RSView Enterprise Log Viewer utility

godfrey

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Join Date
Apr 2002
Location
Charlotte, NC
Posts
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How do I get the .LOG file out of a Panelview Plus 6, Firmware 6.1? A technote says transfer it to a compact flash or USB drive. I'm having trouble with step one which is where to locate the file. Can I find it through the Config utility? Is there a Windows desktop or file manager that I need to get to? How to do that? Thanks.
 
I have recently had very in-depth experience with PanelView Plus terminals and their Alarm Log files.

I think you're asking about the Data Log files themselves, which are created by the Data Log Model for use by Trend objects. The principles are similar.

The Knowledgebase article you're probably looking at is AID # 33924, RSView Enterprise Log File Viewer (Access Level: Everyone).

Get a current copy of that article; the utility has recently revved up to 1.90 and the instructions have changed slightly.

My terminals were a few years older than yours (PV+1000, running 5.10.03 firmware), and of course I'm looking for the *.ALM files rather than the *.LOG files.

To get those files off the PanelView file system, I use a USB thumb drive. You can use a CF card or SD card as well.

I used a batch file on a USB thumbdrive to extract the log files from my PanelView. Mine is an old Corsair Flash Voyager, 8 GB, formatted for FAT16 so that the PV+ can see it. I used Windows Notepad to create a text file on the flash drive root directory named 'autorun.bat', which contains these four lines:

@echo off
echo Copying Alarm Logs to USB Memory Device
copy "\storage card\rockwell software\RSViewME\logs\Sandpounder_rev32\M_Alarms\*.*" "\USB Storage\"
copy "\Temp\~MER.00\M_Alarms\MachineAlarms.mal" "\USB Storage\"

Where 'Sandpounder_rev32' is the application name I'm running on the PV+.

When I plug in the USB thumbdrive to the PanelView, the batch file runs and the 'Pocket CMD' window pops up in the foreground for a few seconds. When the window closes, I remove the thumb drive.

You can do this with an CF card or SD card as well, depending on the type supported by your logic module. If you have a model of PV+ that allows desktop access and FTP access to the file system, you might be able to do this over FTP as well; I have not tried.

There's another Knowledgebase article, AID 35513 (TechConnect Required), that gives us the important information about the path to the *.LOG files, rather than the *.ALM files. Use these copy statements with appropriately substituted Application names and Data Log Model names in your batch file.

For PV+ 5.10 and older:

copy "\storage card\rockwell software\RSViewME\logs\YOUR_APP_NAME\DlgLog\YOUR_DLOG_MODEL_NAME\*.*" "\USB Storage\"

For PV+6 and newer:

copy "\windows\logs\Your APP Name\DlgLog\Your datalog model Name\*.*" "\USB Storage\"
 
I have recently had very in-depth experience with PanelView Plus terminals and their Alarm Log files.
I used a batch file on a USB thumbdrive to extract the log files from my PanelView. Mine is an old Corsair Flash Voyager, 8 GB, formatted for FAT16 so that the PV+ can see it. I used Windows Notepad to create a text file on the flash drive root directory named 'autorun.bat', which contains these four lines:

Where 'Sandpounder_rev32' is the application name I'm running on the PV+.

When I plug in the USB thumbdrive to the PanelView, the batch file runs and the 'Pocket CMD' window pops up in the foreground for a few seconds. When the window closes, I remove the thumb drive.

Firstly, thank you for this info. I am trying to see if I understand this correctly.

Secondly, I am trying to log alarm files from my PV+600.

I am familiar with how to log data files and have done so in the past. With that in mind are there limits to alarm log files as well? ie 300k before they start writing over the oldest values.



If I understand what you're saying;all I need to do is create a Notepad file with your 4 lines of text in it and save it as auto.bat, store it to a usb stick and plug it in to extract my alarm logs?

Is no reset required as is with data log retrieval?
 
In my experience, the Data Log files created and managed by the Data Log service need to be closed by the operating system before you can copy them off the terminal. I'd have to dig up the technote or user manual citation.

But the Alarm Log files seem to copy without incident even if I just use the batch file to copy them from Internal Storage to the Removable Storage.

The Alarm Log size is limited by the Alarm Setup -> Advanced -> History -> Size field. The default is just 128 entries, but I run a PV+ 1250 application with 2048 entries with no trouble. As I recall a 2048 entry alarm log was under 60 kb. You might see performance or storage limitations if you are trying to log tens or hundreds of thousands of entries.

I happen to have a brand new "PV+6" 600 terminal, 2711P-T6C20D8 on my desk. It came from the factory with version 6.10 firmware, and I've been loading version 5.10 projects into it because my FTView Studio is just version 6.10 (with RSLinx Enterprise and the Transfer Tool patched to support the new terminals). I'll see if I can do a little testing on that one to be sure that the batch file and file paths work the way I think they should.

The RSView Enterprise Log File converter utility is a little finicky; you have to follow the directions in the Knowledgebase very carefully with regard to which files you select from which locations. Once you have all the details sorted out, it's just a plug/wait/unplug operation to retrieve the Alarm Log files from the terminal.
 
In my experience, the Data Log files created and managed by the Data Log service need to be closed by the operating system before you can copy them off the terminal. I'd have to dig up the technote or user manual citation.

But the Alarm Log files seem to copy without incident even if I just use the batch file to copy them from Internal Storage to the Removable Storage.

The Alarm Log size is limited by the Alarm Setup -> Advanced -> History -> Size field. The default is just 128 entries, but I run a PV+ 1250 application with 2048 entries with no trouble. As I recall a 2048 entry alarm log was under 60 kb. You might see performance or storage limitations if you are trying to log tens or hundreds of thousands of entries.

