I have had a pile of grief with setting up Ethernet/IP unconnected messaging between NI Vision Builder AI and an Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC.
The problem I kept encountering was CIP errors when trying to set the connection up using the Tools=>Communication_Device_Manager in the NI Vision Builder AI software.
The computer I am using to run NI VBAI has 2 network cards: one for the plant PLC Ethernet network and the other for a dedicated connection to a FLIR Thermal Camera.
As part of my trouble-shooting, I found that I had no problems connecting to the A.B. ControlLogix PLC using NI's OPC server (trial version). The OPC server allowed me to choose which network card to use for PLC communications, whereas the NI VBAI Communication_Device_Manager did not. So, initially, I thought that may have something to with the problem. I tried disconnecting the ethernet cable from the camera's Ethernet card, disabling this second ethernet card and also changing the order in which the cards are used by the Windows XP O.S. networking software - all to no avail.
Note: The NI VBAI software and my RSLogix 5000 and RSLinx software were not running on the same computer. They were running on 2 different computers.
The solution (work-around) to the probem turned out to be the following: taking the RSLogix 5000 software off-line from the PLC and disabling the RSLinx driver - after which the NI VBAI Communication_Device_Manager had no problem setting up the connection to the A.B. tags. Subsequently reconnecting with RSLinx and RSLogix 5000 was no problem and it appears that everything is working as it should now. (To be confirmed as I continue to work on the vision application).
I'm posting this work-around so that others who may run into this problem will have a ready solution (work-around) until this bug is fixed.
Nick
