Ascii string over Ethernet in CLX

Can I send an ASCII string over Ethernet in ControlLogix to a dummy device with IP address?
I know I can sent it over CH0 port, but can this be done over the ethernet?

ASCII commands support only serial port, Message instruction sends CIP type package not a plain ASCII.

For now customer uses serial to Ethernet converter for this, but he has ENBT also in the local rack.

Any ideas?

Based on some checking I did in the past the answer is no. The control logix ethernet card talks "Ethernet\IP". And the IP does NOT stand for internet protocol but for something like Industrial Protocol.

Yes at one of the seven layers of network architecture it does use UDP and other familiar acronyms. But at the highest level it talks CIP. My impression is that this is basicly the Control Net protocol. By the way all communication on the backplane of the control logix chassie is via control net type communication.

The control logix ethernet card just takes the control net communicaion sent to it by the CPU card and puts it in an ethernet "wrapper" so that it can be routed using the ethernet hardware/software. The device at the other end unwraps the ethernet package and now has the original CIP message. Thus the receiving device must be able to read/respond to CIP formatted messages.

In a certain view this makes things nice. The CIP message header contians the routing information. Thus you can put together a very long chain of CIP talking device and get information from one end to the other.

For example: A Control Net enabled drive could talk across Control Net bus to a Control Net card in a Control Logix backplane... Then Control Net across the backplane to the CPU and to an Ethernet card.... The Ethernet card wraps up CIP message and sends it across Ethernet to another Ethernet card in another Control Logix chassie.... That Ethernet card unwraps the message and sends it in Control Net across the backplane to a Control Net card in the chassie... The Control Net card then sends the CIP message accross Control Net bus to a Control Net enabled HMI.

The control net protocol is "open" I think but I'm not sure how many device out there talk it, especially when placed in an Ethernet\IP wrapper.

I believe an example of one that does is a Cognex camera. At least one of their models accpets CIP communication via Ethernet\IP. You use control logix message (MSG) command to format and route the message. Of course you get into the whole CIP messaging thing with Instances, Objects, and Attributes. But it does wrok.

Roy

Wow,
Not bad for a first post.
Welcome to forum

This is pretty much what I found so far, everyone said: ASCII is a legacy way and don't expect to marry it with ethernet.

Well it is working with Lantronix serial to ethernet now, so it will stay as it is.