Connecting to Schneider pacdrive LMC and AB PLC

[Manthan]

Hi all,

I have a question about making a connection to PLCs from different brands (Schneider and A-B) via Ethernet/IP. Last week, I had to work on Schneider LMC, but my laptop did not recognize the IP driver even though everything looked good.
Then, I connected to A-B PLC to see if something was wrong with the laptop. It turned out to be fine and were able to connect very quickly.

I went back to pacdrive and daisy-chained the external ethernet switch to the panel switch. Then suddenly I was able to connect with the same previous parameters.

How is that possible? What could have been the issue? Has anyone been in this situation?

 

[Jim3846]

Maybe the drive had a gateway set on drive, so it had to go to the panel switch before it hit your laptop? Or maybe your laptop had a gateway address set where it did not need it?

Or your laptop mask is too narrow? 255.255.0.0 = gives you access to 10.11.x.x network of all devices. 255.255.255.0 = gives you access to all ips in area 10.11.12.x network of all devices.

Or your laptop addresss ip does not match within a range based on IP and mask another way of stating above problems.

 

[Manthan]

Schneider pacdrive LMC unifies motion and PLC on a single hardware. In the past, I was able to connect to the same machine several times.

Subnet for A-B: 255.25.255.0 while for Schneider: 255.255.225.0, gateway tends to be 0.0.0.0 for both.

The info and values were 100% correct. All I don't get is, how come it started pinging PLC? when I daisy-chained two switches (Panel switch and Cisco switch) and connected the laptop to the Cisco one instead of the panel one.

Is there a way to know that another service is occupying the ethernet driver?
I have all the software on my laptop and not on VM, could this cause an issue while making a connection?

 

[Jim3846]

I know ab products have a web interface. You can look on specific IP that are attached to the drive or plc. I would think the schneider would have the same web interface.

 

[widelto]

Wait, Nobody has mentioned rslinx or that is implicit. ?
Normally you use rslinx, then download and install EDS file for your Schneider pacdrive LMC, configure your drive IP address and if everything is correct you will be able to see it.
Or things changed lately and I am unware. ??

 

[Manthan]

I think I didn't explain properly. A-B plc and Schneider LMC are not connected to each other. They both are working independently on different production lines. No connection between them. None.

I wanted to connect to Schneider but wasn't able to connect. Why? No idea. But, afterward, I connected an external Ethernet switch to the panel switch via an ethernet cable where Schneider LMC is connected. I was able to ping then, how? What changed?

Before: Schneider LMC <Ethernet Cable> Panel Switch (moxa) <Ethernet Cable> Laptop (Cannot ping LMC)

After: Schneider LMC <Ethernet Cable> Panel Switch (moxa) <Ethernet Cable> Cisco switch <Ethernet Cable> Laptop (Can ping now)


I went to connect to A-B plc in between just to check whether my laptop is working ok or not.