PC Worx Engineer cannot connect to controller

PLCnext Engineer
1

Greetings, I have recently received the PLCnext starterkit for use during my internship project. I have managed to get a connection working while directly attaching the lan cable to my laptop. However now I have both the PLCnext and my laptop attached to an ethernet switch, and now PCworx can no longer find the device. I can however still connect to the PLCnext through WinSCP & Putty, and perfrom linux commands/exchange files. I am currently using PC worx 7.2.3 on a windows 7 64-bitsystem. A couple of questions:

                                               1. Does PCworx **only** work with a direct lan cable connection?
                                               2. In what ip range does PC worx search for the device, and were can i change this?
                                               3. Do i have to open a project to connect to the device, in order to view the cockpit?

-Danyel van Tol

2

Hi Daniel,

                                               1. _Does PCworx**only** work with a direct lan cable connection?_

No. Most PC Worx Engineer functions will work over any Ethernet network, including through Ethernet switches.

                                               2. _In what ip range does PC worx search for the device, and were can i change this?_

You can search for online devices in the “Project” window, in the “Online Devices” tab, Please make sure that the correct Ethernet adapter is selected in the drop-down list (top left). The Search function does not use IP addresses to search for online devices; instead, it uses the Layer 2 “Discovery and Configuration Protocol” (DCP) to find devices. So it is not necessary to set a range of IP addresses for this discovery function.

If you are able to connect to the PLC using WinSCP and PuTTY with a direct cable connection, but not through an Ethernet switch, then it sounds like the switch may be causing the problem. If the switch is a managed switch, then perhaps some ports have been restricted in some way, e.g. disabled, or asigned to different Virtual LANs? If the switch is an unmanaged switch, then this is more puzzling, and we will need some more information about your network setup.

                                               3. _Do i have to open a project to connect to the device, in order to view the cockpit?_

Yes, in order to connect to a controller through PC WORX, you need to create a new Project and add the relevant controller (e.g. AXC F 2152) from the Devices tree (on the right). Then the Cockpit tab will be available for that controller.

As an alternative, if you know the IP address of the PLC then it is also possible to use Web Based Management to connect to the PLC and see some basic information - just open any modern web browser and navigate to the IP address of the PLC (default: 192.168.1.10).

I hope this helps - please let me know if you need any more information. - Martin Boers.

3

Thankyou Martin, unfortunately i still can not find the device in PC Worx Engineer. I used the search function, in the project window, in pcworx with the right adapter, no results. I can however still connect through the webpage, WinSCP and putty. Before the last time it did worked i have done three things in order:

                                               1. Changed the ip and connected the device to the switch
                                               2. Mirror the Default sd card to a new different sd card that is 8GB
                                               3. Updated the firmware

I am going to try resetting the device, with the new SD card inserted, if that doesnt work i’m going to do a reset with the default SD card. -Danyel van Tol

4

It turns out that i had to resolve an error in the PC Worx project. In the project window “Project/settings/IP range” i had to set this to the new ip and gateway of the network. Thanks Martin for the suggestion of the Project Window, else it would have taken ages to find that on my own :wink:. -Danyel van Tol

5

Hi Daniel, Glad to hear that you have made progress. You mentioned that you tried mirroring the default SD card to a different 8GB SD card. Please note that the 2GB SD card from Phoenix Contact (order number 1043501) is currently the only SD card supported on the AXC F 2152 controller. Good luck with your project and please let us know if you have any more questions. - Martin.