Getting cFP-1808 Data to cFP-2120 Controller

[TommyHelter]

Hello,

We have an existing cFP-2120 Controller with the following embedded system software.  We are on LabView 7.1.1 on the Windows Host.

LabView Realtime	7.1
NI-Watchdog	2.1.2
NI-VISA	3.2
NI-Serial RT	2.5.4
NI-IrDA RT	1.0.1
Datsocket for LabView Realtime	4.2
FieldPoint Drivers	5.1.0
FieldPoint VI Manager	3.1.0

We have purchased a cFP-1808 Ethernet/Serial backplane and additional I/O modules to extend the I/O on this system (as the I/O on the existing controller's 8-slot backplane is already full with 3 AI-111, 3-DI-301 and 2-RLY-420 modules).  We were told and I have seen documents that suggest that we should be able to read data from the cFP-1808 on the cFP-2120.

Unfortunately, however, we can only read data on the first module (an AI-111) and up to the second module's channel 11 (a DI-301).  The data reads fine within NiMAX, but not from the controller.  No channels after that channel can be read either.  The module has been swapped and the backplane swapped as well.

The cFP-1808 is on the same subnet, etc.  The Ethernet info is:

cFP-2120 Controller, 10.0.0.242

cFP-1808 Backplane, 10.0.0.142

Subnet Mask(s) 255.255.255.0

As I said, some of the data can be read up to a certain channel and the I/O data can be read within MAX.  So, it's not really an Ethernet config issue.  So please, *no replies on the Ethernet config* or hardware setup.

We are also trying the Optomux (extended) Commands via the serial connection (direct via null modem cable), but have not had much luck there either.

If we can not extend the I/O in this way, then how else would be with such an existing controller?

Thanks,

Tom Held

Miller Engineering

Information Technologies Group

[TommyHelter]

After some more looking, it appears that, even though the cFP-1808 is specified in the FieldPoint Read function (as FP @ 10_0_0_142 - which is its address as configured and shown in NiMAX), the data is actually being read from the controller's I/O modules which is IP address 10.0.0.242 and is shown in Ni MAX as "FP @ 10_0_0_242".  Again, the IP settings are...

cFP-1808, 10.0.0.142, mask 255.255.255.0

cFP-2120, 10.0.0.242, mask 255.255.255.0

Gateway is set at 10.0.0.1

Thanks,

Tom Held

[TommyHelter]

Please allow me to answer my own post here.

We were able to read data on modules residing on a cFP-1808 I/O backplane from a cFP-2120 controller.  This was done using "logos" protocol and the Datasockets functions.  The format of the URL is as such

logos://10.0.0.10/FP/4DI/12

where,

10.0.0.10 is the configured IP address of the cFP-1808

FP is constant for FieldPoint

4 refers to the number "4" module in the bank

DI is a designation of a digital input module (in our case a DI-301 module), and

12 is the number "12" input channel

We were under the incorrect impression that Datasockets could not be used on an embedded/controller system.  To the contrary, this does work.

There are recent documents released by Idaho National Labs and other government studies in SCADA security that suggest that the Datasockets protocol is not secure.  Therefore, we have made some reassurances by isolating this communication behind a firewall.  Only a single Windows XP host can communicate with the network segment which contains both the cFP-2120 controller and the cFP-1808 I/O backplane.

We were never able to get the Extended Optomux functions to work between cFP-2120 controller and cFP-1808 I/O backplane (using respective serial ports and null modem adapter).  This would be a secured method as well, if it could be made to work.

Tom Held