Devicenet adapter for RSNetworx

The back story:
We have one customer that has some equipment that uses DeviceNet that must remain in place. On those (5) DeviceNet networks they also have some VFDs and a couple of them have been upgraded over the years.

The scanners are all in racks with SLC 5/05 of various hardware and firmware levels. Customer also has RSNetworx for DeviceNet and I have successfully used it on their antique SCADA PC with the SLC Passthrough Driver on one network to replace a failed ABB drive with a Yaskawa.

It was slow and painful but it did work. Another drive has failed on a different network and I was unable to get the passthrough driver to browse that network. I think that particular SLC is so old it still has the 10MB half duplex Ethernet Daughtercard. I was able to set up the 1747-SDN card for 395 words to allow the driver to configure, but RSNetworx attempted to browse it for over an hour unsuccessfully. I ended up setting the drive (ABB ACS 880) to a profile that the scanner would tolerate and mangling the PLC code to get the start/stop and speed control working, but some of the other data (that no one ever looks at) like amps, bus volts, and heatsink temp are still missing until I can get the scan list updated properly. The old drive was an ABB ACS600.

The question:
What is the best method to connect my laptop or their PC to those DeviceNet networks temporarily when scanlist edits are needed?

At a previous job, we had 1788-EN2DN on many DeviceNet networks and I loved it, but that product is retired. There are some similar looking 3rd party devices but I don't know for sure which ones will work with RSNetworx.

Will any of these work with RSNetworx?

https://www.anybus.com/products/gat...teway-devicenet-adapter---ethernet-ip-adapter

https://www.rtautomation.com/product/460esdm/

https://www.prosoft-technology.com/Products/Gateways/Aparian/DeviceNet-Router-B

There's also the 1784-U2DN which would work, but I have questions about it. Can I use it like the old PMCIA version and just piggy back onto an existing thin cable connector and go online?

Eventually their plant will be upgraded to get away from the old equipment that required them to keep DeviceNet, but for the next couple (or 7) years, we need to support what they have.

If I use a panel mounted device attached to one of their five networx and we end up needing to upgrade the SLC to Compactlogix before the DeviceNet equipment can be upgraded, I think I could use it as a bridge and just stick E/IP adapters in the affected drives as needed.

If I use the USB adapter, it is much more portable to work with any of their networks.

Thanks in advance for any comments or advice on this.

All of those third-party devices provide either Adapter or Scanner functionality, but not the kind of explicit message routing that RSLinx and RSNetworx need.

The ideal solution for RSLinx and RSNetworx connection to a DeviceNet is the 1784-U2DN, because it has a simple and fast modern PC interface over USB.

Yes, it works similar to the old 1784-PCD or the 1770-KFD (serial->DNet) interface: you can plug into a port, or "piggyback" on an open-style screw terminal and go online with the devices on the network.

If you have old 1756-ENET/ENBT and 1756-DNB modules and want to build a fixed message router in a 1756 chassis, you could do that too.

If I had the budget and was going to maintain old DeviceNets, I would get the 1784-U2DN because it also works with Frontline Test Equipment's NetDecoder and would give some good analysis tools. It's probably the most stable and quick interface for ordinary slave device and scanlist configuration too.

Thanks, Ken! I am glad you took the time to help me on this.

Instead of telling our customer he needs to buy a $2000 cable, I will ask our team about getting one for us. We may not run into DeviceNet with any other customer, but we do enough business with this one water plant that it will probably justify us owning it.