The EB1 and EB2 documentation shows that the dual Ethernet ports act as an unmanaged switch. This allows one to daisy chain several IO Units together. Each IO Unit has its own IP address, and traffic passes through the “switch” when accessing units downstream in the connection scheme.
The PAC-R2 also has two Ethernet ports. Suppose I want to use the R2 only as an IO Unit with better performance than an EB1. The two ports are independent. Is there a way to configure these on the R2 such that packets are passed through, similar to the EB1?
I would like to have the R2 connected to a host upstream and a EB1 daisy chained off the R2. How can the Host access the EB1 directly? Can I have the Host and R2 controller on one network and the R2 I/O unit and the EB1 I/O unit on a local subnet?
The PAC-R2 network ports have to be on separate sub-nets and they have no inter-connectivity.
Also, unless you write a chart, there is no routing function between the two ports.
A lot of customers use them to segment the control network from the office network. (Same with our PAC S controllers).
The whole point of the twin network sub-nets is that the host can not talk to the devices on the other interface.
So to answer your question. No, there no way to change the function to be like a 2 port switch on the EB.
The host can not access the EB1 directly.
Yes. This is the correct way to set it up. One port has the host, the other port has the EB on a local subnet.
Often people put the PAC R controller at the end of daisy changed group of EB’s. This way you can use the 2 port switch of the EB and still talk to all the devices and the controller without any extra network hardware.
