FT View ME Button Issues

dcooper33

Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
dcooper33
Join Date
Jun 2011
Location
Rogers, AR
Posts
717
Hi all,
I have an issue with 4 applications where all of the push-buttons on the screen don't take action until the button is pressed, and then released. Several of them need to be held in to do what they need to do. These programs were copied from another line, and just had the comm settings changed. The buttons behave properly on the original applications. The PV+'s were installed to replace some obsolete HMI's.
Is this a terminal setting, or something in the application setting?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Dustin
 
Very interesting. Is the firmware in the terminals the same between the ones that work properly and the ones that don't?

If you test run them from your machine, do they work properly?
 
I believe the terminals that are working have 5.1.02.09 firmware. I'm not sure of this though. I do know that the terminals I'm having trouble with all are loaded with the latest 5.10.06.09 firmware.
I haven't tried testing from the development machine yet.
Waiting on hold for Rockwell Tech Support at the moment o_O
 
It's looking like a network issue. After more testing, I discovered that a normally open momentary button will write it's value to the tag while pressed, but only after the button is held down for 30 seconds or more! What's really strange is that the value will be written to the tag immediately after the button is released for the duration of the "hold time" property. (Default is 250 msec). Any indicators on the screen where the button is pressed will also stop updating while the button is held down.

What really makes this troublesome is that this line has it's own VLAN, and the network has been notorious in the past for having problems. However, the old HMI's that were replaced (Circonix CX Panels) were able to function correctly on the network.

At this point, it looks like it will have to limp along until Monday, until we can get some more guys to look into the IT side of it.
 
Do you have wireshark? It is remarkably useful even for a novice.

Are you up against a connection limit at a PLC or protocol bridge?

A browser pointed at its IP address should help find out.

There are quite a few tools you can apply on "your side" to help at least arm the IT folks with information, and perhaps fix it without them.

Can you tell us more about how they're connected?
 
Sorry, it's been a hectic day. I'll try to draw up a rough sketch of the two networks tomorrow if things slow down. I was able to get the line running and at least get a little of the heat off.
 
Well after some more testing on this today, I'm leaning towards this being a hardware and not a network issue.

I added a test PB that increments an integer 4x per second as long as the button is pressed, and added the button and numeric display to all 4 applications. I was able to run the screens from my laptop flawlessly (on the same network, obviously).

I did find out that all 4 terminals had a firmware version with an embedded modbus ethernet driver on them, which we use in some applications to talk to 3rd-party temp controllers, but not on this line. I thought the unnecessary driver may be bogging down the poll rate, so I upgraded all terminals to 5.10.08.09 with standard drivers only.

After this, I downloaded the test pb/display to all four screens. I then noticed that the button works fine on the two (newer) 1500 screens, but not on the 1000s. The 1000 screens originally had 3.2 firmware on them and had been sitting on the shelf for several years.

I believe these older units had smaller internal memory and less built-in RAM, which is, I believe, upgradeable :unsure:

I've got some downtime next week on this line, I will try to beef up the hardware, and then see where we are at.

Thanks all for the help.

Cheers,
Dustin

🍻
 
Well, after several hours spent searching Google and Rockwell "Product Compatability Matrices" and several phone calls to Tech Support and our local distributor, I locked down some part numbers and prices an internal CF card and more RAM.

For what they wanted to upgrade this gold-plated POS, I could have bought myself a garage full of power tools, took the old lady out to dinner and a movie, and paid off a few bills. For a lousy 512 mb CF card and a quarter-gig of RAM!!!

And of course, no guarantee that this will fix my problem. Tech Support for the FT View or the hardware group were no help. They basically said that what I was experiencing was not a known issue, and they had not seen it, so not only could they not help me, but I couldn't even send the unit in for repair as there was nothing clearly wrong with it.

Luckily, we had another newer PV+ unit laying around from another moth-balled project that they let me try out. It worked as intended. It did not have any more built-in RAM then the unit I had fits with, so maybe it's something screwy in the logic module brain itself. Replacing this is better than half the cost of a new unit, so at this point, we'll probably stick this thing in a trainer somewhere. Or use it for target practice.

I hate to rant, but I just don't understand how a business can sell what amounts to a touch-panel PC (without the PC) that comes standard with 64 mb of internal memory and 64 mb RAM for ~ $4k, then charge thousands yearly for support that you may or may not be able to contact, then tell customers who call for support "wow, that's weird", and STAY ON TOP OF A COMPETITIVE MARKET!!! o_O

Sorry, guys. I know this has all been said before ad nauseum, but sometimes you just gotta blow off some steam, you know?
 
Did you ever come up with a fix for this (other than new hardware). I have the exact same issue. NEVER saw this before. Not even on old PV's.

We are refurbishing some equipment. Because of some servo hardware I have to keep the L43 processor firmware, ethernet card and Sercos card at rev 17 and because of the Panelview age it's Firmware 5.10.16.09 (that is the very last update).

I'm gonna try updating the ethernet module. I would think thats backward compatible and HOPING it might fix this same issue but it's just a stab in the dark. Next step is newer old hardware.

UPDATE: My 1769-ENBT/A had firmware 1.003.8. I updated to 3.001.3. No change :(


bmacattack33 said:
Well, after several hours spent searching Google and Rockwell "Product Compatability Matrices" and several phone calls to Tech Support and our local distributor, I locked down some part numbers and prices an internal CF card and more RAM.

For what they wanted to upgrade this gold-plated POS, I could have bought myself a garage full of power tools, took the old lady out to dinner and a movie, and paid off a few bills. For a lousy 512 mb CF card and a quarter-gig of RAM!!!

And of course, no guarantee that this will fix my problem. Tech Support for the FT View or the hardware group were no help. They basically said that what I was experiencing was not a known issue, and they had not seen it, so not only could they not help me, but I couldn't even send the unit in for repair as there was nothing clearly wrong with it.

Luckily, we had another newer PV+ unit laying around from another moth-balled project that they let me try out. It worked as intended. It did not have any more built-in RAM then the unit I had fits with, so maybe it's something screwy in the logic module brain itself. Replacing this is better than half the cost of a new unit, so at this point, we'll probably stick this thing in a trainer somewhere. Or use it for target practice.

I hate to rant, but I just don't understand how a business can sell what amounts to a touch-panel PC (without the PC) that comes standard with 64 mb of internal memory and 64 mb RAM for ~ $4k, then charge thousands yearly for support that you may or may not be able to contact, then tell customers who call for support "wow, that's weird", and STAY ON TOP OF A COMPETITIVE MARKET!!! o_O

Sorry, guys. I know this has all been said before ad nauseum, but sometimes you just gotta blow off some steam, you know?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
No I never did. We have literally hundreds of pv+ terminals in our facility with 5.10.xx firmware and I have never seen that issue before or (thankfully!) since.
Once the new terminal got me out of hot water on that job, Ive never revisited the defective unit. Still sitting on a bench, I believe.
As Okie suggested earlier in this thread, Wireshark may be your best friend to at least get a handle on where to start looking for the gremlin. If nothing else it may give you some more ammo when you call Rockwell to complain about their $4k paperweight o_O
If RA support gives you no help, call your distributor and threaten to start replacing panelviews with red lion graphites. It'll get their attention. If it doesn't, then follow through. Lol win-win
 

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