Ethernet communication problems

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I have a question on an install I did last week one of you guys may be able to help me out with. I don’t have all the model #s of the PLC and HMI with me so this more of a generic question.
I have a MICROLOGIX 1400 a PanelView plus 1500 HMI (I do remember the mer. was 10) and 2 diameter gauges that I message from the 1400. I also have a Stratix 2000 switch.
The problem I am having is on boot up I have no comms until I disconnect the 2 diameter controllers, the HMI connects I plug in the diameter controls and we are back in business. During the time when I have no comms, I can ping the HMI, PLC, and the 2 diameter controlers and can see every thing in LINKS. Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
I have a question on an install I did last week one of you guys may be able to help me out with. I don’t have all the model #s of the PLC and HMI with me so this more of a generic question.
I have a MICROLOGIX 1400 a PanelView plus 1500 HMI (I do remember the mer. was 10) and 2 diameter gauges that I message from the 1400. I also have a Stratix 2000 switch.
The problem I am having is on boot up I have no comms until I disconnect the 2 diameter controllers, the HMI connects I plug in the diameter controls and we are back in business. During the time when I have no comms, I can ping the HMI, PLC, and the 2 diameter controlers and can see every thing in LINKS. Any ideas would be appreciated.

If you have any Non-Rockwell devices, Rockwell recommends a managed switch.
 
I guess I have to learn how to set up a managed switch. Strange I was on the phone with tec connect for a hour and that was never mentioned.
 
Do you have a delay before enabling the diameter controller messages?
Maybe even monitor the HMI comms as being established before as well.
 
Another option to consider here is Auto Negotiate for the port speeds.

You could try setting Channel 1 Ethernet for the MicroLogix to 100 Mbps Full Duplex Forced instead of Auto Negotiate. Power cycle and see if it helps?
 
Another option to consider here is Auto Negotiate for the port speeds.

You could try setting Channel 1 Ethernet for the MicroLogix to 100 Mbps Full Duplex Forced instead of Auto Negotiate. Power cycle and see if it helps?

If you AutoNeg on one side, you have to AutoNeg on the other.

If you Force speed & duplex on one side, you have to force speed & duplex on the other side.

If the two sides differ, you get FCS errors.
 
That is a Tec note and I did try it but it made no difference. I have 2 choices, I have the 2 controllers connected to a second switch I was thinking about turning on that switch after a minute or so or going to DF1 on the HMI. I will see whats up Monday morning. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Post some more about the diameter controllers.

Do they each have only one IP address and physical Ethernet interface ?

Do they use Ethernet/IP, or Modbus/TCP ?

How did you write the MSG instructions; self-retriggering, or do they operate off timers ?

Does the PanelView ever show any messages indicating it can't real all the tags in the MicroLogix ?

Any LED or LCD indicators that suggest there might be a duplicate IP address on the network ?

PING is a blunt instrument; I prefer TCPING or something like Angry IP Scanner.
 
1. I don't know much about them, only contact I have is team viewer with a guy in China.
2. Yes.
3. Ethernet/IP
4.MSG with timers.
5.Yes when it is not communicating.
6. The only 4 things on the network HMI 101, D controler 1 102 D controler 2 103 PLC 104
7. You can see the lights on the switches blink randomly until you get the HMI to communicate by disconecting the 2 D controlers. Then you get the constant quick blinking.
 
Last edited:
Thanks !

Do the diameter controllers have an ODVA EtherNet/IP compliance certificate or document ?

Are you familiar enough with Wireshark to run it on a managed switch or tap to see what sort of data gets exchanged between the MicroLogix and these controllers and/or the PanelView Plus ?

Did you by any chance put shortcuts to the diameter controllers into your FactoryTalk Linx driver configuration in the PanelView Plus project ?
 
Thanks !
Do the diameter controllers have an ODVA EtherNet/IP compliance certificate or document ?
Would this matter as much when doing general explicit messaging like this?

Thanks !
Did you by any chance put shortcuts to the diameter controllers into your FactoryTalk Linx driver configuration in the PanelView Plus project ?
This is interesting, do you think the PV is blocking the comms somehow? :confused:
 
A managed switch is less important when you are doing ordinary TCP messaging like this. There's no broadcast or multicast traffic that will escape the switch.

And EtherNet/IP compliance isn't *that* important, but generally devices that have done some conformance testing are better behaved.

Maybe the diameter controllers are sending out some blasts of List Identity commands of their own, or barfing Duplicate MAC ID checks onto the network.

I was wondering if the PV+ might be trying to make TCP connections to three devices instead of just one (the MicroLogix) and waiting too long for a timeout, or getting replies that confuse it because they're not standard EtherNet/IP identity object or data table or tag read/write replies.
 
The FactoryTalk Diagnostics log is what you're looking at when you see those communication timeout messages.

But it's not really showing you the TCP traffic on the network; you need a network tap or a managed switch and a spare port on your computer to run the open-source Wireshark network traffic analyzer (or a dedicated purpose network analyzer).

Without those tools, I would start by eliminating some of the possible issues.

For example, try putting the MicroLogix into PROG mode, then cycling power. If the PanelView can connect to it then, we know that the user program executing inside the MicroLogix isn't the problem.

The MicroLogix also has an embedded Web page that should show you some of the statistics about its connections to other devices. I don't have one handy so I can't screenshot precisely what you should see, but give it a shot during the "PanelView cannot connect after power cycle" circumstances and it might tell you something about what the MicroLogix is busy doing at that time.
 
Thank you for your help. I have a 50' DF1 cable UPS red tomorrow, But will have some time in the AM to see what I can do with it. If all else fails I can install that after 5 when they shut down. I will let you know what happens.Thanks again.
 

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