dezz101 (Customer) asked a question.
Hi All,
I have an upcoming project in which I need to communicate ~50 EIP devices. I am using the p3k as the main controller but have found that it is limited to communicate to 32 EIP devices.
My first thought was to add a p1k to my system's network and use it to communicate with the excess devices.
From there one option could be to configure an EtherNet/IP Adapter on it to send all the data back to the main controller.
The other option I thought of was to use WX and RX instructions to communicate over Modbus TCP (the documentation says the RX instruction's purpose is to "Perform Read requests to other P Series CPU" but the WX instruction's purpose is to "Perform Write requests to other P3-CPUs" - do I need the added controller to be a P3k?).
Just wanted the opinion of others who have had to deal with projects in which they needed to communicate with over 32 EIP devices. Would both of my options work? What would be the pros/cons of each? Are there other/better options that I am not considering?
Do you have the option to confirm that you can get ONE EIP device working with P3K?
We have had conversations with an EIP vendor who said:
"Well, our stuff works with AB. We can't help with AD."
I am NOT saying that the devices will not or do not work with PxK, just some vendors MAY NOT be equipped to work with customers regarding what they consider NON-STANDARD equipment.
>do I need the added controller to be a P3k
WX should work between P1K and P3K without issue. I have a few instances of it working.
Someone with more EIP experience my be able to guide you, but can you break the 50 EIP devices into smaller P1K-manageable portions (as you have suggested) and have the P1Ks do a ProNet/CPoE to the P3K? Investigate how many of each CONNECTION TYPE \\// and \\// how many TOTAL ETHERNET CONNECTIONS the PxKs support. If you can do EIP and ProNet, you may not need much 'comms' code.
I do not know how much data each connection type/PxK can handle, so I cannot make an estimate on how to parcel the EIP devices.
To answer your questions:
1) The WX instruction is not exclusive to the P3K CPU. All P-Series CPUs support this instruction. I assume the explicit call to the P3K in the documentation is a hold-over from older documentation.
2) Either of your suggested approaches (Modbus TCP or EtherNet/IP) could work.
To piggyback on what @kewakl (Customer) has stated, I would recommend acquiring the EDS files for the intended EtherNet/IP targets and test the import of each of these files within the Productivity Suite. This should give an indication as to whether this approach is going to work for your situation. Any messages generated from the EDS Import Message Center that you might not understand can always be shared here for help.
***Edits made to correct typos.
Hey, thanks for the reply!
Yes, I already have a smaller project that uses ~20 of these EIP devices in production (and yes, it took a little fiddle to get it to work with productivity).
Good to know WX works between different pXks - thanks!
Sounds like I have options, just gotta get my hands on a second pXk to test what works best for me.
>Yes, I already have a smaller project that uses ~20 of these EIP devices in production (and yes, it took a little fiddle to get it to work with productivity).
That is good to know, and a great starting point.