T3-xx Controllers and an old Ethernet switch

I made a big discovery the other day. It seems impossible but the T3 series of controllers with an ARM processor CAN actually have a conflict with an old 10/100 Cisco ethernet unmanaged switch. Even if everything else you have connected to the switch works just fine, you can have a situation where the T3 will drop 10 to 25% of its pings. Put a modern switch on it and your T3 will talk nicely with the T3000 software. Another symptom of network problems? Your little T3000 communication status window at the bottom of the screen stays red for longer than 10 seconds as you’re doing any updates with the T3000 software.
Hope this helps someone else.

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Thanks for the update Ted.
FWIW this is the first time to hear about an issue like this.
Perhaps you could send that switch here one of these days, I’m always keen to get to the root of a problem like this.

I had a similar problem with a T3-TB at The University of West Florida. It would not connect to the old switch at all. I put a 5 port switch inline at the T3-TB and it wound connect, then crash and reboot. I put an Ethernet surge protector before the 5 port switch and it connects but still crashes some, but it is usable. I am controlling a small single zone air handler and imported the points to Siemens Insight GUI system.

Me too. But Ethernet halft duplex, connect and disconnect randomly. Yes, i checker cable and tried a new port.

Sounds like enough troubles here to warrant a new Ethernet chip, we have switched from a Microchip 10Mbit chip to a new 100Mbit chip which will be entering production in the coming weeks. If anyone cares to swap CPU core boards we can arrange that.

My REV10 20190416 T3-TB auto-negotiates a 10 Mbps half-duplex connection with my 1Gbps capable router. I haven’t noticed any random disconnections in the few hours I’ve used it so far, but can you confirm whether or not this model has the new 100 Mbps chip?

Wow. Does that mean the T3-LB-W I just ordered will have the 100mBit chip?
Ted

Sorry to report that the 100m version is not in production yet.

Maurice Duteau

No problem. But I do think it’s a good idea.

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Happened to me too just this morning. I waited a while and it cleared itself up.

I had a similar issue with an older Linksys Wireless router. I could not find the devices though I got them connected via USB and they had IP addresses via wireless.
I changed to a TPLink wireless router (not even connected to the web) that I connected to with the controllers and my workstations and all has generally been working well.
Small issue with a T3-LB that wasn’t showing till I manually rebooted it (not connected to ethernet, but had been).
It is not fully clear how to appropriately move a controller from Ethernet to Wifi in the settings control panels. Certain prompts can have different meanings.

In followup, the LInksys is also working and Temco controllers are showing themselves well in the Subnet.