I happen to have a brand new "PV+6" 600 terminal, 2711P-T6C20D8 on my desk. It came from the factory with version 6.10 firmware, and I've been loading version 5.10 projects into it because my FTView Studio is just version 6.10 (with RSLinx Enterprise and the Transfer Tool patched to support the new terminals). I'll see if I can do a little testing on that one to be sure that the batch file and file paths work the way I think they should.

The RSView Enterprise Log File converter utility is a little finicky; you have to follow the directions in the Knowledgebase very carefully with regard to which files you select from which locations. Once you have all the details sorted out, it's just a plug/wait/unplug operation to retrieve the Alarm Log files from the terminal.

thank you very much! I'm actually waiting on a PV6+ to get in so I could play around with it and the alarms.

I have 5.1 on one Virtual Machine and 6.1 on another, so I can develop it in either one. I haven't even started on my PV project yet, just doing the code right now.

I have done the data logging before just never the alarm stuff. Usually a customer doesn't request them on PV projects, more or so Wonderware type systems.
 
I just verified that the Alarm Logs are in the \Windows directory now on the PV+ 600 with 6.10 firmware.

My autorun.bat file is just this:

echo Copying Alarm Logs to USB Memory Device
copy "\Windows\logs\My_Application_Name\M_Alarms\*.*" "\USB Storage\"

I get the MachineAlarms.mal file (the Alarm Setup file) from the FTView Studio machine, and run those files through the RSView Enterprise Log Viewer utility to get a view of the alarm history.

Another little detail; I remember being surprised that the most recent log file entry was not at the top or at the bottom, but in the middle of the log file. I attributed that to the circular nature of the file, and just sorted by the alarm trigger time/date.
 
I just verified that the Alarm Logs are in the \Windows directory now on the PV+ 600 with 6.10 firmware.

My autorun.bat file is just this:



I get the MachineAlarms.mal file (the Alarm Setup file) from the FTView Studio machine, and run those files through the RSView Enterprise Log Viewer utility to get a view of the alarm history.

Another little detail; I remember being surprised that the most recent log file entry was not at the top or at the bottom, but in the middle of the log file. I attributed that to the circular nature of the file, and just sorted by the alarm trigger time/date.

So all I need to do to retrieve them is:

1.make a USB stick with a Notepad file named autorun.bat
2.fill it with what you typed above
3.put it in the PanelView while its running
4.wait a bit for the screen to pop up/disappear
5.remove the USB stick
6.open with RSView Enterprise Log Viewer Utility
7.sort by date/time

Or am I missing something? Thanks so much again
 
Fixed!

1.make a USB stick with a Notepad file named autorun.bat
2.fill it with what you typed above
3.put it in the PanelView while its running
4.wait a bit for the screen to pop up/disappear
5.remove the USB stick
6.open with RSView Enterprise Log Viewer Utility
7.sort by date/time
8.??????
9.PROFIT !
 
just a question about the .mal file (how do you open it?)any software? can you step by step show me how to do it? thanks (i just get the .mal only)
I just verified that the Alarm Logs are in the \Windows directory now on the PV+ 600 with 6.10 firmware.

My autorun.bat file is just this:



I get the MachineAlarms.mal file (the Alarm Setup file) from the FTView Studio machine, and run those files through the RSView Enterprise Log Viewer utility to get a view of the alarm history.

Another little detail; I remember being surprised that the most recent log file entry was not at the top or at the bottom, but in the middle of the log file. I attributed that to the circular nature of the file, and just sorted by the alarm trigger time/date.
 
Last edited:
Just wanted to say that i found this Post very Useful, and I used FTP To transfer it automatically, i scripted the FTP Transfer on a Control network PC to automatically grab the file.



When setting up the FTP, remove the \Windows\ in base Directory and Remove the \Temp\ in the Default Directory. Just have \ in both. From there you have access to everything you need to get those 2 files copying over FTP from another Computer. Remember your credentials you setup on the ME Station.



I Do have more questions but i will ask in a new post and then reference this one. Thanks.



I have recently had very in-depth experience with PanelView Plus terminals and their Alarm Log files.

I think you're asking about the Data Log files themselves, which are created by the Data Log Model for use by Trend objects. The principles are similar.

The Knowledgebase article you're probably looking at is AID # 33924, RSView Enterprise Log File Viewer (Access Level: Everyone).

Get a current copy of that article; the utility has recently revved up to 1.90 and the instructions have changed slightly.

My terminals were a few years older than yours (PV+1000, running 5.10.03 firmware), and of course I'm looking for the *.ALM files rather than the *.LOG files.

To get those files off the PanelView file system, I use a USB thumb drive. You can use a CF card or SD card as well.

I used a batch file on a USB thumbdrive to extract the log files from my PanelView. Mine is an old Corsair Flash Voyager, 8 GB, formatted for FAT16 so that the PV+ can see it. I used Windows Notepad to create a text file on the flash drive root directory named 'autorun.bat', which contains these four lines:



Where 'Sandpounder_rev32' is the application name I'm running on the PV+.

When I plug in the USB thumbdrive to the PanelView, the batch file runs and the 'Pocket CMD' window pops up in the foreground for a few seconds. When the window closes, I remove the thumb drive.

You can do this with an CF card or SD card as well, depending on the type supported by your logic module. If you have a model of PV+ that allows desktop access and FTP access to the file system, you might be able to do this over FTP as well; I have not tried.

There's another Knowledgebase article, AID 35513 (TechConnect Required), that gives us the important information about the path to the *.LOG files, rather than the *.ALM files. Use these copy statements with appropriately substituted Application names and Data Log Model names in your batch file.

For PV+ 5.10 and older:



For PV+6 and newer:
 
Last edited:

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