See if you can solve this RSLinx problem

tomalbright

Member
Join Date
May 2006
Location
Gonzales, LA
Posts
691
Scenario:

I have a network consisting of the following:

3 - AB SLC500
1 - AB PLC5
2 - RSView32 HMI pc's, w/RSLinx 2.42
4 - GE quickpanel
1 - AB 6182 PC/touchscreen
1 - N-Tron 524TX to tie it all together.

Last week, I installed the N-tron. This was to do two things: provide a more managed network, and to work on 24V instead of 120V.

Three days later - I get a call that one of the RSView PCs is not communicating. So, diagnostics reveals:

The PC is talking to the 3 SLC's, but not the PLC5. RSLinx, "WHO" utility, verifies that the PLC-5 is NOT THERE, apparently. The other PC is working fine, BTW.

In troubleshooting:

I can ping the PLC-5 from the PC.
I plugged my laptop in to the same port, saw everything on the network.
I swapped ethernet cards.
I reseated the cards.
I restored a ghost backup from 3 years ago that was working.
I moved the PC to another drop.
I swapped cables in the switch.

Still can't see the PLC-5 with only the one PC.

What is wrong? I have not done any administrative things with the N-tron, I wanted to see if the comm problems I was having would go away before tweaking the network.

Our only resolution at this point is to replace the PC. But... this is one of the strangest problems I have ever seen.

I have a queasy feeling that the N-tron switch is "following" this PC, but I can't really see how.

Ideas?

(when I call for tech support, yes, it is a GOOD ONE!)
 
Has the PLC5's IP address disappeared from the RSLinx driver configuration?
How about the RSLinx topic that RSView is referencing?
 
there is no gateway. There IS a gateway IP address in the PC config, I did see that.

RSLinx - IP and topic are both configured. One of the first things I did was remove them and then add them again.

You have me wondering if the gateway ip is making the switch act funny. But again, I have three SLCs that are seen by RSLinx with no problem. the addresses are in the range of .21 to .30 .

Also, this DID work for almost a week with the new switch.
 
Which driver are you using?
If you're using the Ethernet/IP driver, & the switch has a problem registering multicast traffic, you could ping it from a NIC & not be able to browse it in RS/Linx.
 
Really stupid question:
Are they all on the same subnet?
Do you have another NIC card you can stuff in the PC?
 
CroCop said:
Really stupid question:
Are they all on the same subnet?
Do you have another NIC card you can stuff in the PC?

No such thing as stupid questions!

Same subnet. Two NICs in the PC, both good. Neither makes a difference.
 
tom,

Can you plug your laptop into the same switch that the troublesome PC is plugged into? If so what do you see in "RSWho"? Are you able to see the troubled PC and the PLC_5 at the same time? What I'm getting at here is; could the PLC-5 and the one NIC have the same IP address? Sometimes we have to set our network card to "Obtain IP Adress Automatically". Sometimes we set the network card an assigned address. Also check to see if the troubled network card has speed (i.e. 10/100) settings correct. If those things are all good, I suspect the N-Tron switch is stopping traffic between those two for some reason. Maybe see if there is a hidden "reset" button on the switch somewhere. Possibly some garbaged packets between the two machines caused the N-Tron to close the connection?
BD
 
I have some more troubleshooting to do... unfortunately, it won't be for almost another week.

This system has been working well, with the assigned IPs, for 4 years. I moved the ethernet cables to different ports, and plugged the PC into a different port, no change. The only physical device that has changed is the switch.

Thanks for the replies.
 
tomalbright said:
The only physical device that has changed is the switch.
Hence my original thought of putting the old switch back in temporarily. Yes it worked for a week but there could be something faulty about it. In my opinion it is the most obvious thing especially since the system ran without any problems before that.

May not be the problem but would be my first place to look. Could be a different feature one of the switches has but swapping it out would be helpful in discovering that
 
Thanks TW. That is something to try.

However, the sleepless troubleshooter side of me wants to know why RSLinx talks to 3 PLCs, and not the 4th. And why my PC in the same port sees all. (RSLinx 2.5 "Classic", haha, right, classic...)

My PC also has the RSLinx Enterprise running as a service, too... I'm thinking of turning off some extra services, and have them start on demand. I know, 'nuther subject...!
 
Agreed, but it is best to know that the device in question is the problem before chasing ghost. Knowing that the old switch eliminates the problem will allow us to compare the features of the old and new switch. If the features are equivalant and the new switch is not faulty, then we can look at RsLinx, PC Services, etc.
 

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