Problems with G306K Red Lion Panel

Hi All,

In a bit of a bind, hope someone can help.

I have two machines due to go out the door, we have built one in the past with no issues, but for some reason the Red Lion G306K will not retain any tag values when powered down. I have even tried the orginal software that worked in the last machine with no issues, but even that fails now.

The original machine was built back in October, so I doubt the firmware has changed in the G306K's.

I have tried everything I can think of, even tried using a CF card, until I recently (today) found out that the G306K can't utalise the CF memory for recipies. (after reading another thread here).

If Anyone has any ideas great, I'm out of ideas myself.

The crimson 3 build I am using is 502.00 which worked fine with the last machine, and I can't believe I have 2 faulty red lion panels, I've never had a faulty panel before after 3 years of use.

Is there any other way to force the memory to save the information other than selecting retentive on the actual TAG?

Hope someone has some ideas on this.

Hi All,

Problem solved, though not sure which part, unless both, process solved it.

1, downloaded latest crimson 3 software (even though I did not have this problem with the last machine).

2, saved the program with a complete NEW database.

The Tags are now retaining data again!

I'd still be interested if there is another way to force a save, from what I have heard the data in the Red Lion screens is only saved every 10 minuites, would be nice to have a button to force a save before a shutdown.

Garry E Preece said:

I'd still be interested if there is another way to force a save, from what I have heard the data in the Red Lion screens is only saved every 10 minuites, would be nice to have a button to force a save before a shutdown.

Click to expand...

+1 on that ! ! !

It's kind of embarrassing to have to tell a customer, "well you have to wait 5 minutes before powering down the machine or the parameters you just set will be lost."

I know there's the CommitAndReset function but it would be nice to have the Commit without the Reset.

I was hoping this would be fixed in Crimson 3.

Talk to Red Lion. We had a similar issue. The reason that they limit the writes is that the memory can only be written to a limited number of times and they don't want someone writing a bunch of tags every second.

My understanding is that there is another undocumented command - something like CommitAndVoidWarranty() - seriously. As long as you are only doing it once and a while, it's probably not a big deal to use. Pretty sure you need to edit the registry to enable this command.

Emailed Red Lion and they said there is no such command. CommitAndReset() is the only option.

I had this issue a few years ago. I dont like that you have to wait 10 minutes before powering down. Is the HMI communicating with a PLC? if so you could probably place a button on the screen that when pressed it loads all of the values into retentive memory in the PLC. Then when powered back up have some kind of code or interupt to move the data back to the red lion.

Unfortunately the PLC I'm using (Panasonic FPX) doesn't have near enough retentive memory for what I need to store.

Laypeople often don't understand the concept of "writing to flash memory every 5 minutes" so I usually just tell them that the memory is very slow and takes that long to finish backing up.

This must be a Kadet limitation. I find the cached CF backed up method used inthe G308 and G310 units to be pretty bullet proof. My data is logged by event about every three seconds, 10 to 12 thousand records daily with about 7 parameters each, the CF card will hold up to two years worth safely along with the image, and the FTP backup occurs hourly...I can browse them from the controls LAN and pick them right off the card at will.

I like the Kadets, but there is a big capability drop compared to the full size G3. The K2 has the crippled memory card slot and audio port. Based on Jeremy's posts, I don't expect that to change...If only they'd at least support large memory based logs and FTP access...

Hi All,

I thought it was fixed, I was wrong!

Yes I could get the G306K to retain the tag data on a power cycle.
Machine worked like this for a few days, and suddenly the G306K has once more lost ALL retained tag data and will no longer save any data again.

I have to do a fresh download with a NEW database in order to get the machine running again, but when will it fail again?

If I could find out WHY this happens I maybe able to come up with a solution, but at the moment I just can't work out what is happening, and once it has lost the data it never retains it again until a NEW database is downloaded (purging all current data in the process).

This is quite the problem, cupled with the fact one machine is going to china and the other machine to brazil, not exactly on the UK doorstep.

Again ANY help with this would be most appriciated, I'm really out of ideas now.

Have you been in contact with Red Lion about this?

They are usually very responsive to customer issues.

[email protected]

Hi All,

I have been in touch with Red Lion today, Europe tech support a waist of time, only talking direct to Red Lion in the states do you get quick and helpful support.

It appears I am not the only one with this problem with retained data issues, the G306K appears to have an as yet unknown problem (though not all of them).

Red Lion are working on a solution, but suggest (due to how quickly I need to get this fixed) changing from the G306K to the G307K200 that fits in the same size hole and has no known issues of this type.

So we will be getting some new panels asap.

Thanks for all the help by the way.

I'm in the process of a G306K to G307K2 upgrade. It does fit in the same size hole but be aware that the pinout of the communication ports is totally different and they come out the bottom, not the back.

We are currently working on the resolution for the memory issue in the G306K.

koylur - You can purchase the CBLADK76 if will convert the ports on the 7K to mimic the ports that existed on the 6K. Also the ports will come out the back with this converter.

Still having problems, but now different ones!

Have changed the G306k to a G307k200, and have added the conversion kit CBLADK76.

However, I can no longer get coms to the redlion cub5b via serial RS232.

The conversion kit has been found to be wrong!
COM3 RS232 on the G307k200 in the manual is wired pin7 RX pin8 TX and pin5 comm.
The G306k Auxiliary RS232 in the manual is wired pin1 TX pin6 RX and pin5 comm.
The conversion kit was belled out joining pin7 RX to pin1 TX and pin8 TX to pin6 RX and pins 5 are NOT linked.

Unless the manual is wrong.

Even after finding this and wiring directly (re-making the comms cable and wiring directly (not using the conversion kit)) I cannot get ANY RS232 port to work on the G307k200.

I am trying to get one Red Lion device to talk to another Red Lion device and it just does not work. I've tried changing the software comms settings, and will now try the only port I know works (the programing port) just to see if I can get comms.

Both the Cub5b and programing cable worked just fine with the G306K.

What am I missing? besides the fact that the Crimson 3 software still lists the Auxiliary comm ports not the comm 3 port. Even though I have already tried using Comm2 RS232.

After speaking with Red Lion directly, have found there is a known bug that will hopefully be fixed with the next software update for crimson 3.

Still not sure about the conversion kit though, they are looking into it.