DeviceNet D-Day

I just sent this email off to my team here at the winery. Hope someone may have som insite to this issue.

Thanks In Advance. Bob Low

Overview.

Our case conveyors consist of 8 different (DeviceNet scanners modules in a PLC Rack)
Each of the 8 networks consist of approximately 24 Nodes That being 12 Gen2 Comm modules and 12 ITV Pressure regulators. Each of the 12 Gen2 modules control about 40 3 foot conveyor sections.

So what we are talking about here is One DeviceNet Scanner, 12 Gen2 modules and 12 ITV Pressure regulators. All in all about 480 3 foot conveyor sections.

So this morning I was told that all Line 12 and 13 case conveyors from the end of the white house to bottling had stopped. When I arrived at the Panel with the DeviceNet scanner the scanner was reporting 12 nodes missing. Those node were the 12 ITV Pressure regulators. When I went online to check the scanner I saw that all the ITV Scanners were firmware revision miss matched and had been removed from the scan list. After confirming that the ITV’s were ok I decided to download our backup file to the entire network. That didn’t help. The scanner still removed all the ITVs. With little else to do we replaced the DeviceNet scanner module and everything was ok.

Now for the crazy part. Half way through the troubleshooting above I was told that Line 17 Case conveyor had stopped and the same thing happened to the Scanner Module. It had also removed all the ITVs from the scan list and downloading the backup files again failed. We replaced that scanner and that solved the problem again. NOTE: There is nothing common between the electrical controls on Lines 12 and 13 compared to Lines 16, 17, and 18.

bobwithdana said:

I just sent this email off to my team here at the winery. Hope someone may have som insite to this issue.

Thanks In Advance. Bob Low

Overview.

Our case conveyors consist of 8 different (DeviceNet scanners modules in a PLC Rack)
Each of the 8 networks consist of approximately 24 Nodes That being 12 Gen2 Comm modules and 12 ITV Pressure regulators. Each of the 12 Gen2 modules control about 40 3 foot conveyor sections.

So what we are talking about here is One DeviceNet Scanner, 12 Gen2 modules and 12 ITV Pressure regulators. All in all about 480 3 foot conveyor sections.

So this morning I was told that all Line 12 and 13 case conveyors from the end of the white house to bottling had stopped. When I arrived at the Panel with the DeviceNet scanner the scanner was reporting 12 nodes missing. Those node were the 12 ITV Pressure regulators. When I went online to check the scanner I saw that all the ITV Scanners were firmware revision miss matched and had been removed from the scan list. After confirming that the ITV’s were ok I decided to download our backup file to the entire network. That didn’t help. The scanner still removed all the ITVs. With little else to do we replaced the DeviceNet scanner module and everything was ok.

Now for the crazy part. Half way through the troubleshooting above I was told that Line 17 Case conveyor had stopped and the same thing happened to the Scanner Module. It had also removed all the ITVs from the scan list and downloading the backup files again failed. We replaced that scanner and that solved the problem again. NOTE: There is nothing common between the electrical controls on Lines 12 and 13 compared to Lines 16, 17, and 18.

Click to expand...

Well, at first glance, the scanners do have something in common...the chassis they sit in.
This sounds like a lot of scanners in one chassis...(sorry, I just can't call it a rack). Is the power rating and distance rating (if 1769) correct for all that module load.
Give some part numbers, or post a System Ferret .txt file.

If you can provide some background information about the system and its devices, that might help. The PLC controller platform and the exact model number and firmware revision of the DeviceNet scanner modules would be useful.

I have never heard of a DeviceNet scanner "removing devices from the scanlist". I think that what you are seeing is RSNetworx for DeviceNet software removing devices from an uploaded scanlist because they do not match the actual devices on the network.

When I arrived at the Panel with the DeviceNet scanner the scanner was reporting 12 nodes missing. Those node were the 12 ITV Pressure regulators.

Click to expand...

What was the exact error code for the 12 ITV pressure regulators ? Different error messages mean different things. In particular I'm interested in the presence of Error 72 (an ordinary timeout) versus Error 73 (Electronic Keying Mismatch).

