SLC 5/05 - Stumped

I have a brand new SLC 5/05 (FRN 10 or 11), connected to an ethernet switch, on which is also connected a pc running RSView32 and a touch screen. I have no problems until I connect the ethernet switch to my plant network, at which point, the ethernet comms on the SLC 5/05 lockup. The RSView application stops communicating as well as the touch screen. I can ping the pc that's running RSView from my laptop and recieve a response. When I try to ping the SLC 5/05 from my laptop, I recieve a timeout response. Also, when the RSView pc is connected to the network, I cannot ping the processor from the RSView pc. When its off the network, I can successfully ping the processor and everything works fine.

I've seen other posts that recommend changing the CIP settings in RSLinx. I've done this and it's made no difference. I've got other processors with SLC 5/05 processors with older firmware on the network that I have no problem with. I'm running older versions of RSLinx and RSView, I'm wondering if RSLinx could be the problem.

I've attached a screen shot of the ethernet configuration for this processor. I've been banging my head on the side of the control panel for 3 days now. I'm so desperate at this point that if anyone can help me solve this, I swear I'll send them a six pack of the next batch of homebrew I cook up.

WAG1: Check for a duplicate IP address. A little while back we had a similar symptom caused by a duplicated IP address, although there have been other times when a duplicate IP caused no trouble at all.

WAG2: Check your wiring and make sure one of those cables isn't bad, shorted, or a crossover cable. A couple of weeks ago, someone plugged in what he thought was a spare Cat5 cable to a switch that caused 6 different 5/05 processors throughout the plant to lose communication and 3 of them faulted and dumped their programs! I am not sure what he found wrong with the cable, but it obviously had some significant problem.

To check for duplicate IP: With the networks not connected to each other, get on the plant network with a PC, open a command prompt, and see if you can get a ping reply from any of the IP addresses used by your other (PLC) network.

One of the networking gurus can probably earn those beers, but I figured I might as well take a shot...

OkiePC, I should have mentioned that I've pinged the network for the address of the processor, and received no replies, and I've connected a brand new cable from the processor to the switch.

My laptop is on a different gateway address than this particular processor, but the other processors are also on a different gateway address than my laptop and I have no problem with them.

I agree that the symptoms sound a great deal like a duplicate IP address but failing to get a PING response with the SLC disconnected tends to suggest otherwise.

Under normal conditions, are the SLC-5/05 and the RSView32 PC on the same IP subnet ?

Does your laptop use a static IP, or a dynamic one ?

I would type "IPCONFIG -ALL" at a command prompt prior to connecting the second network, and again after. This will tell you if there are any configuration changes being forced onto your computer.

Do you have any managed switches that would let you monitor communications with the SLC-5/05 controller using a mirrored port ?

I also like to use the TCPING utility (EtherNet/IP is TCP Port 44818) and check the HTTP server by typing the IP address of the SLC into a web browser.

When you say they are not on the same gateway address that makes me a bit suspicious about your IP adressing scheme.

What is the IP addresses of your SLC, PC and touchscreen?
What is the Mask of all those devices?
What is the gateway address they are all pointing to?

Similarly, for your laptop, what is its IP address, mask and gateway?

Is your laptop setup for DHCP?
Are the SLC, PC, or HMI setp for DHCP?

Please keep in mind what a gateway is for. It is a unique address on yor local network that is consulted whenever an address is referenced that is NOT on your local network.

For example, lets say your laptop is at 192.168.10.12 with a mask of 255.255.255.0. If you are on your laptop and try to access an IP address of 192.168.10.X, the gateway does nothing: your switch just routes to the appropriate device. But if you try to access 192.168.9.X (or any other address), the switch simply forwards that request to the gateway address and the router at that address figures out what to do from these.

So you will always find a router at a a gateway, but a gateway is only needed for off-network references. Most PLC networks don't need a gateway since all devices are within the same network and have hard-coded IP addresses

You just gotta get the tools at www.radmin.com. Ping is so DOS.

I think this particular problem is solved as of today. I changed the IP address of the processor and put it back on the plant network, and everything seems fine. Apparently, there's another device on the network with the same address, but why wouldn't respond when pinged? I've got some learning to do about this network stuff.

Okie, since you were the first to respond and your first WAG was a duplicate address, and that appears to be what it was, I'll be letting you know when I bottle my next batch of homebrew so that I can make arrangements to send it to you.

jrexrode,
often, if there are duplicate IP addresses, neither device will respond, definitely not both. Now that all is working OK, try pinging the previous IP address to see if there is a device with that IP.

This thread is from 2010 !!!

That's too bad, I was going to try to jump in and get some homebrew.

There are many devices out there where you can disable the ping response. Many WiFi access points let you do this. You won't get a ping response but you will still get an IP conflict