Kate

Yes the valve and the controller are made by the same company, but that interface is pretty straightforward. The problem is communication with the controller over an interface that we are not familiar with and not communicating with it in the typical fashion. Also, during the last day or so, we have figured out a way to bypass communicating with it over Ethernet/IP completely and just use the Digital Inputs on the device. So hopefully, it is solved.... Thanks for all your help everyone!

Thanks for your post! I am into exploring all options at this point until I can narrow it down to the one that saves the most money and time. I will definitely look into the serial option.

Yes, the next thing that I need to tackle after I manage to figure out how to get thigns talking is what exactly will I have to say? I don't know how clear it is how to get the data across to make the Ethernet/IP device to do what I want it to do. The other little detail I left out is that the controller is also available with the PROFIBUS interface. I think the Ethernet one was chosen because those in charge assumed it was talking over the Internet Protocol. Unfortunately, the choice of what controller I am to use was made for me. I guess this controller was the one suggested since this it was made by the same company as the valve it will be controlling.

This might be a helpful addition to this post. The controller that I am trying to interface to is the VT-HACD-3-2X/E. It is a slave device that requires a master.

The protocol that the valve is using is Ethernet/IP. We have not used that protocol here before and don't intend on using it much more, if ever, so we don't want to spend the money to delve into it. We would like to just add a device in the mix that could translate the TCP/IP or UDP to Ethernet//IP.

Yes you are correct. It is an AITech C108 (http://www.rugged.com/c108-powerpc%C2%AE-7448-sbc-canbus-20) processor card. The software engineers here write the c code on the processor that would need to communicate with the Ethernet/IP device somehow. Does that answer your question, or do you need more?

I think communicating over Modbus would be more difficult as well. We want either Ethernet TCP/IP, UDP or serial. Also, once we manage to get things talking, is there something out there that will what data is needed in the packet to be able to write what we want to the Ethernet/IP device? I have obviously not worked with devices like these before, so I am not at all sure what is required...

I am trying to do something that I don't think is quite normal with an Ethernet/IP hydraulic valve. I am trying to send commands to the valve from a processor card and there for need to understand how to talk to the device. It is not worth buying the license through ODVA or joining since we don't do much of this. So what I need to know is if there is some device that I can talk to either serially or through TCP/IP or UDP that could convert the messages to be able to talk to the Ethernet/IP device. All we need to do is tell the valve to open or close based upon switch input information. If I haven't supplied enough information, please feel free to ask for clarification! Thanks in advance for your help.