DASABCIP v4, wonderware 9.5, controllogix and slow communications

Hi guys,

I'm working on a Water treament plant application in wonderware 9.5 and using DASABCIP v4.0 as the server. It is connected to a control logix plc.

The problem I'm having is when I launch the runtime environment for Wonderware it is VERY VERY slow to update (I think there's about 4500 tags with this topic). I don't start to see values till about 2 mins after I've launched the runtime environment. I've also noticed that if I try to update a value in wonderware, the value will not update in the PLC. I know communications are running because I get alarms and other data but only on first startup and after waiting the 2 mins. It seems like it just scans on first startup then it will never update again no matter if I force the value in the plc or through wonderware.

To further be sure of where the issue is coming from, instead of using DASABCIP in the access name of wonderware, I used RSLINX. Once I switched to this as the server, everything works fine and is very quick. I can update tags through the HMI and see the value update in the PLC. So this leads me to believe there is a setting issue in the DASABCIP I don't have correct. So I'm just wondering if you guys have had issues like this with DASABCIP, wonderware, and controllogix and how you corrected them? Are there special settings in DASABCIP for Controllogix PLC's or any settings that will run it similar to RSLINX?

Thank you in advanced!

have you tried using wwclient to access the data thru dasabcip? that would eliminate any issue with the application. perhaps you could take some screenshots of the settings you are using in dasabcip so we could take a look at them.

Are there any indicators in the SMC?
What does the logger identify as any potential issue?
Anything in the event viewer?

What OS are you using?

Thanks guys,

Ill try the wwclient tomorrow and get some screen shots of the settings on the DASABCIP server as well. The logger doesn't say much other than some topics can't be located and undefined items. I don't think these have a bearing on how slow the comms are. We're running it on windows xp. I know about the logger, but where do I get the event viewer?

yes surely look at the event view to see if there are alot of failed communication errors.

speed of pc and "other" equipment might be an issue. check the log

I belive it's in the SMC. systems management console. as stated above

Thanks...the log in the SMC doesn't display any failed items other than the ones I mentioned above and there aren't too many of those.

Sorry I'm a little confused as to which is whic

What does the logger identify as any potential issue?<--in the SMC or somewhere else?
Anything in the event viewer? <--in the SMC or somewhere else?

look in SMC under your DA server. click down till you see diagnostics.

should be under DASABCIP server. there is a level called messages. make sure they or most are green or ok. this will show you the server items that fail.

ahhh...I know what you're talking about thanks for the reply. I will check that tomorrow.

tranh2 said:

Thanks guys,

Ill try the wwclient tomorrow and get some screen shots of the settings on the DASABCIP server as well. The logger doesn't say much other than some topics can't be located and undefined items. I don't think these have a bearing on how slow the comms are. We're running it on windows xp. I know about the logger, but where do I get the event viewer?

Click to expand...

I would look in the topic names and see what they are setup as. if you have a bunch of topics setup in the app for dasabcip, that arent communicating to anything it may be hosing up comms between ww and dasabcip. put in something like "dummy" in the application section of all topic names not in use.

depending on the number of topics assigned there (each plc) there maybe alot of items to look thru

What flavor of Control Logix? We had a project recently where we added a lot of logic and WW comms to existing L55 processors prior to upgrading them to L6x processors. We would experience very slow updates in WW with the L55s especially when we were online with Logix5000. The L6x processors solved the problem. There may have been other ways to solve this problem but, this project included the processor upgrades from the beginning so this was just accepted as the solution. The L6x series does handle communications much better than it's predecessors.

tranh2 said:

...some topics can't be located and undefined items. I don't think these have a bearing on how slow the comms are.

Click to expand...

You might not think so but I would try and resolve this first. I've seen stuff like this slowing down the communications before.

Another thing that not one has mentioned, is what is the overhead time slice set to in the CLX?

I know that often the default is not enough, and is very common to increase it to 30%.

This may not be your issue, but something worth checking.

Hey guys,

So here's an update. I've tried running WWClient and it gets the same slow response as wonderware. The code that appears says that the communications is good (I think its 000c0 or something like that) but its just SLOOOOOW. I've checked the "messages" in Diagnostics and they all show green with the same 000c0 code...meaning comms good. The weird thing is when I go to the diagnostics section the program freezes for a couple minutes before I can browse the tags and see the status. It freezes everytime I have to leave and come back to it.

We're using a Logix5562 firmware 16.20. The overhead slice is set to 30%

With regards to using "dummy" for application name (which I did try and didn't seem to do much), even if I put a dummy name will the tags associated to that topic still be polled? Is it possible that wonderware is waiting for a reply before moving on to the next tag a so on (timeout)? Is there a way to disable those access names in wonderware that aren't being used? I've tried deleting the access name but I can't because I have tags populating the access name and there are hundreds of tags per access name.

I've attached screenshots of my DASABCIP settings. I think our customer has used default settings which seem to work for them. I'm also using default settings which doesn't work for us. Only difference is they have all the PLC's and we don't.