[QUOTE oxlacey]I'm hoping these's a cool way to have the Scrap Conveyor PLC access each cell's Robot PLC (MAC ADDRESS?!)[/QUOTE]
What you are proposing is not possible with standard applications. You would have to write your own application (at both ends) to accomplish this. It makes all TCP or UDP applications inoperable. Still, I like your entrepreneurial spirit, never stop asking "what if...?"!
[QUOTE Peter Nachtwey]Most mills I have been to use IPs in the 192.168.xxx.yyy range.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I agree with this. oxlacey, if you modify only the third octet of the IP address for each machine, It shouldn't be too hard to remember the additional IP addresses.
[QUOTE ASF]If the only reason you don't want to use unique IP addresses is because they're harder to remember...[/QUOTE]
The other reason given was standardization. With duplicate IP addresses, you can pull the Drive#7 out of Machine 1 and slap it in place of Drive#7 out of Machine 3, and it will just run.
[QUOTE ASF]...n+1 IP addresses to remember...[/QUOTE]
I think it is closer to 5n IP addresses to remember for the unique IP addresses method, and 6n IP addresses to remember for the NAT option.
[QUOTE ASF]an excel spreadsheet...[/QUOTE]
You can also edit the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file and add nicknames for all of the IP addresses.
example line:
Code:
192.168.0.4 Machine2MainPLC
Now some applications will let you use the hostname in place of the IP address.
Others, you can just use the Command prompt (or Powershell for those of us who have finally seen the light)
and you will get the IP address which you can copy and paste.