Commissioning Powerflex IP addresses

I have to commission about 150 drives next week. The last couple times, I just used the BootP/DHCP tool. For anyone coming across this and unfamiliar with the tool, it's pretty handy:
* Start the program and choose the network configuration
* Power up your first device and wait for a new request to appear in the history panel
* Double click the new entry and create a relation with the desired IP
* Wait for the drive to make another request and receive its IP
* Select the relation and click the Disable DHCP button to make it a static IP

Multiply by 150, though, and this is pretty tedious. I sped things up a little by using the switch's built-in DHCP server, but that took the BootP/DHCP Tool's "Disable DHCP" button out of the equation and setting 150 drives to "manual IP" one at a time via RSWho is almost as bad. Is there another quick way to easily switch a bunch of drives to static all at once?

Beers,
Chip

Check out the new Ethernet/IP Commissioning Tool. The old BOOTP/DHCP server is more or less deprecated now in favour of that, and if you have a recent version of Logix installed, it should have been installed along with it.

It's still somewhat tedious, but a lot better than the old.

Get yourself one of these if you are setting up that many devices.

https://www.plccable.com/allen-brad...dress-explorer-dhcp-and-bootp-server-sim-ipe/

Cheers

Mark

MarkNightingale said:

Get yourself one of these if you are setting up that many devices.

https://www.plccable.com/allen-brad...dress-explorer-dhcp-and-bootp-server-sim-ipe/

Cheers

Mark

Click to expand...

true statement on this, I use mine all the time.

commissioned 30 or so kinetix drives and it only took a couple of minutes.

set the target IP. connected to the first one. click ok, click set static. unplug and move to the next, move the IP up one. repeat

about 10 seconds per drive.

I looked for the new ethernet tool but its still showed bootp tool. Am i missing something here?

IanM8040 said:

true statement on this, I use mine all the time.

commissioned 30 or so kinetix drives and it only took a couple of minutes.

set the target IP. connected to the first one. click ok, click set static. unplug and move to the next, move the IP up one. repeat

about 10 seconds per drive.

Click to expand...

I think someone has posted a YouTube of this. Is it Tim Wilborne?

Thanks for the tips, everyone. The new program looks like a modernized version of the BootP/DHCP app, but I'll give it a test drive next week and see if it speeds things up. That device reminds me of an ASi handheld, could certainly be handy to have in the toolkit.
All that said, I like the workflow I have so far with just powering up the devices in their IP order, and if I can just find a way to quickly tell a whole bunch of devices to switch to static mode, my vision would be fulfilled and I could take my next step toward world domination. In the end, anything that makes this a faster process works for me.

Chip

Brew Chip said:

if I can just find a way to quickly tell a whole bunch of devices to switch to static mode, my vision would be fulfilled and I could take my next step toward world domination.

Click to expand...

Well, it might not be that difficult to sniff and parse the "disable BootP" packets' conversation and add that to some BootP server (e.g. from Github). It would take longer than doing 150 of these by hand, but if world domination is the long game ...

drbitboy said:

I think someone has posted a YouTube of this. Is it Tim Wilborne?

Click to expand...

Yes, it is me. Here's a video showing how you can use it to assign IP addresses and quickly index to the next IP address and assign the next one.
https://youtu.be/eAznJIdqJXM

Jim3846 said:

I looked for the new ethernet tool but its still showed bootp tool. Am i missing something here?

Click to expand...

https://compatibility.rockwellautom...umb=112&refSoft=1&toggleState=&versions=60873 I think will take you right to it. If not, search for "commissioning" and it'll show up in the autocomplete. For some reason it doesn't show if you start with Ethernet...

Just did some quick testing with it and I think it might be just what I'm looking for after all: serve up a DHCP range (instead of just 1 relation at a time like the old tool) PLUS switching multiple devices to Static simultaneously. I'll report back after the panel checkout.

Brew Chip said:

https://compatibility.rockwellautom...umb=112&refSoft=1&toggleState=&versions=60873 I think will take you right to it. If not, search for "commissioning" and it'll show up in the autocomplete. For some reason it doesn't show if you start with Ethernet...

Click to expand...

Just realized I never came back with my promised follow-up. It worked like a charm, this is exactly what it ought to be. The range assignment function was great - it popped up a window that showed the last address assigned and the number remaining. Power up a drive, wait for the counter to update, repeat. Took just a few minutes to assign 70ish drives, then I was able to select all 70 at once and switch them to Static with just a few clicks.

Thanks for the assist!