ControlNet error code 16#0204

[Ken Roach]

That is NOT how ControlNet works; a failed device does not necessarily cause a total network failure, or affect devices that are "downstream".

That's not how any common-bus network operates, like RS-485 or Profibus or CAN.

But it is how damaged trunklines and non-ring fiber networks operate.

The 2014 and 2016 episodes of this thread were either configuration or firmware problems, and are typical outcomes when the responsible technician is doing his electronic troubleshooting via cursory visual examination.

 

[Engineerj22]

Just wrong

Listen to Ken

 

[Ken Roach]

ControlNet absolutely will run with missing nodes. There's nothing about the ControlNet signal schedule that requires a node to occupy its signal time slot for the next node to transmit.

Can a catastrophic failure of a 1794-ACN15 cause the whole trunkline signal to crash ? It could, especially if the failure was a short to ground or a transmitter-ON fault. But once it is physically disconnected, the rest of the network should be unaffected except to show diagnostic codes like the common 0x0204 timeout.

I did sabotage testing on ControlNet systems for use in prison access controls and while I smoked several adapters on purpose by connecting them to high voltage AC, I never caused an un-commanded action or unrecoverable fault by shorting out the trunk or removing nodes.

Edit: Can you program a system to not run without required nodes ? Absolutely you can. But that's a user application issue, not something you can configure in RSNetworx or that depends on the ControlNet N.U.I. being filled with correct transmissions from every node.

Either way we're resurrecting a zombie thread from years ago with different issues.

Makes me nostalgic for that 1997 demo from Automation Fair Nashville when we ran DH+ on literal barbed wire.

 

[Engineerj22]

Huh,

Thanks for that. I was wrong!

 

[ASF]

I did sabotage testing on ControlNet systems for use in prison access controls and while I smoked several adapters on purpose by connecting them to high voltage AC, I never caused an un-commanded action or unrecoverable fault by shorting out the trunk or removing nodes.

My god you've had a fantastically interesting career

"Sabotage testing on prison access controls" is a sentence that makes me think "well, I never thought of that, but of course it's done by somebody", closely followed by "...that sounds like a lot of fun!"