Active x controls

I AM CURRENTLY WORKING FOR A COMPANY THAT IS RUNNING A SMALL PRODUCT LINE WITH A PLC 5/80 AND SEVERAL 500'S. ON TOP OF THIS WE ARE CONTROLLING THE LINE WITH A MAIN VISUAL BASIC PROGRAM WHICH RUNS AROUND 8 ACTIVE X PROGRAMS(TRIGGERED BY BITS IN THE PLC). WE ARE ALSO INCORPERATING ORACLE DATA BASES TO LOAD A RECIPE (OR PARTS ASSEMBLIES LIST) INTO AN INTEGER FILE, AND SOME DATA COLLECTION. THE MAIN VB PROGRAM HAS SOME CONTROL OF THE LINE SO IF IT GETS HUNG UP OR LOCKS UP THE LINE STOPS... MY PROBLEM IS WHEN ONE OF THE ACTIVE X PROGRAMS GETS RESTARTED (BECAUSE THE OPERATOR IS RESTARTING THE MACHINE'S CYCLE) I GET A SWITCH TO / RETRY ERROR ON THE PC. I CAN CLICK ON THE ERROR SEVERAL TIME AND AFTER 10 SECONDS TO 40 SECONDS IT WILL GO AWAY BUT ONLY TO RESURFACE WHEN WE RESET THE ACTIVE X CONTROL PROGRAM. WHEN THIS HAPPENS WE SEEM TO MISS WAY MORE IMPORTANT ACTIONS AROUND THE LINE( PRINTING DATA TAGS TURNING ON LIGHTS ECT.) KEEP IN MIND IT SEEMS TO BE ISOLATED TO ONLY ONE OF OUR ACTIVE X CONTROLS. THE MAIN VB PROGRAM IS MISSING TURNING ON OR OFF BITS ECT. IN THE PLC. WELL ANY IDEAS WOULD BE GREATLY APPREACIATED.

If at first you don't succeed....

HIRE A NEW SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR.

It sounds like theres a bug in that AciveX.
Do you have the source code?
Is the program still under warranty?
Is the system's integrator who wrote the code willing to fix it/still around?

yes i do have the source code. I can zip it to you if you would like to take a peek at. The system is no longer under warranty I just got tossed in the middle of this. I've been programming plc's for years, but I have a ways to go to get up speed on vb.

No thanks. You can attach your zip as a post, and perhaps someone else will look at it.

My first reply contains some "invisiable ink". Use your mouse to selct the text to read it. I think that's your best solution.

It seems like the ActiveX control is set up to communicate with the plc at timed intervals and when the plc is restarted there is a short time period where the plc halts communications. The ActiveX seems to be set up to automatically retry the connection in the event of failure. This would be why you are getting multiple messageboxes of the error after the retry also fails. I can take a look at the code but I cannot promise anything. Send it to [email protected]

Infinite Loop is the culprit

Your activeX program contains a loop where it tries to connect to PLC and if it fails , it keeps on trying .. If it is done in VB, you may use a DoEvents command inside the loop to solve this problem

IKnowSomeVBAlso