Question:
How many PC system bus adapters can be operated simultaneously at one PC?
Answer:
Either one PC system bus adapter (EMF 2173) can be operated at the parallel interface or a maximum of 16 PC system bus adapters (EMF 2177) can be operated at one USB port each at the same time.
Every PC system bus adapter which is to be used for communication must be entered and activated in the system bus configurator. If several PC system bus adapters are used simultaneously every adapter with the system bus configurator must be assigned a device number. This procedure is described in detail in the documentation PC system bus adapter 2173/2177 - Software installation & configuration.
The modified device number is saved non-volatile in the PC system bus adapter. If the device number of the adapter is not the same as the device number of the system bus configurator, no communication is possible via the adapter.
The communication via several PC system bus adapters is not possible with every software, such as Global Drive Control (GDC) or Drive PLC Developer Studio (DDS). The PC system bus adapter which is to be used for communication with these software products must be defined as standard in the system bus configurator.
The Drive Server configurator allows the simultaneous communication via several PC system bus adapters. The number of the PC system bus adapter which is connected to a controller is displayed in front of this controller. It is the number of the adapter defined in the system bus configurator and not the device number.
Note:
If several system bus adapters of type EMF 2177 are operated in the system bus configurator, the single device numbers must be individual. If not, following error message will be displayed when the button 'Diagnosis' is pressed:
=> Hardware 'place in the list' and 'place in the list': For parameters (device numbers) the value xxx is used several times. The value is to be individual.
