Messages

1

Support Questions / Re: LineShapeHMI help

« on: February 27, 2020, 11:34:02 AM »

Code did match what you posted above.  Gave up, deleted Windows form and started over.  Still using Powerpack LineShape and working fine now, do not see any differences but I am not complaining.  Thanks for the assistance.

2

Support Questions / Re: LineShapeHMI help

« on: February 22, 2020, 05:26:25 PM »

Thanks Godra, I will give that a try and report back.  Any thoughts on why code controlling powerpack line shape causes form to not work?  This would be very simple way to control lines if I can get it to work.

3

Support Questions / LineShapeHMI help

« on: February 22, 2020, 03:11:55 PM »

Project background:  I have a background image and I am trying to put multiple lines on it to represent multiple processes.  I am trying to control the visibility or color of the lines dependent on multiple plc tags.  I am using OPC and that is working fine as basic labels are fully controllable by the plcs.  I muddled through installing the LineShapeHMI control and it is working but does not seem to have the orientation control I need, lines have to be various lengths and angles on the background image...am I missing something obvious there?

I also tried installing Visual Basic Powerpack and used the line shape.  Used a basic label and wrote code to control the visibility of the powerpack line shape.  Built with no errors but the form with the background image will not display as long as the code is there.  If I comment out code, leave line on form, the form will display fine but obviously no plc control of visibility.  Any ideas?

i have searched the forums and read (multiple times) each post on line control but having no luck so far.

Any help is appreciated.

4

Support Questions / Re: OpcDaCom Questions

« on: January 12, 2017, 04:48:29 PM »

Checking in again, anyone have an answer for using one or multiple OpcDaCom drivers in my application?  Have 3 touchscreens connected now, will have up to 20.  All communicating through OPCWorx server.  Thanks.

5

Support Questions / Re: OpcDaCom Questions

« on: January 06, 2017, 01:46:08 PM »

Changed the Connection and Transaction timeout values in OPCWorx and that seems to be working fine.

Should I be using multiple OPCDaCom drivers in my application, one for each touchscreen, or is one sufficient?  Three touchscreens are up and running now but there is potential to go as high as 20 in the future.

Thx, Chris

6

Support Questions / OpcDaCom Questions

« on: January 05, 2017, 03:52:42 PM »

I am using OpcDaCom as my driver to talk to Red Lion's OPCWorx server.  OPCWorx is currently talking with 2 different Red Lion HMIs in two different remote locations and sending data to my Visual Basic application which displays various data from the Red Lion HMIs.  Should I be using two different instances of OpcDaCom, one for each Red Lion?  I am currently using only one and it is working.  I am getting ready to connect two more Red Lion HMIs and display data from them as well.  My network is not the fastest as it uses multiple mediums and I will need to "wait" a little bit longer for connections to come alive so I am thinking I need to add more instances of OpcDaCom to accomplish this.

If I need to add more instances, where in the OpcDaCom.vb code is the best place to "wait" and give the connection time to be established.  When I tried to connect to a third Red Lion HMI I got a "Failed OPC Subscription Start" which I suspect is due to a slow network speed.

To summarize: use multiple instances of OpcDaCom?  Where in OpcDaCom.vb should I "wait" for a slower connection to be established?

Thx, Chris

7

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 21, 2016, 07:26:23 PM »

Everything seems to be working now.  Older versions of AHMI had same problem.  Installed Matrikon OPCSimulator and it worked good pointing to a problem outside of AHMI.  I noticed awhile back that OPCWorx did not show up as a service when I was changing DCOM settings.  Red Lion tech support stated that OPCWorx does not run as a service but rather as an application.  This got me to thinking the problem had to be an access issue.  While digging through the security settings for various programs looking for clues I found a setting for "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES".  I added this to the group/user name security settings for OPCWorx and Visual Studio and and gave it full access and the "Failed OPC Read (OPCDACom)" error is fixed.

Thank you Archie and Godra for your continued support!  Now I will see what else I can break! 

8

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 18, 2016, 06:03:22 PM »

No luck with temp files.  Having trouble locating an older version of AHMI to download, can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

9

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 18, 2016, 11:07:26 AM »

More info...

