Modular Gateway FAQ

I have sporadic problems, what can I do?

• Check the power supply. A common power supply must be used. This is also stated in the manual.

I would like to make a recording of the field bus data. Is this possible with a Modular Gateway Module?

• No, the field bus is inaccessible.

What is the delay time for the transmission of data between two Modular Gateway Components?

• On the landing page of the Modular Gateway product family, you can find this and other technical data:

• https://www.kunbus.com/modular-gateways.html

Open

Is it permissible to connect GND and PE?

• Yes, it is common to connect ground and PE, whereas our device does not have PE but FE connection.

May I just order devices, or is a base unit like a Revolution Pi Connect Module necessary?

• The Modular Gateway modules act as slaves. So that data can be exchanged between two networks, a master is necessary in each case.

• https://kunbus-gmbh.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KS/pages/2843508848

Is there more information available on how to program these units?

• The devices themselves function via plug and play.

• https://kunbus-gmbh.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KS/pages/2843508848

• There exists a legacy module “Gateway module for serial network” that has to be programmed.

I cannot see the data on the other gateway, and the master devices don’t show any errors.

• Check the LEDs. The power LEDs have to light green on both devices. Check the plugs and the wiring.

• The amount of data which can be transferred is limited by the smaller field bus device. Take a look at chapter “Supported size of process data” in the user manual.

• Check if the offset is the same for both field bus modules. I.e. if you write 2 bytes output data to offset 0 it will be available as input data on the other module at the offset 0.

• The data is not in the same format as expected. Check the program and the configuration of your field bus master so that you interpret the process data as expected. The Gateway Modules transfer the data in the little-endian format without modification. So in case you expect a signed integer 32 bit at offset 12, you have to verify that this matches on both sides.

Would it be possible to transfer more than 512 bytes for input and output data?

• No, the 512 bytes is the upper limit for each I/O direction.

• If you need more data, you have to use a second Gateway.

• Depending on the field bus used, the limit may be smaller than 512 Bytes.

How can I find out the IP address of the device?

• The devices send a Gratuitous ARP on power-on, which contains the IP address

  • Start a Wireshark capture

  • Filter “arp.isgratuitous”

  • The device should be turned off and on

Open

What happens if I disconnect a Modular Gateway Partner component from the power or remove the plug-in jumper?

The activated gateway component can continue to communicate with the field bus.
However, an error is indicated that there is an error on the LEDs and in the process image.
Here is an example based on the gateway component Modular Gateway EtherCAT:

Can the KUNBUS Gateways be operated in slave mode?

• Yes, all KUNBUS gateways can only be used as slave modules.

I restart the EtherCAT master several times and the Gateway module for EtherCAT module switches to error mode.

• There is an ET1100 built into the KUNBUS EtherCAT GW.
  You can read the address 0x0442 (Watchdog Counter Process Data) when it goes to 255, the slave is in error mode.

• You can write to this register after each restart so that it is set to 0 again.

• https://download.beckhoff.com/download/Document/io/ethercat-development-products/ethercat_esc_datasheet_sec2_registers_3i0.pdf

Related Articles