Panelview Plus Help

Does anyone have experience with Allen-Bradley Panelview Plus using RIO? I am getting an error message on the PV- "PKTX RIO Adapter Driver failed on device synchronization start event - Fatal Error?"
Unfortunately AB doesn't offer 12 months support any longer with their software, so I am left figuring this out on my own. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

khurley,

This message means that your serial communications driver program could not establish communications between the Panvelview and the PLC. The reasons are never clear, but it could be:

Disconnected cable,
PKTX driver not configured correctly (baud, parity, stop bits, and so on).

Well, I have come to a conclusion. After spending hours with AB Tech Support, and now having more problems than I started with, I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested in using the Panelview Plus examine their application very carefully before purchasing. I am sure that connecting to a Logix based processor over ethernet would be no problem, but in my application connecting to a PLC5 over RIO I was sold the wrong product. Looks like the Standard Panelview 1000 would have been much better suited.

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree that the RIO implementation on the PV+ could be a lot better. I have gotten pretty deep into it myself with block transfer timing.

I don't mean to stir a hornet's nest, but I am curious about how you "spent hours with A-B technical support", when you implied in your initial post that you didn't buy a Tech Connect contract.

Really, this is an honest question. Did you buy a contract just to get this problem solved, or did you get a Grace Period contract, or did you get your assistance from some organization other than RA Technical Support (like a distributor, or a salesman) ?

Ken, is that true?
Does Rockwell no longer offer any support without a techconnect contract?

I feel I am quite lucky to have a distributor with a lot of in-house tech. people.

Ken,

Fortunately, after complaining to my distributor about the lack of support he volunteered to call AB and get a case number for me so I could then call through myself. Although the level of support that I received was excellent, I still object to the fact that short term support isn't included when purchasing a package such as RSView ME.

Kevin

You get a short grace period when you purchase a product in a new "family". RSLogix, RSView ME, Panelbuilder are all in the same family, so since I bought RSLogix 5000 last year my grace period had already expired.

Okay, that answered my question.

I agree that new software packages should come with a short-term support contract, and it's only recently that that policy was ended. I guess it didn't match with the "product family" orientation of Tech Connect.

I liked the initial goal of Tech Connect; lower the price and increase participation. I don't think that RA anticipated how many customers would see the lowered prices as an opportunity to stop paying altogether.

I hope the rest of your project goes more smoothly.

... kissing my lucky star for avoiding a PV+ RIO project ...



- doing it on Ethernet instead because the PLC5 got switched to a 5/40E Ethernet -