0

Feild Upgrades !

chuck streb 2 weeks ago in IQANrun updated by Anders Olsson 1 week ago 7

I am circling back with this subject ! Even with IQANGO and IQANRUN, I am not confident I will not crash when remoting in for an upgrade. Out of 4 field upgrades, I have had 2 failed attempts. That's not a great record. 1 of those attempts when i started over actually recovered.  WE NEED A SECURE WAY OF UPDATING MACHINES. I would love to send a dongle that plugs into a USB port. We have over 65 machines in the field , it is cost prohibitive to go out into the field and update. Please , Please, Please think of a way to do this !  down load the entire program first, checksum it with a hash function, then install. Something. 

Thanks

Chuck

+3

We had problems with failed updates in the past.

This is our typical setup, communication-wise:

PC (with IQANrun) -> VPN -> 4G/Ethernet-router -> MD4

After experimenting for quite a while and sniffing the network traffic from the MD4 we saw that even though the MD4 has a static IP-address it asked our router for an IP-address (DHCP) when rebooting during an update. We solved this issue by configuring the router to lease the same IP-address as the static IP.

For example:

-MD4, Static IP: 10.0.1.3

-Configure the router to always lease the IP: 10.0.1.3 to the MD4 by MAC-address. IP - MAC-binding.

By doing this the handshaking between IQANrun on our remote PC and the MD4 continued which resulted in successful updates.

My 2 cents.

I don't know how your communication setup looks like but maybe this could fix your problem as well Chuck. I really hope so! Good luck!

so you used your own 4G/Ethernet-router  not someone next to it with a phone via bluetooth. yeah i what been looking at Ethernet bridges, wish Parker had a solution so i do have to make my own system

+1

Yes, we use the Teltonika RUT 950 with a SIM-card installed. We use WireGuard for the VPN service (Remote updates).

When we have our own service technician on site I send him the project file and he connects to the WiFi network created by the RUT 950. He then uses IQANgo to update the machine. If "my guy" is not on site this method also works with the customer's service technicians.

But I do prefer remote updates.

Teltonika RUT 950: Teltonika RUT 950

Just saw that this model is EOL but it successor would be Rut 951.

thank you for that suggestion ! it is definitely a way to go that would work. i currently have a sim onboard for IOT. I was hoping Parker would make their method more robust than it currently is.  We already have 65 units out there, thats a lot of $$ to upgrade them all

No worries Chuck!

I could only imagine your frustration at this point. We operate in Sweden and our longest trip would only be around 800 km but that was far enough for us! 

6844 miles or 11014 km to our farthest

If you implement internet-connections which are always on and that has direct access to the control system of the machine, you should be aware of the Cybersecurity-part of the Machinery regulation that will be legally binding in EU from 20 January 2027:

https://www.pilz.com/en-INT/support/law-standards-norms/manufacturer-machine-operators/machinery-regulation#:~:text=The%20EU%20Machinery%20Regulation%20will,requirements%20on%20plant%20and%20machinery.

"Cybersecurity

In a new section entitled “Protection against corruption”, the Machinery Regulation now also establishes requirements for the cybersecurity of machinery. Cybersecurity threats must not be allowed to compromise the machine’s safety functions. Manufacturers must review their existing safety concepts in this regard!"

I would like that type of permanent connection that is interfacing the Ethernet-port on our machines too, but we would have to review the new regulations carefully first to make sure the connection would fulfill the upcoming regulations.