Description of Problem(s) / Addition(s) / Change(s)

• Fixed a problem that prevented the EmailTrace option from working.

• Added ability to make the HTML configuration page Read-Only. (Requires NetEdit 3.7c or later)
• Added ability to force the Ethernet connection into 10Mb mode only. (Requires NetEdit 3.7c or later)

• Fixed a problem which could cause the ECOM100s to crash (RED ERR LED) if it is being used as a Modbus/TCP slave with multiple Modbus/TCP connections. If those connections are interrupted for more than 20 seconds - like if the cable were unplugged, or if the radio modem lost it's connection - the ECOM100s begins the process of closing these timed-out connections so that new connections can be established. The problem was in the code that closes the connections and cleans up the memory the connections use.

• Fixed a problem with using the ECOM100 as a Modbus TCP/IP master that would sometimes cause it to crash if the communication was interrupted; for example, if you unplugged the cable.
  This problem could show up as a hardware crash (the ERR LED would be on).
  This problem could also show up as the network read & write instructions would stop functioning (the slot's BUSY bit would be ON constantly). In this failure mode, the ECOM100 will continue to work with DirectSOFT and NetEdit, only the network read and write instructions fail to operate.
• Added ability to designate the SMTP server by it's IP address   as an alternative to specifying it's name - the SMTP Server address is used by the ECEMAIL IBox.

• Added Email Authentication to the web browser configuration page - you cannot access this feature via NetEdit3 or the ECEMSUP IBox at this time, those will be added later.
  To access this feature, use a web browser to bring up the ECOM100's web configuration page, go to the Email Setup page, click 'Enable Authentication' and enter the username and password in the fields provided.
• The ECOM100 will now use the DATE and TIME from the PLC when sending a Email.
• Increased number of concurrent open Modbus TCP/IP connections from 4 to 12.
• The ECOM100 can now correctly handle having a Gateway Address that is unreachable. In previous firmware versions, ECOM100s configured with an unreachable Gateway Address would get stuck in very long timeout sessions (about 2.5 minutes).

• Added 'ECOM Advanced Settings' page to the Web browser configuration page. In previous firmware versions you could only adjust these settings via NetEdit3.
• Fixed a problem with the Web browser configuration page where sometimes only a portion of the page would show up in the Web browser.
• Added favicons to the Web browser configuration page.
• If the ECOM100 receives a Modbus/TCP request for a value that is at either endpoint of the PLC's memory mapped ranges, the ECOM100 would erroneously report the value was out of range.
• If the ECOM100 is operating as a Modbus/TCP server, the ECOM100 would not report the correct error value for a watchdog timeout error from one of it's clients.

• Fixed a problem where the Hx-ECOM100's would not properly read and write S (stage) bits, T (timer) and CT (counter) bits via Modbus TCP/IP protocol.

• The Hx-ECOM100s now support a 'Test Email' from NetEdit. Access to this feature requires that you use NetEdit v3.7 or later.
• Added more information to the test email that is sent via the 'Test Email' function.
• ECOM100 firmware now sets the DATE field to a fixed value in the email header to address a problem in some Email servers that have enabled more restrictive checking of the Email contents.
  Since there's no clock in the Hx-ECOM100 to provide the current date information, the DATE field is fixed at 1/1/2000 00:00:00.
  Without the DATE field set, our Email server (MDaemon v9.5.2) returns "Error 554 - message does not conform to standards".

The following changes were made to the Hx-ECOM100 firmware to address potential configuration problems when trying to configure the Hx-ECOM100 under Windows Vista operating system. The problem we have is that MS Vista does not have built-in support for IPX protocol, so we must be able to locate and configure our devices using only TCP/IP protocol.

• If the Hx-ECOM100 is configured to 'obtain an IP address automatically' and no DHCP server is available to provide an IP address, NetEdit could not connect to the device. We fixed this by temporarily setting the IP address to 0.0.0.0 when the Hx-ECOM100 is looking for a DHCP server.
• Excluded the following addresses from being used in the IP Address field:
  224.x.x.x through 255.x.x.x (Multi-cast range)
  x.x.x.255
  127.0.0.0 & 127.0.0.1
• Added a Recovery-mode option. If the Hx-ECOM100 is powered up with DIP switch 6 ON, the TCP/IP addressing information (IP Address, Subnet Mask & Gateway Address) fields are reset to 0.0.0.0. The Status and Error LEDs blink so that you can visually recognize this mode. You can use NetEdit to configure the IP addressing information while the Hx-ECOM100 is in this mode, but you cannot access the PLC across the backplane in this mode.

