Red Lion G3 to S7-300 Comms

We have a Red Lion G310 talking to a Siemmens S7-300 via the MPI option Card. After a number of attempts at various things to impove the comms speed which includes
- deslect queued writes (this gave it a massive boost, 30 seconds update time to around 4 - 5 seconds)
- Grouped variables into consecutive registers (no difference)
- Tried both using a single datablock and multiple datablocks (no difference)

We cannot seem to get the response between the screen and PLC better than 5 seconds. We are now considering going with either the Profibus option card or Profinet but not sure if this will improve the speed.

Does any one have any other ideas on how the speed can be improved and if you have either used the Profibus option card or ProfiNet before?

Bumping this thread, does anyone have any suggestions? I have more info below;

In the PLC/HMI programs the guys have tried the following;

• Multiple Data Blocks – This is what its running on at the moment
• Two equal Data Blocks – No Change
• One large data block – Screen crashed
• Consecutive registers with no gaps – no change in speed
• Removed all alarms and trends – no change in speed
• Set each screen up with its own data block – no change
• At the moment the touch screen port is set up with “queued writes” disabled as with this option the screen takes 30 seconds to update
• Screen works with the same response at 387.5 kbps and 1.5Mbps
• Speeds higher than 1.5 Mbps were not stable and caused the screen to crash at times
• We are using a MPI cable with two profibus connectors and twisted pair profibus cable with shield
• Using Crimson 3 Gold Build 484
• Presently connected to Profibus DP Port x2
• It seems as though the screen is running on a 5 second “cycle time” as depending on what time a screen is called an update happens, if the screen is called 4.5 seconds into the cycle then it is instantly updated but if its 0.5 seconds into the cycle it will take the full cycle time to show data from the PLC

Would you be able to email me your file? I would like to review it and see if I can make any suggestions. [email protected]
Thanks
Jeremy

Hi Jeremy, I emailed the file over to Dan Yost at your office today as he was nominated as our support cintact for Australia. The problem is urgent so hope you can suggest why this is happening. Thanks.