Dual Ethernet Cards

[todds 0]

First post.. I lurk alot I tried a dual ethernet setup at a customer site and I can't get it to work. I currently have 4 touchscreens talking Kepware OPC to Wonderware with one CS1D processor with one ETN21D enet card. I currently have one of the touchscreens setup as a tag server. The problem I'm having is a slow response time, so I was going to add a second enet card to split up the traffic. Another guy in my office set it up and it worked fine. One initial question is that I'm not even sure the new ENET card will work since it is not an ETN21D (my other one is). It is a CS1W-ETN21 and the only thing I have available at the time. My 1st card (ETN21D) is setup on Network 4, port 9604 UDP, Unit 0, 9604 because that's the network that I need to send data to another network. So I added the new card (ETN21) and built the routing table, Network 5, Unit 2 ( I already have a unit 1 [scb] in my rack). I setup the IP (192.168.0.95) address and use 9604 for the UDP port and dump the settings into the card. I can ping the new enet card fine. My kepware settings are set to network 5, Node 95, Unit 2. And I point the 1st page to 192.168.0.95. I tried lots of things, and most of the time when I change any settings, I get a Routing table error in kepware. Any help? Thanks!

[Nibroc 4]

Hi Todds. The Kepware FINS address should be 5.95.0 (network 5, node 95, unit 0). This addresses the communications to the PLC's CPU unit, which is always 0. Unit 2 is actually the ETN21 itself. Not sure if this is all of your trouble. Nibroc

[Nibroc 4]

Another note, Wonderware now offer a FINS DAS (data aquisition server), which may allow you to drop the Kepware middleware and communicate direct to the PLC? Nibroc

[Tech Fred 3]

The FINS Protocol requires the server to use the same port for bindback by both ethernet cards. And yes the driver supoorts both cards. You might want to try multi-homing you PC's network card and use the new IP for the second card. This allows for simultaneous communications to both ETN cards and bind back to seperte IP's. There are other ways to improve your communicaitons as well. If you contact Kepwares Technical support technical.support@kepware.com support is free. Fred Loveless Senior Applications Engineer Kepware Technologies

[Fredrix 3]

Your PLC program can also help to slow down your communication, if you have a big program and a high scan-time the ETN card gets less priority and the performance goes down. If this is the case, you could try to set priority to the ETN card -> Settings -> Pheripheral Services -> set Execution Mode to Pheripheral Service and set up the Target Units (your ETN cards)

[todds 0]

Turns out, I had a couple issues. On my kepware settings I did not change the udp to 9605, and I had the unit at 2 not 0. Thanks guys!