Sniffing a ethercat network between PXI and Anybus x-gateway fails

[NVan]

Is there a way to sniff (wireshark) the ethercat network traffic between a PXIe8840 and an Anybus x-gateway?

Multiple of our setups contain a direct ethercat network from port 2 of the PXI (set as EThercat master ID 0) to a Anybus x-gateway (slave/slave ethercat) to setup a communication between PXI and a KEB master.

LabVIEW RT 18.5 with NI-industr. comm. for EtherCat version 18.5 adds Ethercat to the system.

One of these setups has frequently difficulties with deployment (30%) and failures due to ethercat communication errors (>1x/24hrs) while running.

As part of the failure analysis I want to spy the network traffic.

However, inserting a Cisco Gigabit switch SG250-26 or a DualComm ETAP-2003 TAP adapter in between or even connecting one of these devices to the OUT port of the Anybus device makes the deployment to fail 100%.

So, how can I spy the traffic?

[VA.KI]

Hello,

So do I understand you correct that adding switch you get errors during deployment?

What kind of error do you get?

[NVan]

Hi,

We partly improved the random crashes during regular deployment on this setup after applying some changes to the ethercat XML file.

However we still face 100% crashing whenever the DualComm ETAP-2003 (10/100/1000Base-T Network Tap) or a properly configured level 2 switch is inserted in between the PXI and the Anybus system. Similar behaviour is found on multiple other setups. In fact we have no success on any other setup: we simply can't monitor the Ethercat traffic at PXI side. Where the other side of the anybus behaves flauwless while being monitored.

After this crash and removal of the TAP adaptor we have to reboot the PXI system to recover. Re-deployments are not possible without reboot.

Unfortunately, the log does not give any usefull information about the error rootcause.

Logging:

• Start Date: 2021-01-21 10:00
• Loading System Definition file: C:\TDLM\U27_PVT_ClutchBox2\Veristand Project\U27.nivssdf
• Preparing to deploy the System Definition to the targets...
• Compiling the System Definition file...
• Initializing TCP subsystem...
• Starting TCP Loops...
• Connection established with target Controller.
• Sending reset command to all targets...
• Preparing to deploy files to the targets...
• Starting download for target Controller...
• Opening WebDAV session to IP 10.10.0.20...
• Processing Action on Deploy VIs...
• Setting target scan rate to 1000 (uSec)... Done.
• Gathering target dependency files...
• Downloading U27.nivssdf [866 kB] (file 1 of 4)
• Downloading U27_Controller.nivsdat [802 kB] (file 2 of 4)
• Downloading CalibrationData.nivscal [0 kB] (file 3 of 4)
• Downloading U27_Controller.nivsparam [0 kB] (file 4 of 4)
• Closing WebDAV session...
• Files successfully deployed to the targets.
• Starting deployment group 1...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The VeriStand Gateway encountered an error while deploying the System Definition file.

Details:
Error 537700 occurred at Project Window.lvlib:Project Window.vi >> Project Window.lvlib:Command Loop.vi >> Project Window.lvlib:Connect to System.vi

This error code is undefined. Undefined errors might occur for a number of reasons. For example, no one has provided a description for the code, or you might have wired a number that is not an error code to the error code input.

Additionally, undefined error codes might occur because the error relates to a third-party object, such as the operating system or ActiveX. For these third-party errors, you might be able to obtain a description of the error by searching the Web for the error code (537700) or for its hexadecimal representation (0x00083464).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
• Sending reset command to all targets...
• Stopping TCP loops.
Waiting for TCP loops to shut down...
• TCP loops shut down successfully.
• Unloading System Definition file...
• Connection with target Controller has been lost.