Problems with WinCC Flex 2008 and Ethernet

RMA

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Sep 2004
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I'm struggling a bit trying to get WinCC Flex Runtime on a PC to communicate with the PLC via Ethernet. I think I may have made life unnecessarily complicated by integrating the Flex project in Step7, but that's life, I guess! :(

Everything looks OK in the Communication area of Flex, the only thing that looks a bit odd is that the expansion slot is listed as being 2 whereas the CP is actually in Slot 4. However, since the connection Partner is listed as being the CPU and the CP is the node, then I guess that's probably OK, in any case, I can't see anywhere in NetPro where I can change the Slot number.

The only other thing that occurs to me is that in the process of swapping the licences back and forward between different PCs the Runtime licence has disappeared, could this be the reason for the Ethernet communication not working?

Communication via MPI is fine, but since the customer has already blown the USB adapter in one PC (5m of USB cable makes a pretty good aerial when it's only 2m away from a cable carrying 40,000 Amp pulses) it's pretty important to get the optically isolated Ethernet connection working.

If anybod'y got any suggestions, I'd be pleased to hear them.

Cheers

Roy

Edit: Just a further snippet of information in case it's of any help, I managed to catch the rapidly disappearing error message with the Print Button and copy it into paint, the error is "General connection error 0x384" (loosely translated from the German).
 
Last edited:
Slot is always 2 with an S7-300, regardles of that a CP343-1 is used as the go-between or not.
Even if there is a problem with the licenses, the RT will work. You will merely get the nagscreens every now and then.

In the WinCC Flexible project, is the communications path via S7ONLINE ? (must NOT be via softbus unless you have installed and setup Simatic Net).

Can you ping the CP343-1 from the PC ?

Is Set PG/PC Interface set to S7ONLINE=Ethernet(TCP/IP) ?

Is the S7ONLINE=Ethernet(TCP/IP) assigned to the correct NIC ?
 
Edit: Just a further snippet of information in case it's of any help, I managed to catch the rapidly disappearing error message with the Print Button and copy it into paint, the error is "General connection error 0x384" (loosely translated from the German).
A tip: Setup a page with message view. Let the message view include the system messages. This is invaluable to catch these system error messages. It is indispensable to catch the error messages from VBS.
 
Thanks Jesper, now we're getting somewhere the communication path in Flex is indeed via Softbus, however, I can't see anywhere in NetPro where I can change that (the "Type" is listed as "S7 connection" in NetPro).

The PG/PC interface is set to "S7ONLINE (STEP7) --> TCP/IP -> Allied Telesis AT-2701..." and I can download from the PC to the PLC and go online to view the program, so the physical connection is OK.
 
This is how to untangle the mess:

In Simatic Manager, expand the WinCC Flex HMI so much that you can see the Configuration of same in the right part of the screen. Open the Configuration ; this switches to HW Config.

In the HW Config, delete everything except the WinCC Flexible RT index.
(So you must delete IE General).
Select from the menu Station .. Properties. Select the Configuration tab. Make sure that S7RTM is deselected.
Save and compile.

Open the WinCC Flexible project.
Open the connection properties.
Recreate the connection by manually specifying to use S7ONLINE, Ehernet, the IP and Subnet of both PC and PLC, and rack=0, slot=2.
Save and compile.
You may get error messages that symbols cannot be connected. Just ignore.
Transfer the RT to the target PC.
Restart the RT.
 
Hmmm, tried that, the changes in HW-Config went OK, but then in Flex The Communication driver is orange and in the Parameter field I can't change the Network away from MPI. Up in the Connection Field the Partner is still the 313C but the Node box is empty. The Access point in the "HMI device box is set to S7ONLINE, though, so we're sort of half-way there.
 
I tried to delete the Station and Partner entries, but Flex won't let me, it won't let me delete the whole entry either. I tried adding a new connection but when I compile I get the error message "same access point assigned to different physics".

The other thing is, I can switch "Online" to "Off", but Flex won't let me change the "Active" field from "On" to "Off" - I suspect this is why I can't delete the other entries).
 
I have just setup a project with WinCC Flex PC RT as a PC Station (S7RTM=on), and softbus as the connection path.
Then I changed it in the way described above, and it went smoothly.
I think you have my email Roy. Send the program if all else fails.
 
Lost my first reply into the Windows magic dustbin! Second attempt!

We're getting nearer, I managed to create my new connection with "Access point" "S7ONLINE_2, however, it still won't compile, error this time "The STEP 7 connection is not valid". If I double click on the error message the cursor springs up to the original connection, which I can't delete, where the "Communication driver" field containing "SIMATIC S7 300/400" is coloured orange.
 
Problem solved!

It eventually occurred to me that the curious symbol which had replaced the collection of lines which usually occupy the leftmost field of the connections list was actually the NetPro symbol. I opened up NetPro and deleted the connection I had made and with that the old connection was gone in Flex.

After that everything worked as described above in post five.

Thanks a lot

Roy

PS This all happened about five minutes later, but after that I lost my internet connection on that PC - I think I've been blocked for spending too long online! I'm using another PC to type this answer. ;D
 
So helpful

I spent a week running into a brick wall attempting to simulate an HMI project with the controller. This solved my communication problem.

This is how to untangle the mess:

In Simatic Manager, expand the WinCC Flex HMI so much that you can see the Configuration of same in the right part of the screen. Open the Configuration ; this switches to HW Config.

In the HW Config, delete everything except the WinCC Flexible RT index.
(So you must delete IE General).
Select from the menu Station .. Properties. Select the Configuration tab. Make sure that S7RTM is deselected.
Save and compile.

Open the WinCC Flexible project.
Open the connection properties.
Recreate the connection by manually specifying to use S7ONLINE, Ehernet, the IP and Subnet of both PC and PLC, and rack=0, slot=2.
Save and compile.
You may get error messages that symbols cannot be connected. Just ignore.
Transfer the RT to the target PC.
Restart the RT.
 
Good to hear !
Just be warned that configuring the online connection the "simple" way, i.e via S7ONLINE instead of via Simatic Net, you will lose such things as symbols, routing, alarm-s messages, etc.
If that is an issue, you can simulate a copy of the original project.
 

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