Issues with Profinet device on Rx3i system

[Ozpeter]

I'm trying to evaluate a cheap Chinese RFID reader that it supposed to be Profinet compliant, but I am running into some sort of issue and I don't know if it is me, Profinet or the device in question.

My setup is a CPE305 with a PNC001 Profinet card. Ethernet from the PNC001 goes to a POE router and then onwards to the RFID reader. I also connected my programming LAN to the same POE router. When connected, the RFID reader has a nice blinking Red Power LED (but is supposed to be solid green when sucessfully connected via Profinet) and when I bring a tag close to the device its Read LED lights up (so the hardware seems to be working)

Using the external PME Profinet DCP scan tool I can see both the PNC card and the RFID reader, and the reader is on the same subnet as the PNC card, and all the IP addresses match the PNC hardware configuration. (Also the PNC Auto assign IP range doesn't conflict with anything)

Within PME I can use the "Explore PROFINET" tool and drill down to the RFID device (so the PROFINET subsystem seems to think it is there)

However whenever I do a download, the I/O fault table immediately logs a "Loss of device" for the rack/slot/device that matches the RFID reader location. And when I run my test program, the PNC Card status of "All devices OK" is not true.

Can anyone give me any fault finding suggestions to try?

Note that this RFID reader has no presence on the internet and the only configuration "manual" I have is a small PDF that shows screen grabs of a Chinese localized Siemens S7 programming tool with a bunch of English annotations that are classic bad translations.

 

[NetNathan]

Does the device have a "Device Name" assigned in the DCP Scan Tool and is the same device name set in the Inspector for the device under the PNC001?

Is it the only Profinet device on the PNC001?

 

[NetNathan]

Does the device have a "Device Name" assigned in the DCP Scan Tool and is the same device name set in the Inspector for the device under the PNC001?

Is it the only Profinet device on the PNC001?

 

[Ozpeter]

Does the device have a "Device Name" assigned in the DCP Scan Tool and is the same device name set in the Inspector for the device under the PNC001?

Is it the only Profinet device on the PNC001?

Yes, Yes and Yes. And when I disconnect it the device disappears from the PME network scan tools

 

[Ozpeter]

Does the device have a "Device Name" assigned in the DCP Scan Tool and is the same device name set in the Inspector for the device under the PNC001?

Is it the only Profinet device on the PNC001?

Actually I take that back .. it has a different device name in the DCP Scan Tool and the PNC Inspector.

I'm about to make them the same. And I have the same names, but still have the same behavior as before

 

[NetNathan]

They have to be exactly the same....lower case only. The "Device Name" is critical, this is how Profinet identifies the device.
What is IP of PNC001 and what is IP of device? They should be on same IP/subnet range.

 

[Ozpeter]

They have to be exactly the same....lower case only. The "Device Name" is critical, this is how Profinet identifies the device.
What is IP of PNC001 and what is IP of device? They should be on same IP/subnet range.

And here I thought the IP address was the critical element!

Anyway. I opened the DCP tool and copied the device name from there and pasted it into the device name in the PNC inspector. The PNC card IP address is 192.168.0.1 and the device is 192.168.0.2. Also see the attached screen grabs.

 

[NetNathan]

PNC001 is also using 255.255.255.0 subnet mask?

If IP was critical, the DCP Scan Tool would not find devices unless your computer was also on 192.168.0.#.
You can actually change your computer to any IP range and DCP Scan Tool should still find the devices.

 

[Ozpeter]

PNC001 is also using 255.255.255.0 subnet mask?

If IP was critical, the DCP Scan Tool would not find devices unless your computer was also on 192.168.0.#.
You can actually change your computer to any IP range and DCP Scan Tool should still find the devices.

The PNC uses the same mask (see image)

As for discovery I thought the DCP/PNC relied on ARP or LLDP protocols to identify devices on the PNC local network.

 

[NetNathan]

You probably should change the PNC001 Network Speed to 100Mbps, I doubt your chinese reader supports 1Gbps.

For reading...
https://profinews.com/2017/01/whats-in-a-profinet-device-name/

https://us.profinet.com/profinet-addressing-parameters/

ignore the DeltaV reference at bottom of this one.
http://content.mynah.com/vimnet-webhelp/Content/profinet/addressing.htm

 

[Ozpeter]

You probably should change the PNC001 Network Speed to 100Mbps, I doubt your chinese reader supports 1Gbps.

For reading...
https://profinews.com/2017/01/whats-in-a-profinet-device-name/

https://us.profinet.com/profinet-addressing-parameters/

ignore the DeltaV reference at bottom of this one.
http://content.mynah.com/vimnet-webhelp/Content/profinet/addressing.htm

Thanks for the info on names.

In the end the issue turned out to be that I had been given the wrong GSMDL file, but was told "Yes, its the right one, trust us!"