configuration of the instrument interface

[alba]

Dear all,

I have problems trying to connect the 6890N GC with ChemStation.

I firstly switch on the PC and then the GC. Two instruments are configured in the PC but I don't know if they correspond to the GC I am using in fact (instruments were configured several years ago). In the book 'Installing your GC Chemstation' I have read:

"For assistance in assigning an IP number or Host Name to your 6890 GC, see the online help accompanying the CAG Bootp Server."

I don't know what this exactly means.

Do you have any idea about how could I get the IP of a given GC???

Thank you very much!

P.S. I am using an old version of ChemStation: A.09.03

[GasMan]

On the 6890 keyboard click on the 'Options' key
Scroll to 'Communications' and press the 'Enter' key
You should now see the IP address of your GC.

Gasman

[alba]

Thanks for your help, Gasman. I have been able to see the IP address, and I have used the Configuration Editor to delete old Instruments and add the new one using the IP address from the GC.

However, I still can not connect the GC with ChemStation. I can read the following message when opening 'Instrument 1 online: '68GC not found! Check that 68GC is correctly configured'. Do you know what I am doing wrong or what I should check?

Moreover, at 'Communications' screen I see a field: Reboot GC: Off. What does it exactly mean? I could not find this information at the Manual.

I thank you very much for your help.

[aldehyde]

The 6890N doesn't need bootp (was required for 5890 and early 6890 models to assign an IP address to the instrument. With your model you can type it in from the front panel and it is saved in the instrument memory).

Your first step should be to make sure the instrument and computer can "talk" without even getting chemstation in the mix. With the instrument connected with an ethernet cable open dos command prompt (start menu > run > type cmd and hit enter) you should ping the ip address.

If the ip address is 10.1.1.101 you would type

ping 10.1.1.101

If you see this:

Pinging 10.1.1.101 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 10.1.1.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

Something is wrong with the physical connection between computer and instrument.

If you see this:

Pinging 10.1.1.101 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 10.1.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.1.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.1.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.1.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 10.1.1.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

this would mean you are communicating with the instrument correctly.

So, if you can't ping:

- Check the computer's ip address (if the instrument is 10.1.1.x the computer needs to be 10.1.1.x where x is not the same, is not 0, and is not 255 or bigger. Make the instrument like 10.1.1.2 and computer 10.1.1.1)

- Try a different network cable

- Make sure the computer's network card is working

If you can ping:

- Check chemstation configuration.

[AICMM]

alba,

Are you connected directly or are you connected through a hub? If through a hub, then PC and GC use standard network cable. If directly from PC to GC then you need a cross over cable. Been burned by that one before.

Best regards,

AICMM

[GasMan]

The two postings by aldehyde and AICMM have some good information. You may find the following also useful.

If you have a direct connection between the PC and 6890, you should have the cross-over cable mentioned by AICMM. These are usually black in color. You would also be using an IP address such as aldehyde was showing, such as 10.1.1.100.

If you are not using an IP address using the 10.1.1.X format, you will be going via a hub and will be on a LAN network. Besides having the correct IP address, you will also have to have the correct Gateway address and the correct Subnet mask. This data you will have to get from your IT department. Also, the cable between the GC and the HUB should be anything but black.

One word of warning if you are on a large network, you ping and get a reply. This does NOT mean 100% that you have connection to the GC. You could be getting a reply back from some other device such as a printer. To check for this, I always disconnect the cable from the back of the GC and retry the ping. If I get the reply 'Request timed out' then my original reply was from the GC. If you get a reply that is positive, this means that some other device has the same IP address.

Regarding you question about 'Reboot Off'. Aldehyde mentioned that you can enter the IP adress from the keyboard. This is half correct, as you need to 'Reboot' the GC to get the information into memory. You would make the necessary changes to the IP address, then go to 'Reboot Off', click on the Yes/On key and then press that key again. The GC will then do a reboot and save the changes.

Gasman

[alba]

Thank you very much for your answers!!!

This week I will verify all what you mentioned!!! I hope something works. At a first glance, I am not using the correct cable, the one I am using is white... and I have a direct connection between the PC and 6890 and I am using an IP address like 10.1.1.101.

Thanks!

[alba]

Hi all,

I have been trying to connect the GC with the PC and I have still problems. I still do not have communication between each other if I use the initial GC I was using. However, I have seen that I get communication between another GC and the PC. Therefore, I think that something is wrong with the card of the first ("wrong") GC.

The connected one has two green lights and an orange light on when the instrument is switched on and the crossover cable is connected to the PC. On the contrary, the "wrong" GC has only one green up light and the orange light on, and the low green light is off when the cable is connected.

Do you know how I could fix this problem of communication? Should I call the technical service or is there a simple way of arranging this?

Thanks a lot!!