We’ve got an assembly cell that’s controlled with a 1769-L35E Compact Logix processor. All remote I/O, HMIs and barcode scanners are communicating via Ethernet/IP. We have a total of 22 devices communicating via Ethernet/IP on this cell. The barcode scanners are Metrologic IS3480 with RS232 out. We’re using Realtime Automation gateways 435NBA to converter ASCII to PLC on the scanners. When we first built this cell we noticed a glitch from time to time where the gateways locked up and had to power them down to reset. We also noticed the RedLion G310 HMIs would drop comms and blank out for a second or two, but quickly returned. We made some conf. changes on the gateways and it seemed to resolve this issue until now. We recently increased production rates on this cell and now our comm. issue is back and in a big way. Last week we replaced our 24 port open hub with a 24 port Hirschman managed switch hoping this would shield the gateways and HMIs from having to deal with the I/O traffic, but it didn’t change a thing. I’m now thinking we need to upgrade from our current $250 barcode scanner to a higher end Ethernet/IP scanner in order to remove the gateways. My questions is, could the gateways also cause the blanking issue with the HMIs? It does seem like when the gateways lockup we notice the HMIs get worst. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Any recommendations on an affordable scanner?
Thanks,
Jim
Thanks,
Jim