When I first made the changes to DCOM and installed OPCEnum the application worked.  No changes were made and when I attempted to run program again I am getting the "Failed OPC Read (OPCDACom)" exception.  Running in debug mode throws an exception at line 482, if I am correct the reason is that in line 481 "values(0).ResultID" is {E_FAIL} when I hover over it.  The application does start and seems to run for about 2 seconds before it throws the exception.

I have rebooted computer and made sure OPCEnum service is running, network connectivity has been verified, all DCOM security settings I changed are still there.  The Matrikon OPC Explorer is still running and finds the HMI tags no problem.

For what it is worth my network is wireless and does not have blazing speed.  Is it possible that the application needs more time to read the data tags over the network?  I do not understand why it was working and now it is not.  What now?

10

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 17, 2016, 04:05:47 PM »

Well, not sure why but not working again.  Getting "Failed OPC Read ( OPCDACom)" now.  Will go through troubleshooting steps from last posts and report back.

11

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 17, 2016, 03:37:59 PM »

Once again you guys pointed me in the right direction!  Went through the DCOM link Godra sent and verified all settings and ended making some changes.  Also discovered that OPCEnum was not showing up in Component Services.  It was not installed for some reason.  Installed and set the security policies correctly Ran the application and got a OPC error in the BasicLabel control.  That was progress.  Checked OPCEnum in Services and it was not started.  Fixed that and now BasicLabel changes colors based on tag from remote HMI.  All of that is probably basic knowledge but I had to learn it the hard way.

My brain hurts.

You guys are a wealth of knowledge...thanks!!

12

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 16, 2016, 06:58:25 PM »

Thanks for the new idea on DCOM but no luck there either.  Since the application is running on a network that is not connected to the outside world I turned off Windows Firewall and opened up DCOM to everybody for everything...no change.

The opc explorer screenshot shows a "group" on the Matrikon explorer but I am using Red Lion OPCWorx and it does not show a group as shown in the OPCWorx screenshot.  As an example I am using a plc address of "Summit.AZ1" and putting that into the PLCAddress field.  I tried adding the server name into the  PLCAddress field even though it seemed redundant and it had no effect.

Just as a sanity check I verified that I can view the remote Red Lion HMI in a browser window using the Red Lions web browser feature and it works fine which further confirms my network connectivity.


Just prior to posting this I saw your reply Archie.  The program did stop at line 421 and using F10 it stopped again at line 94..

DLL.Url = New Opc.Url(m_OPCServerPath & "/" & m_OPCServer)

Since I am somewhat sure that my OPCServer address in OpcDaCom is correct this is going to send me in a new direction.  The pc I am using to develop this application is different from the one I am attempting to run it on for reasons to verbose to mention here.  I am going to have to take the pc which runs the application home and download Visual Studio and redo all your debugging suggestions while I am attempting to connect to the OPC server and remote Red Lion in real-time.  I will report back with results.

If there are any more ideas please post and in the meantime I will work on getting Visual Studio downloaded/installed.

Thanks for all the help, I would be totally lost without everybodys help.

13

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 16, 2016, 04:15:50 PM »

OK, tried that with no change.  Just for grins I reinstalled AdvancedHMI in a different location and built a very simple program using only a basic indicator.  The PLCAddressVisible property was set to a plc address Boolean tag that I can browse with an opc explorer.  When I first ran the program I got a "CoCreateInstanceEx: Class Not registered" error in the basic indicator and then it went to "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error.

Tried debugging this simple program and it did not get to the breakpoint either.

Thanks for your time.

14

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 15, 2016, 06:06:10 PM »

Visual Studio Community 2015  Ver 14.0.25425.01 Update 3

Did not stop at the breakpoint

15

Support Questions / Re: Connect to Red Lion OpcWorx Server Tags?

« on: November 15, 2016, 04:35:05 PM »

More info on above question...

There are two exceptions being thrown when I debug the application.

'Opc.NotConnectedException'
'System.NullReferenceException'

Since I can see the OPC server tags with an OPC explorer I believe the problem to be in my OpcDaCom configuration.

OPCGroup is blank, I tried setting a group based on the OPC explorer with no change, red Lion OPCWorx does not show any groups
OPCServer is RedLionControls.G3OPCServer.1  this matches the OPC explorer
OPCServerPath is opcda://localhost  application and server are on same pc
OPCTopic is blank

Thanks for any thoughts.