Ethernet

First Look: Red Lion’s New NT5000 Gigabit Industrial Ethernet Switches (M5E38)

I take a first look at Red Lion's newly released Industrial Gigabit Ethernet Switch, the N-Tron NT5000 series, including unboxing and initial setup, in Episode 38 of The Automation Minute, Season 5. [vimeo 811212172 w=750 h=420] The Automation Minute, Season 5 Episode 38 Show Notes: Special thanks to Red Lion for coming...

Red Lion’s New NT5000 Managed Gigabit Switches (P144)

Today my guest is Diane Davis from Red Lion who introduces us to their new N-Tron NT5000 line of Managed Gigabit Switches in Episode 144 of The Automation Podcast. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video. Watch the Podcast: [vimeo 806053321 w=750 h=420] The Automation Podcast is also...

Industrial Ethernet Switches from Antaira (P136)

Today my guest is Scott Preston of Antaira who introduces us to their line of Industrial Ethernet Switches in Episode 136 of The Automation Podcast. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video. Watch the Podcast: [vimeo 788066573 w=750 h=420] The Automation Podcast is also available on most Video...

First Look: MOXA NAT-102 (M5E29)

I take a first look at the NAT-102 Industrial Network Address Translation Device from MOXA today on The Automation Minute. [vimeo 690594466 w=750 h=420] The Automation Minute, Season 5 Episode 29 Show Notes: Special thanks to MOXA for sending in the NAT-102 for us to feature on The Automation Minute! Find out...

First Look: MOXA SDS-3000 Smart Industrial Ethernet Switches (M5E19)

We take a first look at the SDS-3000 line of Industrial Ethernet Smart Switches from MOXA in this episode of The Automation Minute. [vimeo 597394126 w=750 h=420] The Automation Minute, Season 5 Episode 19 Show Notes: Special thanks to MOXA for sending us a sample of their SDS-3016 and 3008 Smart Industrial...

Honeywell Fault Tolerant Ethernet and Control Firewall

After a previous article about Honeywell Experion Controllers with PMIO, I received some feedback in regards to how Experion controllers connect to a process control network (PCN). I wanted to provide a short overview in response and hope it provides some useful information about the configuration of Fault Tolerant Ethernet...

Using Fiberoptic cabling for Ethernet Networks

If you are working with Ethernet networks in your facility, whether IT or OT networks, chances are that all the network equipment is not located in the same room or even building. Systems that need to communicate with one another are often located hundreds of feet apart. Since copper is...

What is PRP?

Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) is a standard defined in IEC 62439-3 and is adopted in the ODVA, Inc. EtherNet /IP specification, and is used to create network redundancy by allowing PRP enabled devices to send duplicate Ethernet frames over two independent Local Area Networks (LANs). The beauty of this architecture...

Cisco & Stratix Switch Setup using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

In this continuation of getting familiar with the CLI (Command Line Interface) of your Cisco or Stratix switch, we will go beyond getting connected and look at basic setup features that will need to be utilized in setting up your switch for any environment whether it would be IT...

Cisco & Stratix Command Line Interface Basics

“Everything must be connected”. That is pretty much the philosophy in the manufacturing environment because every sensor, every data point needs to be captured, monitored and utilized for decision making. There is no such excuse that “we can’t bring that data point into the control system”. The need for networking...

Choosing The Right Ethernet Switch

Like many other people that work in controls and automation, I came from an electrical and instrumentation background and did not have any experience with network design, configuration or maintenance. Thankfully, my first job was a mill startup and I was able to learn many things that would be a...

Setting the Password in Your Stratix Switch

One of the things I love the most about working with industrial control systems in the OT (Operational Technology) environment is that you never do the same thing every day. One day you may be troubleshooting operational issues, and the next day you are building HMI (Human Machine Interface )...

Using The 1783-NATR To Bridge Networks

With small control teams managing already large and increasingly growing control systems, an opportunity that I have encountered is the need to remotely access programmable logic controllers for various reasons, including troubleshooting as well as performing administration tasks. Often, the remote controllers are embedded within integrated packages that include additional...

Flex I/O – How to add on Ethernet to ControlLogix (S21)

In today's article (and video) I walk through how to add Ethernet Flex I/O to a ControlLogix System: Step 1) To start, open your RSLogix 5000 or Studio 5000 project and find your Ethernet communications module under I/O Configuration. Once you find it, expand it by clicking on the plus...

S7-1200 – How To Set The IP Address Of A New PLC (S16)

In this week's episode of The Automation Show, we take a look at how you set the IP Address of a new Siemens S7-1200: For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video. [vimeo 366837103 w=750 h=420] The Automation Show, Episode 16 Show Notes: Related Articles: How To Activate TIA...

SLC-5/05 – Using the BOOTP Utility to Set the Ethernet/IP Address

How to set the Ethernet IP Address of a SLC-5/05 Controller using the free BOOTP-DHCP utility. If you have a new SLC-5/05, or one that has been reset to Factory Defaults, one option to set it's IP Address is to use the free BOOTP-DHCP utility installed with RSLinx Classic. To do so,...

Ethernet Basics: Addressing

In yesterday's article I covered the basics of Ethernet cabling, hubs and switches. In today's article I'll cover the essential Ethernet basics of IP Addressing, including Host IDs, Subnet Masks, Default Gateways, and Reserved Addresses. Ethernet IPv4 Address and Subnet Mask Basics: Those familiar with bits and bytes will have an advantage...

Ethernet Basics: Hardware

One of the best courses I took back in the 90's was an Ethernet Networking course. At the time I was already familiar with DH+, DH-485, and RIO, and like most people I connected to the Internet through a dial-up service like AOL. Fast forward twenty years, and now most of...

System Design – How To Use Rockwell’s New Ethernet/IP Capacity Tool

In today's article I'll show you how to use Rockwell's new Ethernet/IP Capacity Tool. The replacement for Rockwell's discontinued Ethernet/IP Capacity Tool can now be found inside of Integrated Architecture Builder (IAB.) Note: To learn how you can get a free copy of IAB, check out my previous article HERE. To access...

RSLinx, MSExcel – Get A-B Programmable Controller Data into Microsoft Excel using RSLinx Classic (M4E41)

In this episode I demonstrate how to use RSLinx Classic to get data from Allen-Bradley Programmable Controllers into Microsoft Excel (Episode 41 of The Automation Minute Season 4:) [vimeo 468369524 w=640 h=360] If you've found this video helpful, checkout my training courses here. Check out our Video Collection #1 here, which includes...