Hi Experts,

I have a problem with my plant and I'm not sure how to fix it.  I have a smartronic valve connected to a DP network, connected to my S7-400 PLC.  I recently had a shutdown, where I added extra Distributed I/O to a couple of my et200s units.  When I restarted I found that my PLC no longer could 'see' the valve on the network and showed in hwconfig as missing.  The valve is on the same network, but nowhere near the changes physically. Also worth mentioning that my plant is 2 lines mirrored and the second line is fault free  (two DP networks, one for each line)

I replaced the valve with a new from the shelf unit, configured and calibrated, but this valve also doesn't want to connect to the PLC.  I have attached profitrace to the affected network and it shows everything is fine and I can see the telegrams for this node back and forward.

I rolled back the hwconfig to prior to the shutdown, but this still did not solve the issue.  I have checked that I am using the most recent GSD.

I'm tempted to delete the current valve and drop it onto the DP network again in HWconfig, but I'm running out of time to keep turning off the PLC.

Any suggetions?

many thanks,

Hello EasilyLost;

Please clarify one detail (amongst others): you see the telegrams go back and forth for this valve using Profitrace, so there is communication between the DP-master and the valve, even though it does not appear in the HWConfig?

Does the valve respond to your program commands correctly?

Can you tell us what version of simatic Manager you are operating with, and show us a screencapture of the HWConfig (both offline and online, if possible)?

Hope this helps,

Daniel Chartier

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the reply.

I can't go online with profitrace today because the line is running with the valve bypassed.  When I looked yesterday the telegrams were 'request status' from the master and a return of 'watchdog flag' from my recollection.  So for each request from the master there is a reply from the slave.

I changed the SCADA setpoints while logging and didn't see these in the message log, but that's not a surprise since the 400 cpu shows the valve as missing in hwconfig.

My install of simatic software is 5.5 sp3, and it's worth noting that I have made hw changes multiple times with this install without issue and that this is a mirror of another line with the same hw on the same plc.

Regarding the screenshots, I am not at my desk today so I will have to supply those later, however it just shows the graphic with a score through it when I go online.

short answers yes no and not today

many thanks

Hi,

Update with creenshots from hwconfig.

offline.

Update with creenshots from hwconfig.

online.

In case it helps anyone else:

I finally found the issue, whenever a DSAP-63 is sent by the master it will take the controller offline.  Seems to have been a firmware issue for low level designers handling this broadcast badly from research on the internet.  Waiting for the manufacturer to confirm.

I believe you can stop the problem by switching off 'cyclic distribution of parameters' in the properties of the network, but this isn't a cure.  I'm testing this next shutdown.

Not sure how to tag this with more meaningful phrases for searches.