How to collect data using EtherNet/IP

Determine EtherNet/IP support

Verify that your machine supports providing data over the EtherNet/IP protocol, and that the data items you want to expose are properly configured.

Please Note: If you have any uncertainties about the EtherNet/IP capabilities of your machine control, please reach out to your vendor for further guidance.

Connectivity Test

Once you’ve established that EtherNet/IP should be available on your control, you should test communication with it before trying to configure it in MachineMetrics. Collect the following information:

• The IP address of your control

Additionally, make sure that nothing on your network, the machine control, or the computer you’re testing the connection from, would block TCP port 44818, which is the well-known port for EtherNet/IP.

Connect a computer to the same network that the machine control is on, and use an EtherNet/IP scanner to try and open a connection to the machine. If you don’t already have a scanner for managing or exploring the data on your machine, your vendor may be able to recommend one.

EtherNet/IP Parameters

The main global parameter that may need to be changed is the scan interval, which determines how frequently data will be polled. By default the scan interval is set to 0.2 seconds, meaning data will be polled 5 times per second. You may want to increase this value if the frequency is putting too much work on the PLC, but higher values may also time out the connection on some controls.

EtherNet/IP Tags

EtherNet/IP exposes data in the form of “tags”. Tags represent simple data types like numbers and dates, and may also represent strings or more complex entities. There is no need to specify the exact data type within the tag configuration.

Tags are specified by a path that represents their location in a hierarchy of data. Tags may be nested within several layers of objects, or indexed within arrays. Tags also have a scope, which is either global, or local to a specific program modules.

Here are several examples of tag locations:

# Globally scoped tag
AssemblyIndex
# Globally scoped tag within object Module10
Module10.ModeAuto
# Globally scoped tag at index 2 of PositionAxis array within object Module10
Module10.PositionAxis[2]
# Locally scoped tag to program Station1
Program:Station1.FaultNumber

EtherNet/IP Configuration Example

Here’s an example EtherNet/IP adapter script with a mix of global and local scoped tags of varying data types (booleans, numbers, strings). Variables transform some of the tag data into MTConnect-specific representations.

To learn more about V2 Adapter Scripts see below: 
EtherNet/IP V2 Adapter Script

version: 2
scan-interval: 0.25
tags:
  recipe_loaded: RecipeLoaded
  mode_auto: Module10.ModeAuto
  fault_ind: Module10.FaultInd
  peak_force: Program:Station1.Values.Reals[0]
  press_force: Program:Station1.Values.Reals[2]
  fault_code: HMI1.StaData.FaultNumber
  fault_msg: HMI1.StaData.FaultDescription
variables:
  execution:
    - state:
      - ACTIVE: mode_auto and fault_ind == 0 and recipe_loaded
      - READY: true
  controller_mode:
    - state:
      - AUTOMATIC: mode_auto
      - MANUAL: true
data-items:
  - recipe_loaded
  - controller_mode
  - execution
  - press_force
  - force
conditions:
  system:
    - code: gen_fault
      message: Machine is in fault
      value:
        FAULT: fault_ind > 0
    - code: ${fault_code}
      message: ${fault_msg}
      value:
        FAULT: fault_ind > 0

Have Questions?

Reach out to support@machinemetrics.com.