1769-AENTR and ControlLogix

Hello guys, I've been working for years with CompactLogix processors and recently I was put in charge of a project that will use ControlLogix processors. One of my main questions is to know if is it possible to use a remote IO 1769-AENTR together with a ControlLogix such as 1756-L72?
I tried to add it on the Studio5000 and it allowes me to do it, but I am not completley sure if this is possible "in real life"

Does anyone has experience on this? and finally, is it possible to use the 1756-L72 as a ring supervisor for the 1769-AENTR?

Thanks in advance.

Shouldn't have any problems. There may be some fancy I/O modules that the AENTR can't talk to (just guessing here) but if it can be added to the I/O tree, good to go.

1769-AENTR EtherNet/IP Adapter Frequently Asked Questions
619205 | Date Created: 09/02/2014 | Last Updated: 01/12/2018
Access Level: Everyone
https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/619205

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious but the 1756-L7x processors do not have built-in Ethernet ports like the CompactLogix family does. You will need one of the Ethernet bridges (1756-ENBT, 1756, EN2T, etc) in order to communicate to anything over Ethernet.

Keith

Yes, he wouldn't been able to add it into the io tree without first defining a communications module but it is a good pointer for those who have never commissioned a 1756 system.

Hello and thanks for all of your replies.

I know the 1756-L7x needs an Ethernet bridge such as the ones mentioned by Kamenges. The thing is to know if I am able to connect a 1756-L72 Controller (plus a 1756-EN2TR card) to a 1769-AENTR and use the CompactLogix IO modules in my program. For example use the analog channel 01 of my 1769-IF8 into my PLC program.

I want to do something like this:



This question arises because the costumer already have the CompactLogix Modules, they just want to upgrade the older Controllers (CompactLogix 1769-L32E).

I've been searching and I cannot find any setup like this, even in RA Knowledgebase.
It is worth to mention as well that I contacted to Rockwell support (by chat) and the guy in the other line replied me that this setup is not possible.



For some reason I didn't believe him too much, so as you can see I am a bit confuse here, I am 99% sure this setup is possible, but I don't have any document or someone saying that has tried this before.

Thank you again for any reply.

I wish I had "I have done this personally" confirmation for you, but I don't. It's possible for a Tech Support rep, especially one who is working the Chat line, to not have the appropriate application engineering experience. I used to work the Chat line and sometimes got questions I could not answer, and I got very good at saying "I don't know but I'll get you to somebody who does".

1769-AENTR adapters are compatible only with v20 and higher firmware in a ControlLogix or CompactLogix.

Controllers that can't be upgraded to v20 (like the original L1, or the L55, or the shoebox-style CompactLogix) can't control 1769-AENTR adapters.

RSLogix 5000 v20 required the Add-On Profile to be added manually, but subsequent versions of Studio 5000 Logix Designer (the name changed at v21) should have the AOP pre-installed.

If you want to use a Device-Level Ring (DLR) network architecture, you'll need the 1756-EN2TR version of the ControlLogix Ethernet interface, or a 1783-ETAP ring tap.

The 1769-AENTR and the 1747-AENTR both do not support ControlLogix Redundancy.

I'd be careful with any sophisticated I/O modules with the 1769-AENTR. While it's not impossible, large I/O devices like the 1769-SDN have to deal with the relatively low-bandwidth 1769 data bus and the fragmentation protocol, and you can end up with some tricky problems with data block integrity.

For ordinary digital and analog I/O modules, no problem.

Working on a similar project right now... I see it has been a while now, did using the 1769 bus work with the ControlLogix processor?

I installed a 1769-AENTR with several 1769-ASCII cards to a L61 V20 with no issues. There isn't a comparable card that isn't 3rd party for Controllogix and we used the 1769-ASCII cards all over and already had a working program, so it was the obvious solution for us.

ezekich said:

Working on a similar project right now... I see it has been a while now, did using the 1769 bus work with the ControlLogix processor?

Click to expand...

Hello! Yes I used the setup I described and I got this working without problems whatsoever. The system has been running for a while now. Hope it helps.

Just to add some weight to this setup, the following technote outlines the intended usage of the 1769-AENTR Ethernet adapter...

569101 - 1769-AENTR: Features & Firmware Requirements
Access Level: Everyone

As with all the AENT(R) adapters, they may be used to add standalone distributed I/O as an extension of an existing system, or they may be used to replace an existing processor of the same architecture in order to convert the chassis into distributed I/O for another controller.

Simple example:

A 1769-L32E CompactLogix chassis with several digital I/O modules. In order to convert this standalone chassis configuration, and bring the I/O under the direct control of another Logix processor, such as a 1756-L72 ControlLogix, the 1769-L32E processor may be replaced by a 1769-AENTR Ethernet adapter. This way, we can leave all the I/O on the 1769 CompactLogix architecture intact. To reiterate Ken's comment, the 1769-AENTR may then be added to the I/O Configuration of any v20 or newer supported Logix 5000 controller.

The 1769-AENTR also supports up to 30 I/O modules over 3 x I/O banks and, as far as I am aware, supports all 1769 I/O and third party modules.

For Device Level Ring, they are of course fully compatible in a DLR topology with any Logix 5000 controller, including the 1756 ControlLogix architecture...



If I had to answer the original question at the simplest level, and if I did not know that much about the 1769-AENTR Ethernet adapter, I would be pointing out the fact that the much older 1768-ENBT (1769-L4x) Ethernet adapter is fully supported on the 1756 ControlLogix platform. As such, I would be wagering heavily that the newer 1769-AENTR adapter would likewise be also fully supported.

One caveat - you can have only one Owner Connection from a controller to the 1769-AENTR. It does not support Listen Only Connections to multiple controllers.

On the Connections side of things, the 1769-AENTR supports up to 96 TCP Connections. As the adapter does not support Rack Optimization, each module, up to a maximum of 30 I/O modules, will consume one Connection each back to the Owner controller. Here, the adapter itself has plenty of Connections to handle this, but you must make sure the Owner controller also has enough Connections. For most newer Logix 5000 controllers this should not be an issue as they all have increased Connection counts. But still, it should be checked.

If using an older Logix 5000 controller as the Owner controller, such as a 1769-L32E CompactLogix; it supports 100 Connections in total (I'll explain that if somebody wishes) but only 32 TCP "remote" Connections. A full compliment of 30 x 1769 distributed I/O modules under a 1769-AENTR adapter would essentially max out this controllers TCP Connection count, leaving it "nearly" impossible to connect a workstation computer to go online. So I would not say this adapter, when used with a large I/O module count, is suitable for distributed use back to any of these older and Connection limited controllers.

In a modern Logix 5000 controller system though, it should work with little to no problems.

Regards,
George