CS1H Ethernet COMMS

[sd00 1]

Hello all, I have a question I'm hoping you clever guys can help me with... Senario... 5 PLC's, all with local Cimplicity installations, all on different subnets (192.168.100.100, 192.168.101.100, 192.168.102.100, 192.168.103.100, 192.168.104.100 ) I need to connect 1 PC to all 5 PLC's to communicate via IFIX. OK, so I thought... 1. Change Subnet Mask on PLCs to 255.255.0.0 2. Change the mode on the ETN21 units to Mixed (combined) and add PLCs into table with fixed node number 3. Set the UDP number to different individual numbers (9601, 9602, 9603...) 4. Ping ALL PLCs from IFIX machine 192.168.32.2 - OK 5. Set-up the ORE IFIX driver to communicate with the PLCs What I find is that the ORE driver communicates OK with the PLCs, however, it seems to cause the Cimplicity machines to drop out (objects go all black) after a short time (2 mins). So I guess my questions are... a) Is the multiple UDP connections that cause of this concern & if so, what can be done? b) What options do I have with the current set-up (note: I cannot change PLC IP addresses) c) Can the TCP ports be utelised for the IFIX connection (if necessary) NOTE: one thing I haven't tried is adding the PC's (Cimplicity and IFIX) into the PLC's IP table with different Node Numbers. Perhaps this will help (grasping / straws)? Cheer, David.

[Guest anonymous]

Hello David, This may be the answer - if using CX-Programmer / CX-Server to communicate via Ethernet, you will need the PCs IP address in the ETN21s IP Address table. Have never used IFIX or Cimplicity, so I don't know exactly how they operate, so unfortunately cannot be of greater assistance. Regards anonymous

[sd00 1]

Firstly - anonymous, thanks for taking the time to respond. Sure, I'm aware that the PC's addresses would need to be in the IP table for CX to communicate via Ethernet, however, I have the Mode set to Mixed (combined) as in Auto+Table on the ETN21 Ethernet units. As the IFIX and Cimplicity machines communicate with the PLC individually, I did not consider this to be the issue. It is when they are both communicating that issues arise. Although I cannot view it right now, I seem to remember the cimplicity log stating that the response was of incorrect length. This has led me to believe that it is somehow reading the PLC's responses to the IFIX node as its own & therefore incorrect. Just to clarify, 6 PCs (1x IFIX + 5x Cimplicity) connected via Ethernet to 5 PLCs ETN21. All PLCs on different sub-nets but Mask opened up to 255.255.0.0 to allow the IFIX machine to communicate with all. By themselves, the IFIX PC or Cimplicity PCs communicate OK. Together, the IFIX machine remains connected, the Cimplicity machines seem to 'disconnect' (for want of a better word) i.e. black objects on screen (no data). Any suggestions anyone?