgrade.
Change your unmanaged switch to a managed switch.
Try and group your tag addresses on the PV+ applications together. That will make a significant impact on performance.
One more thing, the side car shares the communication buffers with the serial port of the processor, so if you are using the serial port it could impact performance

Continued problem

Thanks for the replies so far.
I'm reopening this thread with hopes of getting some more help.

The processor is a 1785-L40B Series E Rev H01 F/W Rev. B.3
The cost to upgrade firmware I think is more then I pay for another used processor.

The sidecar is a 1785-ENET Series A Rev. E01

A new problem has occurred which I belive was not there before I added all the panelviews. From RSLogix5 whenever I change the processor to Program mode, I lose ethernet connectivity from RSLogix. When monitoring it from RSLinx SuperWho, the status changes back and forth from seeing it ok to a comm error. This has been duplicated with various processors and sidecars, so I am not suspecting faulty hardware at this point.

To make things worse, I have been adding additional tags to a data archive application called FactorySQL.

My impression is that it is related to too many devices trying communicate at the same time and not nessacerily the number of points each, even tho that would be a factor.

Thanks again for whatever ideas you can offer me.
Rollie

Thanks again

How would a managed switch make a difference?

The current switch handles the traffic from the PLC to only other devices it communicates with. Out IT guy tells me a managed switch would not make a difference unless it would respond better to "VLAN tagged packets" (whatever they are). Other then that he doesn't see anything a managed switch would do for un in this situation.

View attachment EtherNet IP Switch Considerations, 1 February 2006.zip

Read this.

Another thing that I see all too often is the scattering of tags being written/read. If you organize the tags being accessed into contiguous blocks of data, the communication efficiency can improve tremendously.

Paul

I have replaced the Unmanaged switch with a Managed one. Haven't noticed a difference.

I am now considering replacing the processor with a newer one, but need to convince myself as well as the boss that it will make a difference.

Current setup:
PLC5/40B Series E w/ 1785-ENET Series A Sidecar, 10m ethernet, Paid $800 total for used parts on Ebay.

Considering:
Option 1 - PLC5/40E Series E, 10m ethernet, reuse the existing Sidecar, use both ethernet ports. Used price $2600

Option 2 - PLC5/40E Series F, 100m ethernet, Ebay price new $5500

Option 3 - PLC5/80E Series F, 100m ethernet, Ebay price new $7000, Allen Bradley list price about $18k

I'm looking at upgrading to a 5/80 as I'm currently using about 80% of the memory.

The current ladder scan speed is about 70 milliseconds.

As you can see, the Series F processors jump up in price considerably from a series E used one. This is the gamble I make if I purchase one. There is no guarentee this will solve all my problems.

The question I have for you, is what are the odds this will improve my situation enough to make a difference?

I'm also reworking my Panelview plus screens to use more contiguous blocks of addresses.

Thanks again
Rollie

Thanks for the Help

I just wanted to thank you all for the good advice.

I found and borrowed a used Series F processor.

It fixed ALL my issues beyond what I expected.

Touchscreen response time is much faster without delays or operator having to make mulitple attempts at hitting a button before anything happened.

No more Com errors on Touchscreens.

The really big improvement was in the RSLogix 5 connection. The little spinning Ladder icon now rotates fairly quickly where before it hardly moved. Online editing and saving is much faster.

Third party archiving FactorySQL gets all it's requested data now and with no corrupted values.

I found a couple "New in Sealed Box" PLC5/40E Series F processors on Ebay for under $5k each, purchased and installed them.

Everybody is happy now

Thanks all