• The Hx-ECOM100s now support changing the Modbus Slave Timeout, which is used to close Modbus slave connections that have not been accessed within the timeout value. Access to this feature requires that you use NetEdit v3.6d or later.
  
  In earlier versions of the firmware, the default value for the Modbus Slave Timeout is 5 seconds. In this version and all later versions, the default value is 20 seconds. You can use NetEdit V3.6d or later to make further adjustments to this value.

• The Hx-ECOM100s now support 4 concurrent sessions when operating as a Modbus TCP/IP client (earlier versions only supported one active TCP/IP session).

• The Hx-ECOM100s will no longer attempt to process a Modbus/TCP request before it's internal memory map is configured. This was causing the Hx-ECOM100s to crash, which was turning on the red ERR led.
  
  The details: on power-up, the Hx-ECOM100 reads the CPU type and sets up some internal memory map information so that it can tell if a Modbus TCP/IP request is valid for the CPU. If the Hx-ECOM100 received a Modbus TCP/IP request before it could read the CPU type and get the memory map values setup, the Hx-ECOM100 to process the request with an invalid set of memory ranges.
   
• The Hx-ECOM100 was returning the function number instead of the error code after a failed RX or WX instruction. It now returns the error code.
   
• Maintenance updates to the stack.

• Corrected issue with ECOMs and ECOM100s that caused them to crash - the red ERR LED would come ON - if certain system functions like 'set the IP address' or 'set Module ID' were sent to the modules via a broadcast packet.
  
  Details: If the ECOMs or ECOM100s receive a network broadcast packet that contains a request to perform a device management function like set the IP Address, set the Module ID, etc., the ECOM and ECOM100 will not process the request. These device management functions must be sent to the ECOM and ECOM100 in a point-to-point packet or in a directed broadcast packet.

• Fixed a problem in the H0-ECOM that caused it to only perform one retry regardless of how many retries were configured..

• When the Hx-ECOM100 is configured as a network master (using RX an WX instructions), fixed a problem that caused the Hx-ECOM100s to stop processing Modbus TCP/IP requests if the Modbus Timeout value (configured via NetEdit3, on the Advanced dialog) was set to a value lower than 500ms. The value can now be set to a minimum of 100ms.
• Enhanced the garbage collection of "abandoned" packets to prevent the Hx-ECOM100s from running out of available TCP/IP connections. Abandoned packets are typically a byproduct of using Ethernet radio modems, which tend to produce out-of-order packets whenever they get transmission errors.

• Updated to latest version of  TCP stack (v1.1.1).
• Fixed a problem where the Modbus TCP/IP Unit ID wasn't being properly handled. The ECOM100 was sending the same Unit ID (the first in the table) for every device listed in the Peer-to-Peer Configuration table.

• Fixed a problem that prevented the ECOM100s from working with a link configured to use IPX protocol with the IP Address.

• Fixed a problem that prevented a Modbus TCP/IP client from accessing the PLC's V-Memory after a power-cycle if the PLC has a password (either normal or multi-level password).

• Initial Release of the H4-ECOM100

• Fixed a problem in the Hx-ECOM100s that prevented them from working with DataWorx PLC software.
• Enabled the ability to configure the Email Setup parameters via a web browser.
• Added a gratuitous ARP request every 60 seconds which could help with some wireless networking issues.

• Fixed a problem in the H0-ECOM100 that prevented the D0-DEVNETS from working in the same DL06 as the H0-ECOM100.

• Updated the TCP/IP stack to the latest version.

• Removed some debug strings that were inadvertently left from the last firmware update.

• Fix problem that occurs if you have Hx-ECOM100s in a peer-to-peer network using Modbus TCP/IP protocol, the write operations (WX instructions) would stop working.
• When using Modbus TCP/IP,  if the Hx-ECOM100 receives additional read or write requests from the same client before it has a chance to respond to the first request, then those intervening requests could be ignored.
• Fix problem where H0-ECOM100 would not communicate to the GS-EDRV using Modbus TCP/IP protocol.
• Fixed problem where the H0-ECOM100 was terminating Modbus TCP/IP connections after a 250ms timeout regardless of the Modbus Timeout value.
• Added the ability to force the RX and WX instructions to read from and write to the 30001 range instead of their normal 40001 range by specifying an odd numbered length instead of the normal even numbered length.
  
  The details: Normally when using the RX/WX instructions in the PLC, you have to specify a data length. Since this data length is always an even number when specifying the "V" data type (Holding Registers in 40001+ range), then all you have to do is specify an odd number for the length. This beta firmware recognizes the odd number and uses that to "know" that you want to read not from the 40001+ Holding Register range, but rather that you want to read from the 30001+ Input Register range.

