GuitarMaestro69

FX3U-ENET to GX Developer communication

9 posts in this topic

Hello all, I've been beating my heading against a wall for the past two weeks (intermittently) trying to get communication working properly with my FX3U w/ENET module. Originally I was trying to setup port-forwarding through my router to i can use MC Protocol from outside my house to talk to the PLC, but more pressing, I've lost ability to communicate with GX Developer through the FX3U-ENET module. I know for a fact that it worked at one point a while back, then it was twitchy a few times, now nothing (I was constantly changing parameters trying to get the port forwarding to work, so who knows what happened). The module works. I have a custom VB.NET program using the MC protocol which connects and R/W just fine. When GX Developer attempts communication, the RD and SD lights light up which means I have the IP address correct and the module is responding in some way to GX Developer, but it just churns then throws a communication error. INFO: PC IP address: 192.168.1.139 (wireless) and 192.168.1.205 (wired) - I have tried both... PLC IP address: 192.168.1.5 Local and Remote Port: 9451 for connection 1 (VB.NET program). -- What port should I set for the MELSOFT communication with GX Developer?? I don't have FX Configurator, so I write to teh BFM addys manually. It would probably help me to know exactly what Configurator does when you choose MELSOFT communication for a connection. Laptop is a Toshiba Satellite running Windows 8 64-bit. I've also tried, briefly with the same result, my old XP machine. I've tried windows firewall ON and OFF and all varieties I can think of regarding exceptions and such. The module is configured as all the documentation and websites indicate: BINARY, PING, ETHERNET FRAME, and Always wait for OPEN I've tried turning the router function ON and OFF - If this is ON, does it still allow local LAN communication? The manual says to write &HA002 to the BFM defining the connection properties (#32-39), which I have done, even though the 'A' hex characters indicates that a system bit is written to... ANY direction or thoughts on either issue (primarily GX Developer talking to FX3U-ENET, but info on port forwarding to this device would be welcome). Thanks ahead of time.

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1. You should not set a port (or anything else than the socket) when using MELSOFT since it configures the parameters correctly itself. Are you sure you have at least one MELSOFT connection? 2. Why not install FX ConfiguratorEN just to check your parameters?? It's easy to install, and a lot easier to debug (you also have debug info in the SW). 3. Which version of GX Developer are you using? 4. Are you sure that both the computer and the PLC is running on the Switch interfaces, and that none of them are currently connected to the WAN interface of the router/firewall? When it comes to Port Forwarding you should forward TCP port 5551 if I remember. You then configure your firewall with something like the following: Source=ANY, Destination=PLC IP, SourcePort=5551, DestinationPort=5551. However I think it would be better to open the port in the firewall against the PLC IP instead of using forwarding. Port Forwarding is usually to get a specific port to route/forward to a different port, so FirewallPolicies for letting the correct port through (TCP5551) would be much better. Which firewall are you using?

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1. If I just set the BFM#39 to &HA002 like the manual says for MELSOFT COM, then the module produces error C010, which is a bad port number (the default is 0 [bFM 89-92]). Perhaps there is something else I need to do to setup MELSOFT COM? 2. I don't have Configurator - is it a free download? I've actually never used it. I've always just written to BFM, etc. 3. I have 8.55h on XP, and 8.107M on my Windows 8. 4. I've tried with, and without my router. I spend several hours trying to get this to work with a straight connection from laptop to FX3U-ENET (do I need a cross over cable???) So for port 5551, should I make the local port of the module this? Thanks for the reply.

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Well, I've successfully communicated with GX Developer, however, after extensively reviewing all the writable BFM addys, I can find nothing different that causes it to work (I did find that Configurator sets the local port of the MELSOFT communication connection to 5551 like you said, but this alone does not make my code work for setting this up manually). I will keep searching for what the Configurator does differently. FX Configurator EN can be downloaded from: http://www.meau.com/eprise/main/sites/public/DOWNLOADS/-search_results?SType=0&DocType=035&SessionNum=6544002&UserID=265&Division=00015&Opt1=Yes&submit1=Search&Family=0001520010&Series It seems very strange to me that I can't get this to communicate without using Configurator. If I find the cause, I'll post it. Thanks for the direction!! Now back to the routing problem...I suspect the issue is in the router or firewall on my laptop. At least now I believe the routing function is set properly since I've set it with Configurator.

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I still do not have a satisfactory explanation. I modified my VB.NET program to read out the buffer memory data from 0 to 800 and compared ALL the data before and after. Nothing is different that I haven't tried manually changing. I can only say that I was only able to get this communication to occur while using FX Configurator EN........ On to routing through my ISP....

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1. Did you remember to power cycle the PLC after making BFM changes to the ENET module? 2. Which router do you have, maybe we can help with opening the ports if you told us what equipment you use...

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I've notice the module responds to changes if I force it to re-initialize. But no, I did not cycle power after any changes. Likewise, I did not cycle power after using Configurator. I have a Westell 7500. I'm to the point that I need to call my ISP i think. I can find nothing wrong with how things are setup.

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sir i am using fx3u plc with enet module i need send  and receive  data intiger values please shere with that program 

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The one thing the configurator does do is to re-init the card after you changed the parameters.

Try connecting from your VB.NET app and watch the error history inside the configurator. I think it is under the diagnostics button, error history. The error code will tell you what the exact issues is. 

I have picked up issues on the FX3U and ENET cards and inspected it with Wireshark. This PLC does tend to make incorrect sequence numbers (in the header) and also re-transmits at times. I think it has to do with the PLC scan time and acyclic nature of the ENET card. Somewhere there is an issue, especially if the PLC has a longer scan time (>50ms) and there are multiple clients connected to it. As an example, I had the local support connect a PLC and GOT (HMI). They immediately saw the same results that I did.

Try the FX5U; apparently it sorts most communication issues out. 

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