1756-AENT quick question

Is it ok to use any unmanaged switch when using this as Control I/O Master or do I have to use the Allen Bradley brand switch shown in the enet-UM001 manual?

Thanks!

Any unmanaged switch will work. However without knowing your topology I really can't comment on if a managed or unmanaged switch such as Hirschmann or Ntron would be better. Our policy where I work is all switches are managed.

I've heard in the past that its a bad idea to use a ENBT module on your regular network to use as both LAN connections (for remote programming) and as a Distributed I/O. With this in mind, I've got a spare ENBT and I was going to install it for its sole purpose of Distributed I/O. Right now this would connect to two Flex I/O units and a IRC5.

From what your saying it sounds like its ok to use one module to do both? If I use a managed switch could I pull this off (and be cheaper)?

When you are using the default Multicast connection method for I/O and Produced/Consumed Tags, either a separate I/O network or a managed switching environment is necessary to prevent the multicast data from placing an unwanted load on network ports and devices that don't need that data.

With the advent of Unicast connections for EtherNet/IP, managed switches are not necessary to constrain the multicast traffic. They're still recommended for diagnostic purposes.

Two good RA Knowledgebase documents describing the versions of RSLogix 5000 that supported Unicast for various features:

https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/114482

https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/66324

TL;DR: Unicast was introduced for Produced/Consumed Tags in v16, for I/O connections in v18, and for Safety connections in v20.