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Alternative Methods for Rockwell Allen-Bradley Data Highway (DH+) Connectivity for TOP Server V6.10 or newer

Starting with TOP Server V6.10.623.0, the Allen-Bradley Data Highway Plus driver (DH+) formerly available in the TOP Server Allen-Bradley Suite and Manufacturing Suite has been deprecated. This was necessary because the driver contained 3rd party library dependencies that are directly linked to operating systems that have been deprecated by Microsoft.
Existing TOP Server OPF project files will load, however any channels using the deprecated driver will present an error in the TOP Server event log. JSON project files will fail to load with an error message.
 
Recommended workarounds for continuing to connect to associated devices requiring Data Highway protocol connectivity include the following:
  • If you also have an available ControlLogix PLC, you can use a 1756-DHRIO communications module in the ControlLogix to connect to the DH+ interface and communicate using the TOP Server ControlLogix Ethernet driver (DH+ Gateway)
  • If you must connect directly to a PLC requiring Data Highway communications, you can use a 1784-U2DHP USB-to-DataHighway cable with the TOP Server Allen-Bradley DF1 Serial driver (converts DH+ to DF1 Serial - maps to a virtual COM port on the TOP Server machine)
If you are still running V6.9 or previous on a Microsoft operating system that was supported for that TOP Server version, your AB DH+ driver will still function as long as you do NOT upgrade to V6.10 or newer (Note that, since the required 3rd party library dependencies only run on deprecated Microsoft operating systems, such an architecture is not supported and continuing to operate in that fashion is not recommended). For specific questions or concerns, please reach out to our technical support engineers to discuss your application.