QnA Ethernet

[Colin Carpenter]

Does anyone know of an "Idiot's guide to installing ethernet cards" on a QnA? Am trying to retrofit an A1SJ71QE71-B2 ethernet card to a Q2AS-S1 so that it will talk to my laptop ( IEC Developer) and three E1100 HMIs. I have the card and have sorted out the RJ45 to BNC connections, terminators etc and can now go online to the PLC using ethernet .... lost a bit of hair along the way and the rack was in dire danger of ending up in the garden at some points, and it's now working, but I'm not really sure how. To cut a long story short, it seems to me like the old A series with their E71 cards had to be set up using code in the PLCs ( buffers, from, to etc) and the new Q series PLCs have no need of any any code, as everything is configured in the parameters section - the number of connections, type, port numbers etc. But the QnA range seems to be a halfway house between the two, in that you can define the cards IP address, station number etc in the parameters section, but the section that allows you to set up the number and type of connections is missing, therefore I assume that it must be done in the code, and that's where I'm drawing a blank. I've downloaded the manual (all 38 mb of it) and it sets new standards in gobbledegook. Bits are starting to make sense, but every page I read, I end up with more things that I don't know and as the manual is scanned, searching for text is impossible. I like a challenge, but just fitting an ethernet comms card to something so that it talks to something else should really be a bit easier these days?

[Supporter]

Hi Colin, Beijer has some function blocks for configuring ethernet modules, refer to the link below (it might be that the documentation is in Swedish): http://www.beijer.se/web/BExFilePileAUT.nsf/0/CFA73A52557575BEC12574BA003DA0AC/$FILE/EthQna.zip Best regards Patrik

[Colin Carpenter]

Thanks, Patrik, I think you might have just saved me a lot of work, yet again. Have downloaded the file and will try them out tomorrow. While you're here, could I just ask one more question - there seems to be a general feeling that Beijers screens are better set up for comms using UDP rather than TCP. In your experience, would you say that was true? Thanks again, Colin

[kaare_t]

As long as you run a protocol that has checksum/CRC handling by itself there's no need to run TCP - it will only generate more traffic on the network. Basically all communication that are exchanged using MC protocol have a built in CRC check which eliminiates the need to run TCP communication. Therefore UDP communication is much more effective....

[Colin Carpenter]

Well, I'm getting there, but not quite there yet. I downloaded the files from Beijers and opened the ASCII file into IEC. Downloaded the programme into the Q2AS-S1 and couldn't get anything to run, so deleted th parameters code and set the parameters in IEC. Downloaded and the ethernet comms now works. Have managed to get an E900 with ethernet card happily talking to the PLC through ethernet now, but it will only read from the PLC. As soon as I attempt to write from the HMI to the PLC I get a comm error. Noticed that connection type is being set to 8003h, which enables the HMI to read from, but not write to the PLC. E71 manual suggests that I have to set up two connections to make it read and write by enabling "pairing", but can't work out whether a connection is a port or something else. Still playing but hair is rapidly disappearing. This is the hardest thing I've ever done I think ... nothing should be this hard to set up in 2011 surely??? EDIT. Solved it ... switch 7 on the ethenet card has to be ON Edited March 31, 2011 by Colin Carpenter