Red Lion DA30D Losing Network

WoodyBM

Member
Join Date
Sep 2019
Location
UK
Posts
6
We have two Red Lion DA30D units that keep dropping off the network.

They are configured as 10.4.7.1 and 10.4.7.2 they work for so long then just stop being available. You can't ping them or anything.

If you un-plug and re-plug them from the network when they're not working they still don't respond - Network switch is flashing like they're online.

Only way to get them back is to power the DA30D's off and back on.

The units go through different switches so I don't think it's a network issue rather a config issue on the units. Is there a sleep / power setting somewhere or some other suggestion?

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the PLCTalk.net forum community !

Certainly it's possible there's a defect or OS problem with the DA30D units and they're going dark on the network because the TCP/IP stack or their whole operating system has crashed. I would be very, very surprised if there were a general setting for "go to sleep and stop communicating" in the OS, since these things are by definition designed to run headless and indefinitely.

Which Ethernet or Serial protocols are you running on the device ? Are you using any of its advanced IIOT or SQL features ? Are you using the USB host port ?

How often do these crashes occur ? Do both devices seem to fail at the same rate ? Are there other DA30D devices in your system that don't fail ?

What is the status of the link LEDs on the DA30D and on the switch while the devices are in their "crashed" state ?

What make and model of switches do you have ? Can they give you any information about the links status or traffic at the time of the crash ?
 
I know you have probably looked for this, but when I have seen things like it, it was often a duplicate IP. The faster device usually gets to respond but sometimes it doesn't and that's when things get really hard to duplicate. Can you change the IP just to test that?
 
Duplicate IP was my thought as we have a couple of techs on site who like to be creative with IP addresses but don't really fully understand what they're doing.

I've inherited this problem as I've not been involved in these units before, I just manage the IT side of things. Looking at the Crimson 3.1 (bear in mind this is my first time seeing this) we seems to have:

Network set to Manual 10.4.7.1, 255.255.0.0, DNS Auto, Full Duplex and High Speed enabled. Segment 1280 for send and receive.

TLS - SSL Enabled

download Enabled Port 789 - Unit addressing Auto Ethernet 1 192.168.1.20 (greyed out) send port 789
 
A thought I had whilst typing. I'm not sure whether the units are still collecting data once they stop showing on the network. I guess if they don't then it's the units freezing rather than the network being the issue.

Looks to me like they're reading our machine on the RS-232 port and saving this to the SSD card.
 
Just done some testing and asked more questions.

The unit continues to collect data when the network function fails so it looks like the units aren't crashing completely.

Once unavailable via the network the only way to recover them is by powering off and back on. I've has someone on site take an unresponsive unit and without powering off, plug it onto a stand alone network hub along with a laptop set to the same subnet and the unit won't respond.

I've also got them to reboot a unit so it's live and responding to pings. I got them to remove the network cable for a short while and plug it back in. The unit continued to respond once plugged back into the network so it's not a failure to reconnect if network is temporarily lost.

I have left a continuous ping to both units to see when they go off or if the constant traffic keeps them alive.

Any other suggests greatly appreciated.
 
Just done some testing and asked more questions.

The unit continues to collect data when the network function fails so it looks like the units aren't crashing completely.

Once unavailable via the network the only way to recover them is by powering off and back on. I've has someone on site take an unresponsive unit and without powering off, plug it onto a stand alone network hub along with a laptop set to the same subnet and the unit won't respond.

I've also got them to reboot a unit so it's live and responding to pings. I got them to remove the network cable for a short while and plug it back in. The unit continued to respond once plugged back into the network so it's not a failure to reconnect if network is temporarily lost.

I have left a continuous ping to both units to see when they go off or if the constant traffic keeps them alive.

Any other suggests greatly appreciated.

I've seen the same thing and have had Redlion test for weeks and they can't duplicate it. My last run lasted for a couple months and it happened again this morning.

I've actually had a couple situations where simply unplugging the Ethernet cable and plugging it back in would restore the comms, but not today - had to cycle the power.

I keep hoping someday they will find the problem and fix it, but since it takes so long to repeat, they can't catch it.

I've also see the problem with the new displays that are from the same family.
 
Hmm, it's kind of good if someone else is seeing the same thing. At least I know it's not unique to our setup but a pain that there's no solution.

Ours were installed in February and as far as I'm being told were fine until July. In July the factory closes for a week for maintenance so everything will have been powered off and it's since then that the problem has been reported.

Ours don't make 24 hours before they drop offline!
 
Hey WoodyBM,

I would suggest to capture a log using Wireshark of the data to/from a unit over 24 hours/until a failure occurs.
Provide that log to redlion to give them some insight !