  Refer to the ladder example below where the OR-DOUBLE K1 instruction is used to add a value of 1 to the length field, making it an odd value:

  

• Fixed a power up issue in the ECOM that prevented the DL405 PLCs from recognizing the H4-ECOM correctly. This problem shows up on the Configure I/O dialog where the ECOM is identified as a D4-SF with the Module ID of "FF"

The Details: as part of its power up procedure, the PLC CPU scans the backplane and uses the number it finds in a particular location in the ECOM's Shared RAM to identify the Module. To ensure that this values is in place when the PLC CPU scans the backplane, the Module ID value is now initialized by the boot loader instead of the firmware.

• Fixed a power up issue in the ECOM that caused the PLC to erroneously allocate a huge number of I/O points. We've seen the problem show up in these two ways:

1. A System Error "E262 - I/O out of range"
    
2. Huge Input and Output count values shown in DirectSOFT's PLC->Config I/O dialog for the slot the ECOM is installed in (usually in the 1000+ range).

The Details: as part of its power up procedure, the PLC CPU scans the backplane and uses the values it finds in the ECOM's Shared RAM to allocate memory for the module's I/O. To ensure that these values are in place when the PLC CPU scans the backplane, the values are now initialized by the boot loader instead of the firmware.

• Fix problem where H2-ECOM100 would not communicate to the GS-EDRV using Modbus TCP/IP protocol.
• Fixed problem where the H2-ECOM100 was terminating Modbus TCP/IP connections after a 250ms timeout regardless of the Modbus Timeout value.

• Initial release of H0-ECOM100

• For Modbus TCP/IP connections, we increased the Idle Connection Timeout value from 5 seconds to 60 seconds. This value determines how frequently the Modbus TCP/IP master has to access the ECOM100 to keep the socket connection open.

• Initial release of the H2-ECOM100

• Decrease the delay time in the boot loader so that a D4-440 using a D4-RAM-1 memory cartridge would correctly identify the H4-ECOM. Before this change, the H4-ECOM would be detected as an SF MODULE. We now do the following:
  
  Wait for Link Good + 150ms
  OR
  if No Link Good wait for a total of 2000ms

• If the DL05's serial port 2 is being used for Modbus slave communication, using an H0-ECOM at the same time would cause the ECOM to eventually lockup.

• If using the RX & WX to send and receive data to a PC - what we call the 'report-by-exception' configuration - using the RX command to read the return data from the PC will now clear the RX/WX Error code.

• Initial Release of H0-ECOM

• H2-ECOM-F and H4-ECOM-F now correctly report themselves as the fiber optic versions.

• To make sure that our firmware update utility can 'catch' the EBC in the boot loader, we changed the amount of time the boot loader will wait - listening for the 'stay in the booter commands from the firmware update utility - before loading the OS. We now do the following:
  
  Wait for Link Good + 200ms
  OR
  if No Link Good wait for a total of 2000ms

• Added support for use with the EZ-Ethernet adapter card for the EZ-Touch panels.
  
  Requires that the boot loader v3.0.92 be installed first.

• Added ability to adjust the KSequence Retries to fix a problem that can occur when using the H4-ECOM with a D4-450 CPU.
  
  If a device using the KSequence protocol is connected to port 2 while you're using the ECOM with DirectSOFT or the DDE Server, the default number of backplane retries can sometimes not be sufficient.
  
  This is not a change to the ECOM firmware, it's a change in the configuration tool.

• Added new feature that allows you to have the Koyo PLC generate Ethernet packets intended for a PC. Utilizing the RX / WX instructions and a block of V-memory to store the configuration data, you can send PLC data back to a PC on the network.

• Fixed problem that would not allow you to go online with DirectSOFT or the DDE Server. Only affected latest booter version (2.1.47). You will get "Transport Protocol Error" when you try to finish building a link.

• Changed Ether32.Exe - the update tool - to handle some error conditions. No firmware changes.

• Fixed problem that arises when AppVal rolls over to  0 on an Rx instruction.
  
  If your ladder program contains network instructions ( RX / WX )
      If the 65535th network instruction is an Rx
          The value returned is from the previous network instruction.
      If the 65535th instruction is a WX
          The value is not written to the PLC
  
  Click to view a copy of the Product Advisory (PDF format).

• Added IP Netmask field to allow for broadcasting with address that's NOT 255.255.255.255.
  You're no longer allowed to set the IP address to 0.0.0.0

• Initial release of the H2-ECOM and the H4-ECOM firmware.