Ethernet Comms

Merry Holidays One & All,
I am a novice with the networking but know some basics. I have a non-contact laser encoder that I am trying to network (EthernetIp) with an Allen Bradley controller (1756-L726 5570 Safety Controller) via a managed switch (1783-BMS10CGP Stratix 5700). I configured the lasers IP address to fit the network. (I can directly connect to the laser via RS232). My current goal is to get length data to the PLC via a MSG block. I can ping the laser while plugged directly into a laptop, getting good round trip response and the device will show up in RSLinx "Who Active" when plugged directly into the laptop without a red X. I was able to download the EDS file for the device, but when I attempt any driver diagnostic or config, I get a message that RSLinx cannot communicate with the device (while plugged into the laptop). Also when I connect the ethernet cable into the switch, I cannot ping the laser ("destination host unreachable"). When I look at the active connections for the "AB_ETHIP" I see that the laser's adress is active with all connections timed out. Any suggestions?

I read it as two issues, I'm not quite getting the first one, which is you are unable to see Driver Diagnostic when directly connected. That seems weird since driver config in RSLinx is just the driver and not necessarily the specific device. You can have a driver running with no device in there and it still should show the diagnostic.

The 2nd problem with the switch seems more straight forward. Seems the switching isn't properly set. Have you check into the switch configuration? Can you ping the switch?

I can ping the switch. As to the driver stats and configuration, if I am connected to the laptop and go to RS Who, the available nodes list has all components other than the laser Xed out. If I right click on the device's icon and choose device properties, driver stats etc., I get the message "unable to establish communications to the selected device device". I may backtrack and reset the Laser's IP address to its default. I had thought that it never saw the device when I first connected it so I set the laser's IP address to the range of my existing network. When I looked at RSWho later I noticed that the default IP address was in the list with a yellow question mark. I deleted this thinking it was interfering with my new configuration.

I did look at the switch configuration and noticed that the port that the new device was plugged into was inactive but I do see the activity lights come on. I did not actually correlate the lights with the activity state of the port. All of the ports on the switch had originally been configured to "auto negotiate". I began to manually set the speed and duplex settings for the port I was connected to, but was met with a message that this execution could disrupt the network. I backed off as the line was running at the time.

Yup, I wouldn't even worry about RSLinx until you figure out why you can't ping the device first. 99% of the devices now work best on Auto-Negotiate so I would probably rank that low as a possible issue.

"destination host unreachable" means there's no valid route even to get there, so the message was never sent out.

Let's back track a bit, everything are static IP, correct? On the same subnet? able to ping existing devices connected to the switch? What was the response on IPCONFIG?

ipconfig for

I can ping the switch and CPU when on the network. When I run ipconfig, it seems that I get some conflicting results. I do notice that for my wireless connection the ip address has been automatically obtained, but for my Ehternet adapter it is static.(this should not be a problem I suspect) All other addresses on the network are static as well and on the same subnet. I do not see any of the addressable nodes in the ipconfig rundown that show up in RSLinx or the ones I can ping(all), and when on the network I can use the IDE (Studio 5000) with no problems going "online" in the project.(I can address all modules and remote IO). I have attached some screen shots of the ipconfig.

The tunnel adapters have me worried/confused. There was a second page of the ipconfig that I did not attach. It has another type of adapter. I have attached the screen shot here. I virtualized this machine and have run other VM's from this physical machine maybe 2-4 times. All virtual adapters are disabled currently on this machine. I may try this with another laptop with the necessary software and see how that goes.