To me it sounds suspiciously like your network has got a bit of noise going on and this is happening when packets transmits are failing... Which is hard to reproduce in lab etc, and explains why others get it very sporadically...
 
Hello Everyone,

We are facing this issue exactly as Woody explained and we also do have only one resolution that is to turn off & on the power of the device to get it connected back.:cry::cry:

That too we have chosen this device for product traceability application. Because of this issue it's a big trouble for us to reset the situation back to normal.

Along with andy's resolution. Please suggest some more work around resolutions for this issue with Redlion DA30D.

Thanks You Everyone.
 
We've been sidetracked with other stuff but hopefully will have some more answers in the next couple of weeks as we've started looking at ours again.
 
Hello Everyone,

We are facing this issue exactly as Woody explained and we also do have only one resolution that is to turn off & on the power of the device to get it connected back.:cry::cry:

That too we have chosen this device for product traceability application. Because of this issue it's a big trouble for us to reset the situation back to normal.

Along with andy's resolution. Please suggest some more work around resolutions for this issue with Redlion DA30D.

Thanks You Everyone.

We don't see this happening as often as we used to, but it still occurs.

What we have done is to set up a sort of watchdog communications between our PLC or Controller where the DAx0D device looks for a rising and falling edge. If it doesn't see it for a period of time (like a minute) it calls the CommitandReset (sp?) function in the DAx0D device. This always restores the comms and doesn't require any other intervention.

It might not be an appropriate fix in every application, but it seems to work well in *most* of ours.
 
DA30D lossing ethernet Network

We're having problems with the operation RedLion DA30D unit. The device is collecting and storing data from 3 power meters using modbus TCP/IP protocol, but after several days of normal operation, the unit dropp off the network, I tried to access the log files using the web server but it doesn't load, futhermore the device doesn't respond to the ping command. The units seems to work fine and the leds of communication is ok.

The only way to solve the problem is to restart the unit (turn off and on), after that is possible to reconect the device to the network and access via the web server. In the log files we can see that the DA30D doesn't store new data after the fault begins (This could be seen in the attached files), the DA30D logs the same value until the unit is restarted, after that the unit logs new data.

if there is a way to diagnose the device, we need to solve this problem because the log of data is very important and is being lost.

I'm using Crimson 3.1 (Gold Build 3110.004), Google Chrome and Windows 10 :eek:.
 
There have been multiple revisions since that build and a lot of fixes with very little documentation about the details of what they fixed.

I would recommend updating to the latest build 3116.000 and also add a button on the HMI somewhere not on a main page that will reboot the controller.

I have not used the DA300, but have had connectivity issues with 2 of my CR3000 HMIs. I can clear up the communications with a reboot and can do it remotely by assigned a button the function CommitAndReset(). I think this has happened even after updating them to the latest build.

Also, I always have flag tags for each device the unit is set up to communicate with that monitor IsDeviceOnline(x) where x is the device number or name. With Modbus, you have to enable the Ping Holding Register for this to work. By default the Ping Holding Register is enabled and set to holding register 1. I always add an alarm (Active Off) to that tag and most of my Crimson apps have Mail Manager set up to notify the operator when selected alarms occur, so rather than having to constantly check on it, it can reach out to you or at least show an alarm on your banner or alarm lists to tell you the comms are broken.

Of course if the Ethernet port of the hardware is completely hosed up when this happens, it can't send messages either. In my cases, it appears to just lose comms to the PLC (A/B). I am assuming that the remote view of the built in web server still works...in my CR3000 that have had issues, that part still functions fine.

I have had log files stop recording due to problems with SD cards. I have also had to tweak some settings in the Web Server for Crimson 3.1 in order to get it to play well with VPN routers and slow internet connections and render correctly in Chrome. I ended up turning compression off for best results (Web Server > Advanced tab > Compression section > Compress Reply: Never)
 
Last edited:
I'm gonna bird-dog this.

I recently saw this again on one of the CR3000 HMIs we have set up with a VPN router. So I started a ticket with Red Lion. I was directed to this link to set up packet capture on the HMI.

https://support.redlion.net/hc/en-us/articles/360028936391-Crimson-3-1-Packet-Capture

This is very cool. I did this on the HMI with the VPN without having to leave the office. I have let it run for a few days, downloaded the trace and looked at it in wireshark. All is normal. It might be days or weeks before the problem arises again, but if I can capture traffic and let the Red Lion tech support have a look at it, maybe they'll find something.

The tech did tell me that they have not altered the driver I am using (DF1 Master via PCCC/EIP to a Micrologix) in several years, and he also said he had not received any other reports of this problem.

My issue may or not be the same as those with the DA30D, but nonetheless, I will share what I eventually learn.
 

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