IoT 2050 Instability and Crashing

Hi,

I have been setting up an IoT 2050 for the past few days and have been running into some problems using node-red-contrib-s7, I've been using the example image and flashing it to the eMMC.

1. When installing s7 node through the pallet manager without making any changes to node.js or node-red the connection is highly unstable, disconnecting from the PLCs constantly ( I supposed because it was  version 3.0.0beta).

2. When installing a older version of the node using npm install node-red-contrib-s7@2.1.1 nothing happens and the nodes do not show up in the pallets manager.

3. When Updating node.js and node-red to the latest version and running node red manually (after changing the the path) and installing  any version of s7 node using npm the node shows up in the pallet manager. However, shortly after connecting to a PLC node-red itself crashes (I loose connection to the server). 

4. I have tried many combinations of node.js, node-red, and s7-node versions and none of them work, with most resulting in crashing. 

5. I'm currently unable to both read the PuTTY window for the IoT 2050 and have an ethernet connection to the PLCs, so I'm unable to see what error message pop up when the node-red crashes. 

I have set up the PLCs correctly as I has an IoT 2020 reading from them previously. 

Any help on the 5 main points would be appreciated, including how to get the error messages as I understand its hard to trouble shoot without them. I'm just throwing the post out there to see if anyone has ever had the same problem and has managed to solve it. 

Kind regards 

Which image version did you try, release or one built from github.com? Could you check with latest CI build (https://github.com/siemens/meta-iot2050/actions/runs/923771733) as well? This also fixes the update of nodes via the palette in case a newer version than what is preinstalled should be needed.

Furthermore, please share the output of "journalctl -u node-red" in case Node-RED is actually crashing (losing connection). Login via ssh or - if available - the debug port (UART connection) for this.

I use IOT2050_Example_Image_V1.0.2.img as released by siemens, not one built from github. I suppose I could try building my own but I don't have a Linux VM, can the image be built on the IoT 2050? 

As for the results of the command I get this as the file attached shows. I suppose this happens because I have disabled the Automatic start-up of node red and start it manually by typing node-red into the console. 

I have just conducted a series of test using the second IoT 2050 I have, set both of them up with the same Wi-Fi dongle, ethernet connection, gave them the same port number (My PLCs or on a network switch with port number 10.1.1.xx), installed the same image, basically set them up as twins. 

The first one still has the stability issues with the s-7 node and crashes quite often.

The second one has had no stability issues for the past hour. It is entirely possible that I just got a defective unit, so I will let the second one run over night and report on weather it crashes next morning. 

Hi,

This is extremely helpful actually as I still need to update 3 IoT 2050s, Thanks very much! However, I have determined that the problem with the first IoT 2050 was a hardware issue as the second one hasn't had any issues with the exact same setup. 

Hi Eti1699,

In node-red, let's use node-red-contrib-s7-comm to connect Siemens PLC.

Best regards!