Messages

1

Support Questions / Re: Difference in advancedHMIcontrols and mfgControlAdvancesHMIcontrols ?

« on: June 04, 2019, 01:21:53 PM »

What are you calling the "MFG controls" and the "others"?

When it comes to speed of writing to a PLC, the synchronous vs. asynchronous are going to be very close in response, within microseconds of each other. The bottle neck is how fast the PLC can accept the values and respond. It varies widely by PLC. The fastest I have seen is less than 2ms for an L8x series ControlLogix and as slow as 15ms on some Modbus devices.

I have 2 sets of DLLS. One set is called mfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Controls and mfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Drivers and another set that appear to be the same thing, except without the mfgControl part in the name.

My Async issue isn't an issue with being able to write to the device fast enough. The issue is that when the event is fired off it takes a bit of time for control to be released back from the function, in that amount of time it's been blocked, another event gets fired off (async javascript) and it gets missed.   I have "cues" going along a moving timeline that need to be fired off as they are hit on the timeline, if that makes sense.  What's the difference in beginWrite and Write?

Thanks for your help

2

Support Questions / Difference in advancedHMIcontrols and mfgControlAdvancesHMIcontrols ?

« on: June 04, 2019, 07:27:29 AM »

Can I assume that the MFG controls are ASYNC while the others are not?   In other words a  BeginWrite fires off an ASYNC call, a "fire and forget" ?  I will need to send some commands in a rapid fire machine-gun fashion (via an asp.net page written in vb.net).  I haven't put in the AHMI stuff yet,  but even doing something simple like changing a label (in an update panel) this fast causes a backup and misses cues. 

3

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 28, 2019, 07:34:21 AM »

Option 4 seems the easiest. 
But option 2 wouldn't be that difficult, replacing an old part is easy to get through the paperwork system.

Is the EBC100 a drop in replacement for the EBC?

Yep. Same thing (as far as I can tell) but faster and does modbus.

Got the new module in. Plugged it in an everything works!

Thanks for the help!

4

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 23, 2019, 01:42:02 PM »

Option 4 seems the easiest. 
But option 2 wouldn't be that difficult, replacing an old part is easy to get through the paperwork system.

Is the EBC100 a drop in replacement for the EBC?

Yep. Same thing (as far as I can tell) but faster and does modbus.

5

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 21, 2019, 07:20:53 PM »

From what I gather it looks like it uses the DirectNET protocol. AdvancedHMI does not have a native driver for it. There are 3 options I see possible:

1) Use the OpcDaCom driver with an OPC server
2) Replace the module with the EBC100 and use Modbus
3) Develop a driver for DirectNET, which could take months

Option 4 seems the easiest. 
But option 2 wouldn't be that difficult, replacing an old part is easy to get through the paperwork system. 

6

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 20, 2019, 02:46:19 PM »

Upon closer inspection, it looks like I have the T1H-EBC and not the EBC100. The fine print tells me that the EBC does not, in fact, do modbusTCP.  I was told it's modbus, and didn't even check to make sure.   Do you have any idea which would be the correct driver to use?

I only see an EBC100 on the AD web site, so I'm not sure what the protocol is used by your device. What port is Wireshark showing that it uses?

Yeah, they made it quite confusing. If you click on the pdf for the EBC it takes you to the EBC100 manual without warning.

T1H--EBC
UDP/IP, IPX
10Mbps

T1H--EBC100
TCP/IP, UDP/IP, IPX
MODBUS TCP
10/100Mbps

Does this help? 

7

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 20, 2019, 12:55:58 PM »

Is the port number 502 ?

No. Upon closer inspection, it looks like I have the T1H-EBC and not the EBC100. The fine print tells me that the EBC does not, in fact, do modbusTCP.  I was told it's modbus, and didn't even check to make sure.   Do you have any idea which would be the correct driver to use?

8

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 20, 2019, 12:02:00 PM »

Ok, just curious.  Before I moved, I used to do a Christmas light show every year.  The HOA we have now would have a cow if I tried to do it.  But, I used controllers that were easy to use for this task and free software.  I know you say you are stuck with what you have, but in case you are interested and this stuff will port over to your task(s):
1.  Controllers I used: https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/index.php
2.  Software I used: https://xlights.org/
3.  If you get bored and want to watch videos of my past life  https://vimeo.com/user59675733 (the videos are kinda bad, first go with a drone.

If it we're me, I'd have gone the DMX route on this. But no, they hired some contactors to spend every cent of the grant money.  I hear talk about them contracting out a big Christmas light show.  I'm sure they'll spend a million dollars on something you or I could have done for a few thousand.  Such is the world of non profit organizations.

Anyhow. I'm pretty sure my current roadblock is the communication between the computer and the PLC.  I know the port number. I can ping it. Is there some sort if security blocking me?

9

Support Questions / Re: I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 20, 2019, 09:32:48 AM »

I'm rewriting software that will simply turn bits (relays) on and off synced to music. Nothing complex really.

My I ask what you are controlling?  There are way better products available to sync stuff to music then using a PLC.

Oh, believe me, I know.  It was built with grant money. Completely over engineered. Typical spend $250,000 on big equipment and then give a guy $50 and a copy of visual basic to write the software in mom's basement.  This whole thing is so something I probably could have done with an Arduino or Raspberry pi. 

Unfortunately I have to work with what I have, as there is no budget for the rewrite.  I somehow knew the software it's currently using was crap when I saw that the interface uses comic-sans font.

10

Support Questions / I'm new. I'm lost. AutomationDirect Terminator IO ebc

« on: March 20, 2019, 06:33:52 AM »

Hi. I'm new to all of this, and somewhat lost.

I've taken on a project that has Automation Direct Terminator I/O  connected via Ethernet to a computer running Kepware 4.x.  I'm rewriting software that will simply turn bits (relays) on and off synced to music. Nothing complex really.

I went down the rabbit hole of trying g to do it through an OPC server like KepDirect, but then stumbled on onto this, which seems like it would work better and be cheaper (currently running in an old XP box that will be replaced with something newer and require a newer KepDirect version).

Problem is that the addressing currently uses naming such as S0:DO1. (slot zero , discreet output one). Can't figure out the correct addressing. 

Problem two is that I can't seem to even connect to the control box.  I know what port it's using. Wireshark sees stuff going back and forth.  But attempting to run something like modscan on it, it will not connect. 

With AHMI I'm using the modbus tcp drivers. I can get it to work just fine with a modbus simulator, but it just craps out when connected to the automation direct box. I know it's gotta be something simple I'm missing.

Thanks for the help!

Mike