PFC200 - Change MAC Adress

Hardware and Linux
1

Hi,
I have a PLC with ETHERCAT Master communication that was out of order.
The maintenance technicians followed the procedure:

  • Replace the CPU
  • Update the firmware
  • Update the WBM
  • Load the code

They did everything right, but it didn’t work…
The PLC code retained the MAC address of the old PLC in the Ethercat manager. A new version of the code had to be generated to indicate the new adress.

My question: Is it possible to change the MAC adress in the WBM?

2

I don’t think it’s possible since the MAC address is the physical address…

1 Like
3

In Linux, the MAC address is no longer a physical address and can be changed.
On a PC, the procedure as a root user is as follows:

ip link set dev eth0 down
ip link set dev eth0 address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
ip link set dev eth0 up

I haven’t tried this on a PFC200 yet.
“eth0” must be replaced with the appropriate interface.
The change will only last until the next reboot.
To make it permanent, it must be integrated into the startup process.

In principle, it would be a practical feature if the MAC address could be changed via the WBM. Many switches or firewalls at least check the MAC address.
Siemens offers this possibility.