ECOM100 Blinking Red Light

[Greg]

rswolff,

You complained about this 16 months ago. We (I) asked you some technical questions.

See here: http://forum.hosteng.com/index.php/topic,722.msg5454.html#msg5454

You disappear without answering. You then reappear 16 months later only to complain again; on two threads; one not even related.    I would like to know if you, personally, have the ability to look into a crystal ball and see your own customers' problems and fix them without data. I find that I do not have that gift. 

So, if you are serious about fixing your issues (which I personally AM VERY INTERESTED IN; it is both my delight and job), then I need all the technical details you can provide. Such as:
(1) Physical layout of your system.
(2) Data layout of your system (what talks to what).
(3) Exact symptoms (What happens?)
(4) Procedure (What were you doing when it fails?)
(5) Wireshark traces if you think they might help.

I have worked long enough with these engineers at Host to tell you that the VERY DAY we can duplicate (or at least understand) the issue, it will be fixed if humanly possible.

So, how 'bout it? Will you help me help you? Or will you just wait another year or so and complain again?

[rswolff]

and oh yeah.....Win7 is REALLY REALLY REALLY good....if all you want is a Facebook page and videos from YouTube....and don't forget that really important function of organizing all your pictures, songs and whatever for you automatically......for everything else it basically is a piece of [fill in your own expletive]. bob

[BobO]

Ummm....I'm confused.

[Controls Guy]

I've had LOTS and LOTS of problems with my ECOM's.....seems they are fine if you use one....and don't do much with it....tie more together and they definitely start to have problems.....and they really, really like to disconnect from the cpu(?).....too many messages....too small a stack....who knows? if I could I'd take the nine(9) I have with the D0-06 plc's and toss them in the garbage....where they should have been in the first place....If I knew about the 'hidden' timeout problems and lockouts beforehand I would have used something else....cost would not have been a concern as I've already spent thousands trying to find workarounds to fix the inherent problems with these modules in a network setting.
bob

Bob, my personal experience with using ECOM's (mostly ECOM-100's in fact) for multiple simultaneous functions has been quite good.  Admittedly, I don't have any networks that tie nine PLC's together, nor any based on multiple 05/06 CPU's, but the ones that I do have run without stumbling, day after day, year after year.  I simply NEVER have had any complaints from my customers over this issue.  So, while anything less than perfect, trouble-free performance can be maddeningly frustrating, I don't think it's fair to act as if the product is just a pile of junk.  It seems to function well at some sites and not at others, possibly due to factors no one can identify yet.

[ATU]

Even AB has limitations with Ethernet Communications. No matter what PLC you are using, you can't have a dozen devices on one network all trying to communicate as fast as they can with everyone else,  without some consequences. There isn't infinite CPU time nor infinite bandwidth. To me, it sounds like you need a master device to act as a traffic cop. However, if you would put your ranting aside and want to seriously solve your problem, I would suggest to first answer Greg's questions let them and others with some experience to try to help you. There is always a work around to most problems.

[Controls Guy]

That's something I was going to suggest too, ATU.  Have one of the PLC's (or a PC) act as the master and initiate all comms with all the other units, both reading and writing, even brokering data it itself has no need for.  If you don't want to risk the single point of failure, program two or more units to do so, and have the backup(s) watch the behavior of the primary and take over the master role if they observe that it stops polling.