Trace and Debug FINs Network

[Pago 0]

Hi all, I've about 200 PLC's connected via an IP FINs network. I'd like to debug the FINs network packets and/or detect any problems on it. I'm having some comunication problems. i'm using OPC Server too and would like to trace the response of this one to PLCs. Can someone tell me how can i view or debug FINs packets on my network? Best Regards, Pago

[BobB 58]

You do not state what network you are using. For troubleshooting Controller Link for example there are a number of bits allocated to each card in the network to let you know if a module is offline etc. I do not use Ethernet if I can help it but I am sure there would be some error bits attached to each Ethernet card. Edited 25 Aug 2008 by BobB

[Pago 0]

Hi, I'm using ETHERNET. In matter fact there are error bits but what i really need is to send an email notification with error log attached every time that a certain error occurs. The other thing that i need to monitorize are the comunication packets between PLCs that are using FINs. need some tips on this, Regards,

[Berti Baker 7]

CX-Server OPC does have a trace tool: CX-Diagnostics (available from your Sales Centre tech support) but why do you want to trace the FINS messages? Do you have high bandwidth? Are there any ETH unit error messages? What does CX-Server Performance Monitor show? This should be your first call... Bertie.

[Pago 0]

Well, Actually there are no ETH errors as far as i detected only one PLC has errors in ETN21 error log (0107 remote node not found on network). Bandwidht i can assume that's enough, it is work at 100MB and with an occupation on PC about 0,5% maximum i detected. I need to monitor all this because i'm having some comm faults (without error notification), on my SCADA OPC Server/Client. regards,

[Berti Baker 7]

What is the name of your SCADA Client? Are you using Omron's CX-Server OPC? And most importantly - how do you determine there are comms faults if nothing is shown in the error log and if theres no error notification! If I understand this I might be able to help you... Bertie.

[Pago 0]

Hi! I'm using GE Fanuc iFIX 4.0 and OPC powertool as client. As OPC Server i'm using OMRON. I matter fact i have no error identified on error log but i have bad data quality detected on OPC Client side with no errors, just bad quality intermitent from good to bad and vice versa. Hope someone can help me on this. Regards,

[Berti Baker 7]

Hi Pago, Ah perfect - that helps a lot - thanks. Perminant "bad quality" would probably signify loss of connection but you're right... intermitent 'good->bad->good' etc definitley sounds like some of the packets are lost/failing. Ideas... 1. Try increasing the "Timeout" in the PLC config. I know 2 seconds SHOULD be enough to get a response even from the next continent! But an easy thing to try... even 10 or 20 seconds... would prove that packets are actually LOST and not just LATE. 2. What is the Task Manager CPU usage? I know you said the Windows NETWORK usage was only 0,5% but if the CPU is ever 100% busy for the timeout period, then it can definitely cause timeouts (and therefore bad quality!) 3. And the CX-Server Performance Monitor for Ethernet? This can be launched from CX-Server OPC icon in system tray and selecting Communications Utilities->Performance Monitor Tool then select the network. Again, if this is too busy it can cause timeouts. 4. It may be the sheer number of PLCs that is this issue. I heard a case before where timeouts or unconnected devices caused the whole system to run slowly because they were all 'jamming' through the same TCP port (9600). This case was resolved by breaking up the network into virtual segments e.g. per 20 PLCs, and setting segments to 9601, 9602 etc. This is probably worth a try but a fair amount of effort! P.S. What version of CX-Server OPC are you using? Make sure you downloaded the latest updates from the Omron "Software Downloads" (once registered). Never hurts to have the latest bug fixes... Bertie,

[Pago 0]

I probably will try the timeout time option. I've made some tests and detected the problem was defenitively on the OPCServer. I used another OPC Client than iFix and the same item have the same quality on different clients. Now i'm testing another OPC Server. I know that i will have three times the work to do tha was previously done but.... I really need and want to get off this problems. The project is depending on this. I'll give you new aout the final solution if you want to. Regards,

[Pago 0]

Hi, I've been very busy with no time to maintain my posts. So today i'm getting some of my posts on forums updated. About all this post, PROBLEM SOLVED (long time ago). How...? Well the main problem was the number of PLCs and the OMRON OPC Server. I've detected alsom somme packet loss/fails wich could be the reason for Bad Qaulity data on OPC client. Instead of OMRON OPC Server i've tested Kepware OPC server with OMRON suite's and worked fine. OMRON has a limitation of 32 devices per channel, limitation wich is not configurable on OMRON OPC Server (as far as i know). On Kepware's i've created five channels each with a different UDP Port number. I distribute the devices for these channels. With this i needed no special changes on variable scan times. Are a lot of variable and most of them with one second scan time. The network has no significant load. All keeps work fine till today. In fact i've having some issues on comunication between PLCs with send/receive commands. some time i get some error. I guess this could be some routing time trouble and packets could be discarded and consequently originates the timout error. I need to spend some time on it but the day only has 24 hours. Thanks for your interest Regards, PAGO Edited 26 Mar 2009 by Pago