How to Connect to a Do-more PLC Via Ethernet from AutomationDirect

In this video we are going to assume you can’t or don’t want to change your computers IP Address, but you want to connect to a Do-more via Ethernet and you don’t know what the Do-more’s IP Address is. There are three ways you can do that. First, you can connect via USB, then use that to configure the Ethernet Port so it is compatible with your PC’s Ethernet Port or network. Second, you can use a utility called NetEdit to configure the Do-more’s Ethernet Port directly using only an Ethernet Cord. That utility doesn’t need to know the Do-more’s IP Address to work. And third, you can use a USB cord to put a program in the Do-more PLC that auto configures the Ethernet port for you using the SETUPIP instruction. Most of the time you’ll want to do all of your work via USB – it’s the quickest, easiest way to connect, it keeps the Ethernet port available for your systems Ethernet Devices and you don’t have to monkey with the Ethernet settings of your PC or network. But, if you happen to find yourself in a situation where you need to connect your computer to the Do-more via Ethernet, you might find some of these handy. Here we go. Method 1 – connect via USB, use that to configure the Ethernet port, then re-connect via Ethernet. To connect via USB, just bring up the software - I’m using version 1.4.3 here – and click on NEW. We’re using a standard Do-more CPU and the Ethernet Version. We need to connect our PC to the Do-more with a standard USB cable and make sure the Do-more is powered up. We want to connect to the Do-more and we want to add a new connection. We want to initially connect via USB and I only have one Do-more connected right now which is this one right here. If you have multiple Do-mores connected via USB you would see a list here, make sure you select the right one. We’ll give the new link a name and a description and hit finish. Now that we have this new link, we just highlight that and press SELECT. We get the usual dialog asking if we want to use the current project on the PC the project that is in the PLC or none of the above. We want to use our new project Great, we’re connected to the Do-more, but via USB. We want to connect via Ethernet. I have an Ethernet Adapter in my PC at this IP Address, so let’s setup the Do-more to be on the same subnet. Well, just like we always do, we start with the system configuration and the only thing we need to mess with here is the CPU configuration where we see the Ethernet port is right here. Let’s set that up with the IP address we need to use. Use this Mask and we don’t have a gateway since we are connected directly to the Do-more. That’s it. The Do-more Ethernet port is now configured at that IP Address. You don’t even have to write the project to the Do-more. If we connect an Ethernet Cable between the PC and the Do-more and do a PING from the command line, sure enough, we get a reply from the Do-more. You don’t have to do that ping stuff – I just wanted to show you that the IP address of the Do-more is already there without having to do a Write. Well, now that our IP addresses are compatible, let’s disconnect from the USB link and physically remove the USB cord. The Ethernet Cord is still connected, so we just go back to connect the PLC, Add a new link, but via Ethernet this time, and use the default here. Since I have multiple Ethernet Adapters in this PC, I need to select the one we are using. The Do-more automatically scans the network and finds our Do-more so we select it and hit NEXT. Give it a name and description. Notice the format here – it’s the name and description we just typed in isn’t it? Great highlight that one and hit SELECT. And we are now connected to the PLC via Ethernet and can do all the things we would normally do via USB. In this method, assume we don’t have a USB cable handy, and we want to connect to a Do-more with an unknown IP Address. How do you do that? Well, go to the Launchpad and start up the Network Edit utility. If you have more than one network adapter like I do, be sure to switch over to the adapter your Do-more is connected to. NetEdit automatically scans the network and shows all of the Do-more PLCs connected right now. We just have the one, so double click on that, change its IP Address so it is compatible with our computer’s Ethernet adapter, and hit OK. The Do-more’s IP Address is now changed. Again, we can see we get replies from the Do-more via the Ping command. Close that out and go connect to the Do-more like we always do. We could create a new link here, but since we used the same IP address as the previous example, we’ll just use that link. And we’re now connected via Ethernet. And we did it without using a USB cable! The last way is to connect via USB – I’ll just use that USB link we setup earlier – and then we use the SETUPIP instruction to set the IP Address. This does the exact same thing as the other methods BUT you have to write the program to the Do-more AND run the program for it to take effect. You now have three different ways to connect to a Do-more via Ethernet when you don’t know the Do-more’s IP Address. If you have any questions, please contact AutomationDirect’s free award winning tech support during regular business hours. They will be happy to help. And don’t forget the forums. There are lots of folks there that love to share their ears of experience. Just don’t post any questions directed at AutomationDirect’s support staff there, they don’t monitor the forums on a regular basis.