Description of Problems / Additions / Changes

Initial release of the Rev 11A Hardware. This is the minimum firmware and boot loader versions required for H0-ECOM100 with Rev 11A hardware.  Requires the use of NetEdit v3.17h or later.

Fixed a very specific, extremely rare issue that could cause the H0-ECOM100 to become temporarily unresponsive.

Fixed a problem where the firmware could not be updated if the DIP switches are being used to set the Module ID to an address above 31; the boot loader was acting as if DIP switch 5 has put the unit into 'write protect mode'.

Fixed a problem that prevented EMail from working.

Fixed a problem in the boot loader that caused the H0-ECOM100 to incorrectly report itself as an H2-ECOM100 if an attempt to update the boot loader ever failed.

Fixed a problem where the Advanced settings were not correctly updated after a Return to Factory Defaults was executed.

Initial release of the H0-ECOM100 with Rev 9A hardware. This is the minimum firmware and boot loader versions required for H0-ECOM100 with Rev 9A hardware Requires the use of NetEdit v3.17a or later.

Configuring this option requires the use of NetEdit v3.16 or later.

Initial release of the H0-ECOM100 with Rev 7A hardware. This firmware and boot loader This is the minimum firmware and boot loader versions required for Rev7A with will work in previous hardware versions, but is required for all hardware versions later than 7A.

Added a field for the Time Zone Offset to the Email Configuration ( only available through the web browser interface ).

Fixed a problem where the H0-ECOM100 was not always using a two-digit value for the hours, minutes and seconds of the time stamp when sending an email.

When the H0-ECOM100 is sending an Email, "-0000" is added to the SMTP DATE. The characters "-0000" mean "unknown TimeZone", which tells the SMTP server to use the current Time of the Server when handling the Email.

If the hardware watchdog expires - because the firmware has stopped running - the H0-ECOM100 will reboot in an attempt to return to operation and increment the Unknown counter by 10000 (which can be seen with NetEdit).
 

H0-ECOM100 now generates a unique transaction ID for Modbus requests so that the H0-ECOM100 can know when an out-of-sync response has been received from a misbehaving Modbus Server.
 

Added PEERLINK support for integration with Do-more PLCs. PEERLINK is enabled and configured only through the web config page, it cannot be configured with NetEdit.
 

Can now be targeted by a C-More panel that is using the 'Automationdirect Do-more Ethernet' communication driver.

Enable ARP queuing to fix a problem that was seen when using the H0-ECOM100 in some RBE (Report-by-Exception) configurations.

The H0-ECOM100 now verify that a valid byte count exists on Modbus functions 15 and 16 to better handle malformed Modbus/TCP requests.

The H0-ECOM100 now create a unique Message ID for each Email as some SMTP Servers do not allow the use of duplicate IDs for multiple Emails.

Fixed a problem where the H0-ECOM100 were not properly handling the TTL option (-t) for Ping.

DIP Switch number 5 can now be used to disable the ability to update the FLASH memory in the H0-ECOM100. This allows the user to write protect the firmware, the network configuration, the node configuration, the peer-to-peer configuration, and the SMTP (Email) configuration. This feature is enabled through the Advanced Settings page.
Note: If you are currently using DIP #5 to set the module ID to a value greater then 32, AND you want to use this new DIP #5 Lock function, you must first use NetEdit to set the Module ID.

The H0-ECOM100 will no longer increment the boot counter in the FLASH memory during power up.

Fixed a problem where the H0-ECOM100 could not handle multiple SMTP response codes within the same SMTP response packet.

Updated security to mitigate undesired access to the PLC over Ethernet.

Fixed a problem where the H0-ECOM100 could not properly handle a broadcast packet that is larger than 1536 bytes.

When operating as a Modbus/TCP Master, the H0-ECOM100 will now close a connection when a <FIN ACK> is received.

• Force 10Base-T (Requires Reboot) - this will force the H0-ECOM100 into 10Base-T mode, requires that you power-cycle the H0-ECOM100 to activate it once set.
   

• "Read-Only Web Config (Requires NetEdit to turn off) - enabling this option makes the web configuration pages (via an internet browser) read only, you can still use a web browser to view the configuration, but you cannot change it via a browser.
  
  To re-enable the ability to edit the configuration pages via a web browser you must use NetEdit 3.7c or later to turn this option off.

These options were formerly only available using NetEdit 3.7c.
 

Fixed a problem in the requests for data across the backplane that may cause the H0-ECOM and H0-ECOM100 to stop communicating.

The H0-ECOM100 now split out the Ethernet errors (as seen from NetEdit) as follows:

• Missed Fr - A count of the packets missed due to overruns, unavailable buffers or a disabled receiver.

• TX Coll - A count of the packets which had a late collision while being received.

• Lost Pkts - A count of the packets discarded because they were too long or too short.

• Bad Pkts - A count of the packets which have bad CRC’s

• Unknown - A count of the packets which contain invalid symbols, extra bits or resulted in a receiver overrun condition.

• TX Errors - A count of the packets which could not be sent because the transmitter was unavailable for an extended period of time.

Fixed a problem with using the H0-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, theH0-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 H0-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 H0-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.

TheH0-ECOM100 can now correctly handle having a Gateway Address that is unreachable. In previous firmware versions, H0-ECOM100 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 H0-ECOM100 receives a Modbus/TCP request for a value that is at either endpoint of the PLC's memory mapped ranges, the H0-ECOM100 would erroneously report the value was out of range.

If theH0-ECOM100 is operating as a Modbus/TCP server, the H0-ECOM100 would not report the correct error value for a watchdog timeout error from one of it's clients.

Fixed a problem where the H0-ECOM100 would not properly read and write S (stage) bits, T (timer) and CT (counter) bits via Modbus TCP/IP protocol.

The H0-ECOM100 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.

H0-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 H0-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 address potential configuration problems when trying to configure the H0-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 H0-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 H0-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 H0-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 H0-ECOM100 is in this mode, but you cannot access the PLC across the backplane in this mode.

The H0-ECOM100 now supports 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 H0-ECOM100 will no longer attempt to process a Modbus/TCP request before it's internal memory map is configured. This was causing the H0-ECOM100 to crash, which was turning on the red ERR led. The details: on power-up, the H0-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 H0-ECOM100 received a Modbus TCP/IP request before it could read the CPU type and get the memory map values setup, the H0-ECOM100 to process the request with an invalid set of memory ranges.

The H0-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.

When the H0-ECOM100 is configured as a network master (using RX and WX instructions), fixed a problem that caused the H0-ECOM100 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 H0-ECOM100 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 H0-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 in the H0-ECOM100 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.

Fix problem that occurs if you have H0-ECOM100 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 H0-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: