Routing beyond the backplane

[mdshunk]

In the facility I'm at, there are many PLC's "hung" off of other PLC's.  The main PLC, we'll call it, has several ethernet cards in it to support various networks.  Is there a way in AdvancedHMI to route to controllers that are only accessible through controllers higher up on the chain?

[dmroeder]

It does not support routing:

http://advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=1339.msg7115#msg7115

[mdshunk]

That would be a nice feature to have. 

For now, as a workaround, I am using produced/consumed bits to pass data to and from the PLC that I can get AdvancedHMI to talk with to other PLC's lower on the food chain.  Just makes things more complicated than they otherwise could be.   For a single PLC, AdvancedHMI is awesome.  To use it as more of a SCADA faceplate, as I feel like I want to do, it falls a tad short in this area. 

[Archie]

Give me an example of the routing setup you are using. Bridging across a backplane may be a feature in the next release, but I want to test it with scenarios in which the users will actually be using.

[Archie]

As of version 3.99r, the EthernetIP drivers now have a new property of RoutePath. This allows routing through Ethernet cards in ControlLogix racks.

For example, a ControlLogix with EN2T cards in both slots 1 and 2, an ML1000 connected to slot 2, and the AdvancedHMI connected to slot 1. The route path would be something like this:

1,2,2,192.168.1.10

This says to leave the EN2T out of port 1 (backplane port), then go into slot2 (EN2T). From the EN2T in slot 2 leave out of port 2 and go to the PLC at address 192.168.1.10

[Homie]

Hello

Is the RoutePath option also working through the CLX.ini file?
So can I set the route through that file?

When configuring a driver, the IP address and the processorslot set in the driver (the line above the routepath), do those values point to the Ethernetcard I am comming from Plantlan into the accessible rack, or is it the remote rack IP and slot?
I am a little confused by your last post. I would expect the route path to be starting with the accesible Plantlan address, and then going through the rockwell network to the slave chassis, where I want to read the data from. IPaddress and slot from configuration would be then the last info to make it to the right processor (Or is the slotnumer missing in your example?)
So 192.168.1.0,1,2 to get into the remote network + set IPAdress=Remote Rack IP + set Processorslot= remote PLC slot.

[Archie]

I have not tested the RoutePath in the INI file, but it should work as long as it matches the property name exactly including casing.

If specifying something in the RoutePath, the ProcessorSlot value is ignored. The ProcessorSlot is there for simplicity, the same thing can be specified in the RoutePath with 1,x (x being slot number).

The IPAddress property is the address of the Ethernet card in the ControlLogix rack that your computer sees directly. The one that you can ping from your PC.

Example:

---Physical Network Setup---
PC on plant network with HMI :10.10.1.5
EN2T card on plant network :   10.10.1.100
EN2T card in slot 5 :    192.168.1.10
EN2T in Remote Rack : 192.168.1.11
Processor in Slot 1 of remote rack (target PLC)

---Driver property setting---
IPAddress : 10.10.1.100
RoutePath : 1,5,2,192.168.1.11,1,1

---Breakdown of RoutePath---
1a) Leave port 1 (backplane) of EN2T
1b) Enter slot 5 into second EN2T
2a) Leave port 2 (front Ethernet port)
2b) Go to link address 192.168.1.11
3a) Leave port 1 (backplane of remote rack)
3b) Enter slot 1 (processor in remote rack)

[Homie]

Thanks for clarification

I didn't take into accout that your first example was pointing to a MicroLogix. So I was missing the destination slotnumber.

I think the routing capability of the CLX driver is a big step. :-)

[mdshunk]

This is awesome.  Thanks.