Upgrade to 3.99y B34

[pat@uow]

Hi All,

On reload and rebuild of a new project in 3.99yB34 , it seems there is an now issue with the EthernetIPforCLX comms driver not talking to the CLX PLC (I have confirmed IP address and pinged the PLC from the PC OK – the AB Studio 5000 software is also working correctly). In one instance , it even seems like the project has loaded a ABDF1 serial driver by default.

For our application, we are deliberately trying to replace the main form with a prior form created in 3.99x  and remove all references to Page2, can someone please confirm the correct sequence of driver load vs build of project vs replacement / removal of main form with prior form created in 3.99x.

Is it,

1)   Load CLX driver to main form
2)   Build project
3)   Add prior form
4)   Add CLX driver to prior form again
5)   Remove Main Form and Page 2
6)   Rebuild project again

Or

1)   Add prior form (assuming comm driver is already in the original vb)
2)   Build project
3)   Remove MainForm and Page2
4)   Rebuild project

Appreciate your help on this.

[Archie]

Do any of your controls show any error messages? Is the ComComponent property of your controls set to the correct driver?

[pat@uow]

Yes - many controls showing unable to communicate message intermittently (otherwise showing 0).
All controls have been checked and are showing "EthernetIPforCLXCom1" as the ComComponent

[Godra]

You should test beta all by itself, without adding your form.
Add a driver and a BasicLabel just to see if you can communicate with your PLC.

If you can communicate, open another instance of Visual Studio with your old working project.
Then just copy-paste all the controls from your form to beta.

[pat@uow]

Thanks for that Godra,

I have tried clean B34 with CLX driver, datalogger2 (copied from your latest as at Nov 2019 with header option) and 1 basic label control.

Solution returns values for data log and the single control, but intermittently returns "No response from PLC (IP address)" or "No response from PLC (22)".

Is this a case of tuning the comms rate, or does this indicate something else is not right even though the Studio 5000 is online from the PC and communicating with the PLC OK.

[Archie]

Solution returns values for data log and the single control, but intermittently returns "No response from PLC (IP address)" or "No response from PLC (22)".

Is this a case of tuning the comms rate, or does this indicate something else is not right even though the Studio 5000 is online from the PC and communicating with the PLC OK.

This sounds like a network problem or too much comms for the PLC. I have seen cases where the PLC will respond, but sometimes takes more than 3 seconds, therefore AdvancedHMI reports it as no response.

[pat@uow]

Further testing with and without the datalogger2 has revealed

Without datalogger2 - all real time controls appear OK
With datalogger2 and 6 tags logging - all real time controls intermittently comms error
With datalogger2 and single tag - all real time controls appear OK
With datalogger2 and second tag added - all controls intermittently comms error.

Without datalogger2 and trying Chartbysampling cut and pasted from old version - real time controls OK but charts not updating in real time (old version updated seamlessly with about 5 mins of 1 sec x 5 tags across the x axis)

Not sure if the pain of cutting / pasting all the controls is worth it if the logging and charting functions are not functional in the B34 - maybe just stick to V3.99x and live with the functions we have ?

[Godra]

I would suggest that you just stick with V3.99x until the time you can safely state that beta works for you.

[pat@uow]

Agreed  - 3.99x has been reloaded successfully.

While testing the Datalogger2 with header function (from the Dec 2019 post) I also noticed that the log file viewer throws an error because the first line of the file is not date-time format. It seems the viewer needs to be adjusted to accept the 2nd line of data i.e. the first recorded date/time instead of the header row text if a header row is being used.

[Godra]

Currently, the easiest solution is not to include the header if you are using the log file viewer.

I am not sure if it is possible to actually make adjustments to the log file viewer to have it skip the header line.

[Godra]

The log file viewer was updated to support reading the header.

See Reply #5 and #7 in this topic:

https://www.advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=2034.0