FactoryTalk View ME Shutdown Button

Let me preface my question with the statement that the Rockwell Automation technical support adamantly claims that what I am trying to do cannot be done. Maybe I am still in denial about the limitations of RA's antiquated software, but I think it should be possible.

I am using FactoryTalk View ME 8.20 to design my HMI for RA's fancy new MobileView 2711T-B10R1M1 which uses wonderful Windows 7. The problem is that I am trying to automatically shutdown Windows when exiting the HMI. I would prefer to avoid having the operator manually click the Windows power off button. On a side note, TechConnect 719131 discusses using hibernate mode, but this isn't exactly what I want to do.

I can shutdown Windows in the HMI by using the ActiveX ME Program Launcher, but then the operator has to manually click the Shutdown Button to exit.

I have tried using a shutdown macro as well, but the HMI exits before ME Program Launcher can run even though the tag updates.

Windows Task Manager will shutdown the program but RA doesn't recommend this approach.

Any creative suggestions to work around this asinine software limitation would be appreciated.

Can you call a batch script as part of shutting down the HMI application?

shutdown /s /t 30
will shutdown the PC 30 seconds later, adjust 30 for whatever time you need the HMI program to shutdown in?

I am essentially already doing this directly through ME Program Launcher instead of calling a batch script. The operator still has to press two buttons this way, they are just both in the HMI program.

Ah, my brain inserted SE instead of ME, my mistake.

Instead of a shutdown button, maybe use the program launcher and call a script
with both the shutdown command and a taskkill command to end the HMI process?

No problem, thanks for the thought.

I considered using taskkill as well, I am a little leery of using it as I don't know how corruptible RA *.MER files are. Along those lines, I could just let them pull power on the MobileView but I know Windows can get sometimes grumpy if the proper "rituals" aren't observed.

Just pull the power.

The MobileView uses Windows Embedded 7. If you use these two features then you can just pull power:
1) HORM - hibernate once resume many
2) EWF - enhanced write filter

I would be more worried about getting a corrupt Windows file than getting a corrupt *.MER file. FTView ME doesn't write back to the MER very often (almost never). If the temporary files get corrupt (such as the datalogs, alarm or diagnostic logs) then it just deletes those and creates new ones. At worst you lose that history.

But, if you don't use HORM and EWF then you run the risk of getting corrupt Windows or other files.
As a bonus, using those features lets the MobileView boot up in ~30 seconds to a full running HMI project.

or just task kill FTView ME and do a proper Windows shutdown in your script.
But you'd still run the risk of a Windows file corruption if something kills the power (without using HORM or EWF).

Thanks for the suggestions, I guess I will just have to work within these limitations.

If, in the windows task manager, you can identify a process that exits when the operator shuts down the HMI, you could write a little program that watches for the program to close, the tell windows to close.

I did something similar a while back, though not shutting down Windows. I'd wait for the Application Manager to close so that I could make my own notification that it was done restoring an application (since they don't tell you).

If that sounds like something you could work with, I could probably help you make it. It was just a small executable that I put in the startup folder so it ran all the time.

However you decide to shutdown, I would recommend you use the enhanced write filter (EWF)
Page 35 of the user manual
http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/um/2711t-um001_-en-p.pdf

And if you've gone that far, might as well use HORM
https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/719131


At that point, basically you can just pull power (with low risk of corruption).
If anyone deletes files, changes settings, messes things up, etc. then you just cycle power and it all goes back to a good known state.

If you've used VMware or VirtualBox:
EWF + HORM = Virtual Machine snapshot

I definitely agree with your EWF comments. This MobileView will possibly be used with multiple HMI programs so HORM might not be the best fit.

Creating a small program to detect when MERuntime stops running and then shutting down Windows would probably work. I will send you a PM to discuss some of the details.

Just thought I would provide an update to everyone now that I have a satisfactory resolution to my issue. This is thanks to help and inspiration from you all, especially dmroeder.

I need to clean this up a little bit, but it works no matter how ugly it looks.
1) Command file to run VBScript #1 from Windows startup folder.
2) VBScript #1 calls a PowerShell script in a hidden window.
3) PowerShell script monitors for exiting of MERuntime and then calls VBScript #2.
4) VBScript #2 calls Windows shutdown.exe with some message boxes and prompts.

Yes, I tried directly putting VBScript #1 directly in the Windows startup folder but Embedded Windows 7 wouldn't run it on a power cycle. I also tried using Windows TaskScheduler but got an error relating to logon servers that I decided I didn't want to mess around with.

Thanks again for all the help.

Right on man, thanks for the update.