SLIP Connection [WebWare SDK]

sanfordm · August 2005

Are there any limitations of having multiple SLIP connections with Interlink. I have two robots connected with SLIP connections using WebWare SDK 2.0. I can only see one robot at a time. If both aliases are entered, then they appear as the same robot in my application (using robotexplorer). The application is running on a PC with Windows XP SP2. The alias names are S4_1 and S4_2.

Thanks.

John Wiberg · September 2005

The limitation with SLIP connections is not with Interlink.

When using multiple SLIP connection with older robots you need to have a Terminal Server that supports SLIP in between that converts between Ethernet and RS-232.

SLIP <-> Terminal Server <-> PC

Terminal Servers from PATTON (www.patton.com) has been used with good results in the US while in Germany they have used Wiesemann&Theis (www.wut.de) as well.

sanfordm · September 2005

Thank you for the reply. The Application used to work. The difference now is a new PC and Webware instead of RobComm. The connection on the PC and on the robots are serial, so I am not sure why I would need a terminal server. Is webware different than RobComm in this way? Also, the robots do talk individually if only one alias is enetered in the interlink configuration at a time.

Thanks.

sanfordm38596,7268518519

Per Svensson · September 2005

Hi

How is your hardware configuration setup. Do you have 2 serial ports in your PC?

When they show up as the same robot do you mean that the information is from the same robot or do you see 2 alias with the same name?

sanfordm · September 2005

I have two serial ports. One of them is a USB add on. I do see two aliases in the robot explorer, two different names (s4_1 and s4_2), but they both show the same set of files. Both serial ports work fine. If I delete one of the aliases, then the remaining one works fine.

Per Svensson · September 2005

Hi

What is your IP, subnet setup and is it the same setup as before when it worked with RobComm?

sanfordm · September 2005

I tried it the same as it was before, with two sepearate subnets. Then also tried it with everthing on the same subnet. Which is better? I wasn't sure. The address was 101.101.101.111 for one robot and 202.202.202.222 for the second (when they were on different subnets. Now they are on the same and the second one is 101.101.101.112 or something like that. The PC is at 101.101.101.101.

Per Svensson · September 2005

So if you run on the same subnet it works or?

sanfordm · September 2005

There was no difference. There is two robot aliases listed (s4_1 and s4_2) and both show the same set of files. Should they be on the same subnet, or doesn't it matter?

Per Svensson · September 2005

I'm not quite sure how XP handles the TCPIP stack but usally when you are running 2 different communication lines you need to have 2 different subnets otherwise the TCPIP stack doesn't know what physical communication to go thru.

What happens if you just unplugg the serial cable to one of the robots? (try the other one as well)

sanfordm · September 2005

In XP, you can bridge two connections. It is kind of like a passthrough, the PC can use both for the same subnet. However, it does not available for SLIP connections. So, maybe I should use seperate subnets then???

I don't think unplugging a cable makes a difference. If you unplug the one that is showing the files, then both aliases in the explorer loose the file list. If you remove the other one, there is no change.

sanfordm · September 2005

I have two in house robots now to test things out instead of calling my customer to do it. Here is what I have tried. I have the robots on different subnets. Each one will communicate on its own. If I dial into both of them, and open interlink monitor, one will be running and the other will be connecting, but never connect. If I hang up the connection to the running robot, then the other one will talk. If I look at the two network connections in the system tray, they will both be connected, but only one will have flashing lights and have data transmitting. If I disconnect, the other one immediately starts talking.

sanfordm · September 2005

With my new setup, I get mostly the same results. The only difference is that I robot appears connected with files, while the other shows up as disconnected, instead of duplicating the other robot. Both are "dialed in" to the SLIP connections and connected at that point. If you remove the cable from the one that is "running", then no one will show files. If you unplug the other one, there is no change.

Per Svensson · September 2005

Hi
We need to setup a test configuration here at our office to verify the problem and what it could be. (not a very common configuration, usally we use a terminalserver in these cases)

Question?
Before when you where running RobComm what operatingsystem where you running on and which version of RobComm?
On the old computer did you have 2 builtin serialports or where you running the USB serial port there as well?

sanfordm · September 2005

Well, I finally think I figured it out. The configuration was fine. I am using two different subnets now. The two SLIP dial connections need to be made before starting any interlink application. After that, starting interlink monitor or my application will work fine. If I have the monitor running and then dial, I will never see more than one robot running at a time in interlink even though the dialed connections are made. I still have to verify this on the customers machine. They have a slightly different configuration than my PC.

The second port turns out to be built in on both PCs. The Original operating system was Win2K SP? and the new one is XP SP2. My machine that I finally got it to work on is XP SP1. Robcomm version was 3.0/3. Webware version is 2.0.30

Thanks for the help. If this solution doesn't work on the other computer, then I will post again.

SLIP Connection [WebWare SDK]

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