I am trying to control EtherNet/IP devices through a host PC directly without a PLC in between. Has anyone used any of the EtherNet/IP Scanner DLL Kit from IXXAT or Pyramid Solutions? Can this be achieved through an OPC server (such as one from Matrikon)?

 

I haven't tried the libraries, but I have no reason to doubt that they work.

OPC is not a good way to control devices. If the application is slow enough, say on the order of one scan per second, it's okay. If you need anything even remotely resembling performance, say 100ms or better, forget OPC.

It's possible to write it yourself, but it is not for the faint of heart. The EtherNet/IP spec is quite complicated, and will require time measured in man-months.

Hilscher has a nifty and reasonably inexpensive solution using an add-in card (PCI or PCI Express), but I'm not sure if they have the EtherNet/IP scanner functionality yet.

-James Ingraham
Sage Automation, Inc.

 

We use:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/tuxeip/
and have integrated it into
http://pvbrowser.org

 

I would like to try out this library, tuxeip that is, but the site seems to be down. Is it possible to have a tarball emailed to me?

 

In such cases we are using the EIPScanner Tool from Pyramid.
It allows at least some simple communication with EIP adapters.

Heinz