BCS Connectivity

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DPSTECKLOW
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BCS Connectivity

Post by DPSTECKLOW »

I've been out of brewing for sometime and have decided to make some changes to my design. I have taken my control panel apart. I have been trying to access my BCS460 when I first plug it in it works fine and I get access to the device. However I find that without much time delay it no longer seems to be accessible by any of my devices. If I unplug and restart it works fine again for a short period. Any thoughts? Thanks
JonW
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Re: BCS Connectivity

Post by JonW »

Not much to go on here.... These types of connectivity issues usually come down to networking problems. However, the fact that you can access it fine for a short period each time you restart possibly points in another direction. How long is this "short period" that you can access it?

One networking issue that could possibly cause this is a duplicate IP address. Can you PING your BCS while it is plugged in, then try again after it is unresponsive, then again after you unplug it. Wondering if another device is using the same IP address.

Can you access it long enough to look at your network config?

What devices are plugged into the BCS? If there are things drawing power from the BCS, try unplugging everything and running it that way. An overdraw on the power supply could cause issues. FYI - the green terminal strips unplug from the BCS, you do not need to undo the screws to your wiring.
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oakbarn
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Re: BCS Connectivity

Post by oakbarn »

Along Jon's line. If you have a spare router, you can hook up the BCS to just it and see if the problem is the BCS or the network. If it does the same with just it connected to the spare router, it is likely the BCS. If it is fine on the spare router, then you network is the issue.

You could try to Ping as Jon suggests on the spare router as well.

If the BCS, you could do a HARD RESET which should put it back to the factory defualts. You will need a good backup prior to doing that in that you will lose all your settings and programming.

You could then try to see if the problem is there.

Also, what Firmware are you using?
DPSTECKLOW
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Re: BCS Connectivity

Post by DPSTECKLOW »

Thanks. I upgraded the firmware and everything is ok now. It was the original from when I bought it 3.1 I think.
Crockettr
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Re: BCS Connectivity

Post by Crockettr »

I have two bcs 462s, mine and a friend's. He was not able to Find his BCS, so I brought mine to his house, using the same wiring, and connections, mine worked fine.
Then I brought his BCS to my house and using new wiring mine still connects, but we cannot Find his.
The green light is flashing, but no luck.
Since the Finder app could not locate it, I ran the DOS command:
ARP -a
Which lists all MAC addresses with associated IP addresses, I see mine, but his MAC does not show.
Last, I tried a hard reset by holding the reset button for 15 seconds. The lights go out, then come back on, then the green lt starts flashing like normal...still no ARP or Finder.

I'm running out of patience.
JonW
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Re: BCS Connectivity

Post by JonW »

Sounds like maybe the BCS had a hard coded IP address. Doing a 15 seconds reset should grab an address from your router. Is that how you are trying to allocate an address to it? You've not mentioned how it is connected to the network - e.g. bridge, direct to router, trying direct connect, etc.

What is the existing firmware version? You need to use the 3.x finder for 3.x firmware and 4.x finder for 4.x firmware. Based on a previous post of yours, you upgraded one BCS to 4.01. Is this BCS the same version? If this one was never upgraded, then the 4.x finder won't work.

Also, arp -a does not work the way you think it does. It only tells you the local stations that your computer currently knows about, not what is on the whole network.
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