1794-AENT issue

[ghutto]

I'm new to Flex I/O. Our company bought a used packaging machine that uses Flex I/O and we are trying to recommission it. I'm trying to establish comms but do not have the IP address. The thumbwheels are set to 999. I'm using RSLinx Classic Lite with an ethernet connection. Any suggestions?
I love it when people buy used equipment but don't get drawings, passwords, IP addresses, etc... and expect me to make it work.

 

[dmroeder]

Ideally, you'd upload the program from the controller and look at the I/O tree to see what the address should be.

If that isn't an option, you could plug directly into the AENT, start wireshark and wait for ARP commands to reveal its address. This works for controllers, I've never tried with an adapter but I'd assume that it works.

 

[Ken Roach]

There's a label specifically for writing the IP address on the module, but of course it's seldom used. Fortunately it also includes the MAC ID, which is helpful if you need to recover or reconfigure the module.

The default switch setting to 999 means that the module is either set for DHCP, or it's set to use an address stored in flash memory.

If you handed me one of these devices off the shelf, I would plug just it and my PC into an unmanaged switch, with my Ethernet port set for 192.168.1.x, and I would run both RSLinx Classic and the Rockwell BOOTP/DHCP utility.

If the module's MAC ID shows up in a DHCP request, great: I know that the module is really in out-of-the-box conditions and can set it for whatever address I need, then disable DHCP.

If the module replies to the RSLinx EtherNet/IP driver, that also tells me its IP address.

If neither of those work, I would run Wireshark on that port and look for the module to announce itself via ARP packets (as dmroeder points out).

Its this a little harder than it needs to be ? Yes, but not by a lot. Wireshark, the DHCP/BOOTP tool, and RSLinx are the minimum tools anyone using EtherNet/IP should have at hand when setting up an automation system.

 

[Ken Roach]

To provide an example and check my assumptions, I plugged in a generic USB/Ethernet dongle to my PC. In the Windows network adapter settings, I disabled everything except the NPCAP packet capture driver that Wireshark uses.

I plugged it into a network that contains nothing except a managed switch, and a 1734-AENT POINT adapter set for a fixed IP address.

Every two minutes or so, the POINT I/O adapter sends out an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packet that identifies its IP address and its MAC ID. The MAC ID, of course, matches the one printed on the label of the POINT I/O adapter.

If the device is set for DHCP, you will also see its DHCP Discover packets, and you know you can use the Rockwell BOOTP/DHCP tool to set it up.

You can even simplify the Wireshark monitor by entering the display filter "arp" (lowercase), or "arp or dhcp" so you aren't distracted by any other traffic from your PC on that adapter.

 

[BachPhi]

I'm new to Flex I/O. Our company bought a used packaging machine that uses Flex I/O and we are trying to recommission it. I'm trying to establish comms but do not have the IP address. The thumbwheels are set to 999. I'm using RSLinx Classic Lite with an ethernet connection. Any suggestions?
I love it when people buy used equipment but don't get drawings, passwords, IP addresses, etc... and expect me to make it work.

That's not so bad. I once had a German-made big machine for a Czechoslovakian customer. Needless to say, it comes with Siemens S7 PLC which is not my forte in the fist place, then it get worse, most components inside the panels were stolen by the Czechs. It took me a while to get things going again.