Bekhoff CX9000 Communication problem

Hi Guys,

I recently bought a beckhoff CX9000(N031) and I have problems reconnecting to the plc.
The communication runs over ethernet, so I pulled out the cable to simulate communication loss, at the side of my PC, and then plugged it back in after 30 sec. But now I am unable to reconnect to the PLC.
When I open system manager it says 'timeout' and when I do a broadcast search it won't show up. Also pinging the PLC in command prompt doesn't work.
Am I missing some configurations, or does anyone know how to solve this problem?


I bought the CX9000, did a factory reset.
did a broadcast search, the plc immidiatly came up.
Gave the plc a static ip adress.
PLC rebooted.
Downloaded a sample project, and ran it.
Untill here no problem, but then I pulled out the ethernet cable.

I have TC V2.11, free version of the site, not registered yet.

Greatly appreciate your help!

Not pinging....that's not good.

So the CX9000 does not appear in the router?

Try a different port, try a different cable

Try a factory reset again (back to DHCP)

Edit: did you reboot the CX after you assigned a static IP-adress? You need to reboot before it is vallid.

Hi Ivo, thanks for your reply.
these are my findings so far: I did a factory reset again and did not gave the PLC a static ip adress. pulled the cable out. System manager said 'timeout'. plugged the cable back in after 50 seconds, and the controller re-appeared after 20 sec.

I downloaded my plc program. And afterwards disconnected the cable. Plugged the cable back in, but now the controller doesn't appear anymore. ( I waited 5 minutes)
I rebooted my computer, openend system manager again, and I immediatly had connection with the plc again. so it seems I have to reboot after a connection failure.

But I need my plc to have a static IP adress. So I will test this now.
When I set a static ip adress, system managers says the PLC needs to restart, so I click OK. the plc restarts, (I can tell by the leds). Is this the reboot you mean. Or are you saying I should cycle the power of the plc afterwards?

PieterDM said:

.


When I set a static ip adress, system managers says the PLC needs to restart, so I click OK. the plc restarts, (I can tell by the leds). Is this the reboot you mean. Or are you saying I should cycle the power of the plc afterwards?

Click to expand...

This automatic restart is what I meant with a reboot. Normally the restarting of the plc or any other ethernet-device is the reboot needed to make the static IP-adress active.

Question:

What IP-adress and subnet-mask do you use?
Do you use a Telenet of Proximus-router or something different?

PieterDM said:

I rebooted my computer, openend system manager again, and I immediatly had connection with the plc again. so it seems I have to reboot after a connection failure.

Click to expand...

This should not happen. Did you also reboot the plc at the same time?

By the way: you know how
- to make your configuration active?
- to download a programm
- to make a bootproject so that the plc restart it's programm and settings after a powerloss?

the IP adress I use for the PLC: 192.168.1.69
the IP adress I give my PC: 192.168.1.70
subnet mask for both: 255.255.0.0

I connect my PLC directly to my PC, no switch.

No I dit not rebooted the PLC, just rebooted my pc, opened system manager.

Yesterday I gave my PLC a static IP adress. and downloaded my sample project. My sample project contains just 1 pulsing output, so I can tell by the leds of my output card that te program is running.
So my program was running. I pulled out the cable, waited half a minute and plugged the cable back in. Since then I am again unable to connect to the plc.

I am starting to think there is something wrong with the CX.
I have not yet made a boot project, I don't know yet how to. I have some exprecience with rockwell PLC's, but it's my first Beckhoff.

Boot-project

PLC-control > Online > Create bootproject.

On power OFF->ON, the program will run automatic. Otherwise you'll need to download it again.

PieterDM said:

the IP adress I use for the PLC: 192.168.1.69
the IP adress I give my PC: 192.168.1.70
subnet mask for both: 255.255.0.0

I connect my PLC directly to my PC, no switch.

Click to expand...

I guess that you do this because you don't have access to a router and still want to have communication (peer-tot-peer).

Set pc and CX to DHCP, connect them without a router and they'll get an IP-adres in the range of ....169.254.x.y with subnetmask 255.255.0.0 (link-local-IP-adressrange)

It should not take more than a minute before your pc sees your CX. Windows will give a message: 'unknown network' or something like it.

You can always pbone to Beckhoff; in Belgium the support is superb and free of charge.

Instead of a broadcast-search you can let the System Manager look for a specific IP-adres:

top-left:

Enter hostname/IP

There you can type in: 192.168.1.69

I have one processer where I need to do this.

Hi Ivo,

the reason I wanted to give the plc a static ip adress is because I want to use a website to control the PLC. ( couple of inputs), So I have to give the PC that runs the webserver a static IP adress.

When I use DHCP on the PC and the PLC, I have communication. But I always have had communication in this case. I only had problems when I pulled out the cable and tried to reconnect afterwards. Then I had to restart my computer I have experienced.

For the moment I did some testing this evening. I had to factory reset again, downloaded a program (which is running) made a boot project, which also works. I have cycled the power and the program started to run by itself.
I could connect to the plc in system manager, but couldn't set it in config mode. Also I could'n go online in plc control. got the error 'communication error #2 logout preformed'

I'll be testing some more tomorrow.

Hi Ivo, I have found a solution to my problem. When I unplugged the cable to simulate communication loss, our wireless router assigned my PC with twincat installed another IP adress. And when I plugged in the cable the communication didn't come back and I think the router assigns in another range. When I reboot the pc ( it's actually a VM) with wireless network adapter off on my host, and the cable in place, I have connection now, everytime.
For the final project I wo'nt give the plc a static ip adress, but will configure the router to assign always the same ip adress.

Thank you for taking the time to help me with this problem

No problem. But nice of you to share the solution for the problem. Always helpfull for future problems.