When I went online to check the scanner I saw that all the ITV (regulators) were firmware revision miss matched and had been removed from the scan list.

Click to expand...

Did you capture the current Product Identity (Vendor, Type, Code Revision) being reported by the ITV-2000 regulators at that time ? Did you capture the exact RSNetworx status message that declared that the ITV-2000's had been removed from the Scanlist ?

After confirming that the ITV’s were ok

Click to expand...

What is "OK" in this context ? If the ITV-2000's aren't responding to the DeviceNet scanner they are not working correctly.

This system sounds to me like somebody downloaded a new Scanlist configuration to your scanner, which had the wrong ITV-2000 electronic keying definitions in it.

Is there anybody new working on these systems, maybe somebody who needs a refresher on the difference between "upload"' and "download" ?

I've had failures with ITV-2000 networked regulators, including failure of the network daughtercard, and I was very disappointed in SMC's willingness to investigate the failure. By contrast they were able to help a great deal with the networked manifolds, so I think that the ITV just got done and forgotten and they don't want to put more work into it. We have switched back to analog-controlled ITV-2000 regulators.

No there are no chassies with more than 1 DNB. There is nothing common.

Ken Thanks for the reply and interest. Our systems are Controlix L64 processors. The first failure DNB was Version 11.001 and the second failure DNB was version 10.005. all scanners were reporting E78 NODE# cycling through the 12 devices. Again when I loaded my backup file into RSNetworks for Devive net and went on line the 12 devices had a blue Hash mark. So when I went to look at the scanner I chose upload. After that I had 12 devices on the right side of the scanlist and 12 ITV were on the left side. I was able move them back to the right but did not want to spend the time figuring out the correct mapping. My next mov was to reload the RENetworx file and download all devices to the network. After that when I went online to look at the scanner with the same results. 12 devices removed from the scanlist. Then my final move was to replace the scanner with a factory new DNB with the exact same firmware 10.005 and everything was ok. Also no I am the only engineer with access to these systems.

Here at the winery we have many engineers but am the only one that does DeviceNet and I thought I knew a lot about it until this happened/

Ken sorry I didnt screen capture the miss match. It all from the scqanners scanlist it gave me the option to updatethe miss matched key but when doing so it still left them in the left unschedued area.

Even when we add a new device to our device net netowrks it ask you to update the key and download to the scanner but it never moves it out of the scheduled. Except for this case.

Thanks Bob Low

Also let me explain the perplexing situation. Our warehouse case conveyor system consists of 2 PLCS, PLCA and PLCB for example. PLCA has One DNB in the Local Rack. Then there are 8 remote racks mostly I/O. There are 4 other DNB Modules in the remote racks. Not more that one DND per rack.


PLCA system was installed 6 years ago and working flawlessly. PLCB was installed 3 years ago with same results. There is nothing common between these 2 systems. Even the 110VAC powering the 24VDC power supplys are different source.

So at 10 AM I get this call because PLCB Local Rack DNB Has 12 nodes reporting E 78.Then while troubleshoothing this I get another Call that The DNB in Local rack for PLCA has the same issue.

Both had the exact same problem on the same day withen an hour of each other.

I dont know what to say other than theres something associated with the Software in the DNB while talking to the ITV

Ken Roach said:

What is "OK" in this context ? If the ITV-2000's aren't responding to the DeviceNet scanner they are not working correctly.

This system sounds to me like somebody downloaded a new Scanlist configuration to your scanner, which had the wrong ITV-2000 electronic keying definitions in it.

Is there anybody new working on these systems, maybe somebody who needs a refresher on the difference between "upload"' and "download" ?

I've had failures with ITV-2000 networked regulators, including failure of the network daughtercard, and I was very disappointed in SMC's willingness to investigate the failure. By contrast they were able to help a great deal with the networked manifolds, so I think that the ITV just got done and forgotten and they don't want to put more work into it. We have switched back to analog-controlled ITV-2000 regulators.

Click to expand...

Ken, Yes your right about the ITV Being OK cause it was not supplying air pressure to my system. What I meant about OK was that we tried several of the ITV regulators on another DNB test stand and they worked fine.