Panelview Plus ControlNet Comm setup

harryting

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
May 2002
Location
Puget Sound
Posts
2,594
I haven't messed with ControlNet or Panelview + in a long while so I appreciate someone give me some pointers.

Trying to install a new PV+ on controlnet, the reason is this location got ControlNet remote IO but no Ethernet. This site also got Ethernet but it's between the PLCs and not IOs.

From KB 758626, it seems easy to add the controller into the Target in RSLinx Enterprise. However, there are two other controller on the Ethernet that I also want the PV+ to talk to. Is this possible? Do I just need to add the network topology into RSLInx Enterprise?

Thanks,

ETA: I'm doing unscheduled ControlNet if that matters.
 
Last edited:
Short answer...

47661 - PanelView Plus: is it possible to communicate in Ethernet and ControlNet at the same time?
Access Level: TechConnect

(Yes)

But, you know the rules my friend...what is the full catalog number of the PanelView Plus terminal and which firmware will be used?

For instance, some terminals or firmware may only allow one shortcut be active at any one time.

For unscheduled setup have a look here (if you haven't already)...

32637 - Getting started with ControlNet communications on a PanelView Plus
Access Level: TechConnect

Regards,
George
 
Thanks Geo. It's a version 7 firmware.

It's unclear, however, from KB 47661, that it can communicate THROUGH the controlnet, pass through a PLC backplane and out through a Etherent card on the same backplne and on to Ethernet to another PLC.

KB 32637 is very helpful with the detail, thanks.
 
I think I answered my own question.

I am able to add the ethernet card to the PLC backplane then add the ethernet card for the other PLC's backplane... and so on. RSLinx Enterprise doesn't seem to care and I'm able to remap the PLC shortcut. I'll update this thread once I get this online and hopefully nothing goes wrong.
 
harryting said:
...It's unclear, however, from KB 47661, that it can communicate THROUGH the controlnet, pass through a PLC backplane and out through a Etherent card on the same backplne and on to Ethernet to another PLC.

Yes, the short answer was just to confirm your query. RSLinx Enterprise fully supports bridging from one CIP network, such as ControlNet, to another CIP network, such as EtherNet/IP, or like-for-like, such as EtherNet/IP to EtherNet/IP.

RSLinx Enterprise would not be the issue here, should you end up facing one. The likely stumbling block would be the hardware, or firmware loaded on the hardware...

harryting said:
...I am able to add the ethernet card to the PLC backplane then add the ethernet card for the other PLC's backplane... and so on. RSLinx Enterprise doesn't seem to care...

Yes, RSLinx Enterprise will support this bridged configuration all day long. But will the specific hardware? Have you compiled the application and attempted to download it to the terminal yet?

Once you get that far you're home and hosed. If not, I'll be back asking for that full catalog number again.

Good luck!

G.
 
Well, I got it to "work" but I want to to come back and close the loops on this.

I put the "work" in quotes because there's some odd behavior. On reboot, it takes about 10 minutes to go through the process, it will get stuck in "loading symbol from RSLinx Enterprise" message and one has to press the "continue" after about 6 minutes. Also, the few values that's in the pass-through Ethernet PLC are slow to come up the first few times I go to the screen while displaying an error message. However, that seems to go away after a few times. The first time it powered on, nothing worked for some reason but it worked after we go away and came back. It almost seems that the communication had to "work itself out". Doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling but none of the existing IO (scheduled) seems to be adversely affected.



I also ended up using the "other" ControlNet driver in RSLinx Ent. to make it work. the one that drops in a "1784-PCIC" instead of "1784 PKTCS" on RSLinx Ent.
 
OK, Glad to hear it's "working".

The 1784-PCIC driver is the more usual selected driver for unscheduled ControlNet communications. Although, the 1784-PKTCS is supposed to support both scheduled and unscheduled, I have invariably found the former has performed better for unscheduled.

G.
 
The "loading symbol" message and the slow appearance of tag values are possible indications that there are syntax or missing-tag problems with one or more tags. RSLinx Enterprise will re-optimize itself to work around the missing tags, but it takes a while to do.

I say "possible" because I haven't used ControlNet with any terminals newer than version 5.10.08.

Is there a physical daughtercard for the PV+ 7 hardware that allows a direct connection to ControlNet ?

I usually include an engineering-only Display in my PV+ projects with the FactoryTalk Diagnostic object on it, so I can see any comms errors. One thing RSLinx Enterprise does better than most other HMI software is let you know precisely which tags it is having trouble reading and writing.
 
Well, the sage continues. The system runs fine for a while than the entire leg fails. Did a bunch of troubleshooting with RA on the phone and we all ended up agreeing that it's a bad card on the PV+.... so got a new card then... the same.

I'm out of idea at this point. To recap:

A ControlNet PV+ is added to the end of a working ControlNet IO chain. In between there are fiber repeater modules. Everything works well until the PV+ is connected, the repeater module starts to flash green indicating bad/noise. RSLinx also verified there's no noise or error except when PV+ gets connected. All the terminators has been tested and verified to not be the "bad batch" according to KB 16990. The KB also says its HAS to be a hardware issue and not related to scheduling, etc..

I'm ready to just toss the ControlNet and migrate to Ethernet. Any ideas on anything else to try?
 

Similar Topics

I tranfer the .mer file to the panelview plus. So when I run application, it's seem application doesn't work. The data just display ***** and...
Replies
2
Views
2,089
Hi, Must I connect my laptop directly to the Controlnet to set up a RSLinx Enterprise runtime link between a PV+ (on controlnet) and a control...
Replies
2
Views
4,228
Hi All, We currently have an existing panelview 1000e(on control net)communicating with an existing PLC-5(Build in control net...
Replies
10
Views
4,900
I have a porject which using three panelview plus connected controllogix with controlnet. which software should I use? Factory talk ME or SE...
Replies
2
Views
2,250
Hi All I have abit of problem communicating with the Panelview Plus 1000. Would anyone to give me a hand please? Setup: Local Rack: CLX L55...
Replies
6
Views
17,848
Back
Top Bottom