Test available ports - EthernetIPforCLX

[WellsCPak]

I have an application that is used as a tool by multiple people, all talking to the same PLC. It mostly works fine for me, but sometimes other people (who launched the app after I did) have issues communicating with the PLC. I'm inclined to think that it's a port issue, as all the instances of this application are identical and are coded to use the same port. I was wondering if there's any way to look for an available port in the PLC and use that, or if you have any other input for how to handle this type of application. It wouldn't be absurd to have pre-set ports for each instance of the app stored in tags in the PLC (first client gets 44818, next gets 44819, etc.) and have the clients communicate with the PLC that they are there and using those ports so the next instance can choose from the remaining pool.

[bachphi]

You can type in your PLC address in a browser, and look at the diagnostic tab, and see how many CIP connections and see if it s over 80% of the limits.

[WellsCPak]

I'm most interested in a way to accomplish this within the program rather than manually. There are ~30 people that have access to this app, our maximum users at one time has probably only been 10.

[rbelknap]

I'm not sure if this will work or not.  Just using a bit of imagination and hopefully you can follow my thought process.

I'm thinking that this is a Multi-Step step process.

Step 1, hook up to the PLC on a default port and get "assigned" a new port number.
Step 2 Disconnect from the default port
Step 3 Re-Connect using the assigned port from Step 1.

You could do this each time the app starts.
The only comms on the default ports would be to get a new port assigned.

Make sense?