E300 Network Issue?????

Bob O

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May 2003
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I recently started at a new place that has a system that was installed in 2018 that has an L72, ~ 50+ E300, ~15 VFD and
~ 10 Stratix 5700.

The below thread mentioned something about the E300 dropping out and causing issues.
I didn't want to hijack that thread but would like to know more about that issue and what I may need to prepare/look for on that system.


http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=123423


Thanks,
Bob O.
 
On the other thread the problem was the L16 processor he was using could only communicate to a limited number of nodes (Devices) on the network. Because of this limitation it drop nodes at random.
Example if the processor can communicate to a max of 12 nodes and you try to communicate to 16 node 4 of the nodes (device) will show a yellow warning flag meaning that device communication may not be reliable
if your processor dos not show any yellow warnings then you should be OK
 
Thanks. I must have misunderstood Van's comment...


"Did the E300 ever get its network issue fixed, I think 3ish years ago we'd have them drop and come back up almost immediately. This usually threw a communication fault and would shut down the systems (by design)."
 
The work around for adding more nodes is implicit messaging eg using the MSG command. Just like you would be reading another compactlogix controller. We already know the exact tag hierarchy when we add an E300 to our Logix5000 program, so we can copy the tag from that, that we want to read and insert into the message read command. Realistically we dont need all those tags, usually average current and trip fault code etc..
 
Talking to rockwell the first thing they asked me was what version of firmware I was running on the E300 module, for this exact reason, they had issues with randoms comms loss causing grief. (not that this was my issue) but was something they shed light on for modules that may only be two or three years old..
 
Talking to rockwell the first thing they asked me was what version of firmware I was running on the E300 module, for this exact reason, they had issues with randoms comms loss causing grief. (not that this was my issue) but was something they shed light on for modules that may only be two or three years old..

This is probably the right answer, I had my IT guy working with the company (I don't remember who exactly) and proving the device itself was dropping. I believe it was a problem at the firmware level but I left the company before a final solution was ever given.

From memory it didn't have a pattern to the chaos, cold/warm/morning/evening/running/not running it would just randomly drop. I remember the "network" being blamed for awhile and then the switch must be the problem. In the end with monitoring tools it was proven the E300 would just reset it's comms.

edit - note I think we had over 15 of them and it wasn't happening to all of them at the same time. It was sporadic and the annoying part to monitor/check the panel you had to gear up because I believe we had 480vac in the panel.
 
Bob O said:
Thanks. I must have misunderstood Van's comment...

(VAN's comment...)
"Did the E300 ever get its network issue fixed, I think 3ish years ago we'd have them drop and come back up almost immediately. This usually threw a communication fault and would shut down the systems (by design)."

VAN said:
...the device itself was dropping. I believe it was a problem at the firmware level...

The following technote describes a firmware anomaly that was/is apparently present in E300 Electronic Overload Relays manufactured from November 2013 through May 2015...

719835 - Product Notice 2015-06-002 - E300 Electronic Overload Relay Loss of Communications (201506002)
Access Level: Everyone

...Firmware revision 4.050 or older are apparently affected by an unintended drop in communications or nuisance trips when the E300 is duty cycled faster than 2 seconds. The fix was/is to flash upgrade to firmware revision 4.083, or higher.

There is also mention of fitting surge suppression to AC contactor coils, for good measure. I assume this means the fast cycling could be creating surges which could be attributed to the drop/trip issues.

The below technote also mentions minimum firmware revisions to be running in order to avoid similar network issues. It also mentions the use of surge suppression for AC contactor coils...

714480 - E300 Overload Relay: Red Blinking/Solid MS LED
Access Level: Everyone

Just to be clear - the issue VAN mentions in both threads has nothing to do with the Node count on an L16ER CompactLogix controller.

Regards,
George
 

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