Poor Communication

Once again a big thanks to all the great folks on this site that give of their time and knowledge and ask for nothing in return... I tip my hat to you all.

I have one production line that is all compacts and SLC 5/05 (ETHERNET) save for 2 hold out 5/04's. Some time ago I set up a 232 link between the last 05 and the first 04 using AIC+ adapters and 0 channels. The link has thus far been very very unstable. At least 75% of all MSGs fail on time out. I have kept traffic to an absolute minimum. 0 Channels are set to full duplex 19200. AIC+s are set to auto. Adapters are about 125 feet apart using good Belkin twist pair shield.

As always any help is greatly appreciated.
Jim

125 feet is way too long for RS232. Perhaps an RS232 'line repeater' would be helpful? I've seen them in the B&B Electronics catalog...

The NET-AIC+ is RS485, so as long as there are two of them, and the serial connection between each SLC ch0 and each NET-AIC is shorter than 50 feet it should be okay.

A better solution would be to put a 1761-NET-ENI on each of the 5/04s and then they can both be on the same ethernet subnet with your 505s and other PLCs. Then you'll only be doing the electrical conversion from ethernet back to serial at one end, instead of doing RS485 to RS232 at both ends like you're doing now.

Once on ethernet, you'll still have the serial bottleneck at each 5/04, but you will have the option of 38.4k baud at those choke points, and the ability to message between any of the PLCs on that same subnet.

Paul

another way to go ...

or check with your distributor on trading in the 5/04s for 5/05s ... most people don't know it, but trade-in programs ARE available for many AB products ... it's a little more paperwork for the distributor - so they usually don't spread the word - but if you have a good relationship with your local distributor you might be able to save some time and money - and end up with an apples-to-apples system ...

Thanks guys,
Okie, I will look into the 1761-NET-ENI adapters if there not too much I will probably go that route.
Ron, The 04 processors are slated for upgrade in early October and yes AB does have a pretty good exchange program. We have already exchanged (6)old processors to 05's. The guys from our local distributor were great. For every processor we upgraded we got 2 hours of free AB tech time and a half day of local distributor tech guy time. Plus our local distributor kept throwing all kinds of freebies at us. We got compontnt pannel views, upgrades to all our ab software, like 5 free AIC+ modules, cables, whatever we need to upgrade from our old stuff.
It's kinda funny, I felt like the hot cheerleader just before prom. All the guys were tring to ply us with free gifts so we would open up our control cabinets and let them put there new processors in.

LOL...I crack myself up.