R
Hi, interesting problem with network addressing: I have a machine with 30 embedded PC's, stretched out along a conveyor belt (sort of). Each PC, from left to right, will do something specifically to the products passing along via a robot controlled by that PC. They are all connected to a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet, and a 31st PC is responsible for controlling all 30 others. All PC's run NT embedded and have the same application running. From the controlling PC, they receive a job file containing the commands they have to execute, and when. This job file is specific for each PC, and the location of the PC (operations to the products have to be made in a certain order). The configuration of the IP-addresses is: 192.168.0.1 for the first PC (leftmost), up to 192.168.0.30 for the last PC (rightmost). So far, easy. It is clear who is where. Now comes the catch. The operator has the option to add and remove robots and the accompanying PC's, or to shift them around to other locations in the machine. Don't ask why, it is very application specific, it happens depending on the production demands. I thus lose the mapping between IP-address and location of the robot in th machine. I.e, IP-address 192.168.0.1 could be no longer the left-most PC in the machine. This means that it receives the wrong job file. I want to prevent that. It is no option to have the operator reconfigure the PC's, as they are headless (no video, no keyboard, no mouse, etc.). The solution that we're thinking of is using the parallel port for setting the lowest 8 bits of the IP-address, via a dongle (sort of). When a robot and its PC are moved around and connected to the base of the machine, they automatically get attached to the dongle for that location, and thus also get the lP-address belonging to that location. Question: is this possible at all in NT? Are there any other possibilities to get 'geographical' addressing? I know of the same problem in train networks, but it requires relays in the network-connection, which is only possible when using a bus, not a star topology as with 100Base-TX. Is it possible at all to change an IP-address dynamically? Or must I reboot NT? Sincerely, Rob Hulsebos / Philips CFT [email protected]