Banner wireless IO

Hi.
Just wondering if anyone here has ever used the Banner Crossfire wireless IO gateway units? Specifically the ethernetIP model.
I just spent one of my most miserable days in a long time trying to get one of these units to communicate to a compact logix.
Don't you just love it when a fast talking salesman sells one of your clients something that will solve every problem they ever had, but he has never seen one work or know anyhing about them other than what the colour brochure says.

Does anyone here know what in an ethernet device makes the device visible to an RSLinx ethernet driver.
RSLinx cannot see the wireless gateway node (puts a red cross through it). Now I just tried the same thing with the address of the printer at our workshop and it also does not appear as a found node. (red cross through it) So my conclusion is that there must be some code, file etc in the ethernet device that RSLinx can recognise.

Regards Alan Case

Alan,
I have one at the plant connected to a ML1100. I didn't hook it up & do the config. I'm pretty sure there has to be a message from the controller to the Banner device to setup & then recieve the data. I will dig around in the program & find out the details when I get to work in a few hours.
BD

Hi Alan

Let's hit the basics. Can you ping the device over the wireless gateway? When hooked to the local network can you see the device in RsLinx?

Hi.
The device is the DX80-PRO gateway which is connected by a cat 5 cable through a switch directly to the processor.
When I am plugged into the ethernet network I can ping the banner gateway device.
When I add the devices IP address to the ethernet (not IP) driver in linx and do a RSWho and linx cannot find the device and eventually puts a red cross through the item in the Who window.

I read a bit more of the banner docs and their defintion of ethernet/iP is devicenet over an ethernet cable.
Regards Alan Case

Alan Case said:

Hi.
The device is the DX80-PRO gateway which is connected by a cat 5 cable through a switch directly to the processor.
When I am plugged into the ethernet network I can ping the banner gateway device.
When I add the devices IP address to the ethernet (not IP) driver in linx and do a RSWho and linx cannot find the device and eventually puts a red cross through the item in the Who window.

I read a bit more of the banner docs and their defintion of ethernet/iP is devicenet over an ethernet cable.
Regards Alan Case

Click to expand...

PM Joe_WaZoo, he should be able to help you.

I'm not sure if this is the same thing for banner products, but normally when youo get the red x with an AB product you can solve the problem by downloading the right EDS file off the net. Just a suggestion.

Did a complete search of the Banner website. No EDS files listed for these devices. Asked banner about them and got the blank stare and "whats an EDS"
Regards Alan Case

Have you went to the Wireless IP address & enabled the EthernetIP option rather then the default Modbus TCP/IP?

looking at AB website it seems there are no EDS files available to download for other brand products. They must just be specific for rockwell and AB products. EDS stands for Electronic Data Sheet, by the way. Mostly when I need to download one is when they make a newer revision of the same module. Sorry I couldn't help.

From page 31 of the SureCross Wireless I/O Network Manual 132607

http://www.bannerengineering.com/en...80-Networks/489/Analog-Discrete-DX80-Gateways

Communication Protocol
By default the Ethernet Bridge and Gateway Pro systems communicate using Modbus/TCP, but the system can also use EtherNet/IP™. To
change the system to EtherNet/IP, log in using the following user name and password:
User name: root
Password: sxi
At the bottom of the System > Setup > Network page is a checkbox to enable EtherNet/IP. Only select this box if the Gateway Pro system is
running on an EtherNet/IP network. This change cannot be enabled from a login other than the “root” login.
After selecting the EtherNet/IP Enabled checkbox, click the Set Ports button to save any changes made to the HTTP Port, Modbus Server
Port, Telnet Port, and EtherNet/IP Enabled box. As with the IP address change, cycle power to the Ethernet Bridge or Gateway Pro to
complete this update. After the device powers up, the changes should be registered.

To save the changes to the XML file, go to the System > Setup > Config File page and
click the Save button.
Changes made by clicking an Update or Change button are temporary until the changes
are saved permanently in the configuration file.

There is a Quick-Start guide that I am trying to find that will show you how to set up the DX80 GatewayPro as a generic device on Ethernet/IP. Once I find that link I will post it.

In the mean time, those GatewayPro's come out of the factory acting as a ModbusTCP slave. You will need to open the webpage for that device by entering the default IP address in Internet Explore and change that option.

Joe_WaZoo

Here is that document I was talking about. Look at Pages 8 & 12.

132114 Host Connected Ref Guide

Here is an example where we put it to use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nGGkLFZPFs

Thanks,

Joe_WaZoo

Hi Joe and Crocop.

I have the 132114 guide.
I have enabled the ethernet/iP tick and confirmed it held by cycling power then re-reading the setup.
I have changed the IP address of the unit to fit in with the rest of the network.
I have set up the Gateway as a generic device on a compactlogix.

At present Linx cannot see the device and compact logix cannot connect to it. (timeout fault)
I can ping the unit.

The GX80 Pro has no IO attached to it (locally) so when I go the RF section, Select Models subsection then according to the document 134421 the gateway is the 0 device. What do I select the model as. The choices are either IO units or unused. The document says there is a none option (page 11) There is not. None to me means a totally different thing to unused.
The whole setup, programming and documentation of these units just seems disjointed.
I spoke to another integrator who finally managed to get one communicating after a couple of days trying. According to what she told me she had almost given up and was randomly changing models and set them all to none and the unit started to communicate. This to me does not make sense.


Joe. I thank you for your help and the following is not criticism of you personally but I am getting very frustated with companies that cannot get there documentation correct.
I find the documentation for these units to be very poor and in some cases just plain wrong. Have a look at page 30 of the 132114. That logic will never work. No messages will ever get sent due to the location of the timer reset. Even if the reset is moved it is still very sloppy code to trigger all the messages that way.
Somewhere I remember reading that banner advise the RPI to be set to a minimum of 150msecs but the picture shows 100msecs.

I also found another banner publication that tried to give a description of the ethernet-IP protocol. Their definition is that ehernet-IP is devicenet over an ethernet cable. Again that is dead wrong. They both use the same underlying "protocol" CIP but to state the above is way off track.

These units are sold as ethernet/ip and 99.9% of ethernet IP units would connect to a PLC so why show them connected to a PC. (check all the docs) Whys is there not a setup of the GX80Pro as an ethernet-IP gateway detailed.

The client is not happy, I am very unhappy and am wasting a lot of time on something that should be simple. My only choice is to never recommend these units to any clients.
I will add that the local Banner people have tried to be helpfull but if they are not trained in the units or have the backup than that is not much help to me.
Regards Alan

Alan,
If you would like to communicate to the Banner device using messages instead of adding the device to the tree, let me know & I'll post a screen shot of the rungs.
I had a delay with my reply due to a software conflict on my laptop.

BD

The RsLinx Ethernet/IP driver discovers devices based off of broadcast packets...while it would be very annoying if the Banner didn't include this feature when it comes to troubleshooting, the assembly object which the Compactlogix's Generic profile uses seems to be fully implemented.

So let's skip the RsLinx...unless you absolutely need it.

How do you have your generic module setup? What is the module status/error?