Crimson 3.0 Smiulator not working

Does anyone else have trouble getting the Crimson 3.0 simulatior to work?

First I installed Crimson 2.0 looked thru it but never used it for any develompment. Then I downloaded and installed 3.0 from Redlions Website w/o first uninstalling 2.0. I got the Simulator mode to work with Crimson 3.0 once, where it worked for several hours w/o a problem. Since that first time, I cannot get it to work at all. This is regardless if it is the same project or a new one. I tried it with a simple One tag project whete having only a single virtual tag, one numeric display, and no COMMS. Still No-Go.

The Error that pop-up is "cannot find packet.dll " which by the way I have on my PC. I uninstalled 3.0, uninstalled 2.0 and re-instlled 3.0. But still can't get it to work.

I am running XP pro with SP 3. This is prestine LAPTOP where there are no games, web and ot other junk programs etc and it is not used for web surfing at all. On it, I have installed RSView 32, RSview ME, PANEL BUILDER 32, RSLinx (both Enterprose and Server versions), Logix 5, 500, & 5K, Mitsubishi, AutomationDirect, Ge-Fanuc (even the DOS based LM-90), & Idec programing software. At times, it is also CIMPLICITY server whenever I am working with CIMPLICITY. No problems with any of those. I can run most of them simultaneously (ones that allows it), and keep them running for days. I even access and work on the laptop remotely (although it is on the same LAN).

When I am running Crimson 3.0, none of those other programs (including MSOffice, Email, etc.) are running and I am logged in locally. Even went to great lengths to manually shut of all GE's and Allenbradley/Rockwell software services that runs in the background. I ve tried it on another XP Pro SP3 desktop where only office apps are installed along with latest MS patches and upgrades. Same results. Could not get the SIM mode to work at all.


Any Ideas on how to get this to work? This shouldn't be this hard, or this troublesome. Right?

I have only had trouble with one installation of Crimson, and found that it only occurred if I had already run a particular wireless modem software package from Verizon first.

I had similar symptoms. In my case, my app would edit fine until after the emulator had been run. Then the editor would do as you say crash and vanish, although I did get some small error windows sometimes, and frequently, when restarting Crimson, it would recover my work.

Also, (not sure if still the case) the emulator did not work for me with a 64 bit OS. Other than those two situations, Crimson has been pretty trouble free for me on five or six machines with XP SP2, SP3, and both 32 and 64 bit versions of Win7.

What build of Crimson 3.0 are you running?

OkiePC,

I Don't have any modems and wireless devices enabled. The crash is not due to the Simulator failing to run. It is entirely a different situation. (I will move it to another thread to avoid confusing others). In Fact, after the simulator fails, I can go about my normal business with editing the ptogram etc. It just never initializez the SIM Mode.

Occasionally I have trouble with the emulator when I first start it. Sometimes it stops at one point during the "virtual download" process for several minutes. If I hit ESC to exit the emulator, and then hit Update again, it zips right through the 2nd (or 3rd) time without having to wait. I have had a time or two where it seemed to hang indefinitely until I hit ESC and restarted.

For your graphic editing problem:

Can you make a dummy app that causes the crash, zip it and attach it here, and I will try it with my build of Crimson 3.0 (I am running build 437).

Paul

OkiePC said:

Occasionally I have trouble with the emulator when I first start it. Sometimes it stops at one point during the "virtual download" process for several minutes. If I hit ESC to exit the emulator, and then hit Update again, it zips right through the 2nd (or 3rd) time without having to wait. I have had a time or two where it seemed to hang indefinitely until I hit ESC and restarted.

For your graphic editing problem:

Can you make a dummy app that causes the crash, zip it and attach it here, and I will try it with my build of Crimson 3.0 (I am running build 437).

Paul

Click to expand...

OkiePC,

See attached. I had Buld 443, just saw they now have Build 454 and I just finished up the upgrade.

Both problems still exist. Simulator and crashes. Interestingly, with the new release, it takes a bit longer to crash provided you create a new data base. It took a bit of frantic double clicking for it to crash. When I opened the old database that was created with Build 433, It crashed rather quickly. I tried it w/o saving it first with the new build. see attached zip file. Double click quickly on the Horizontal line on the display page. You may have to try it couple of times.


I am still frustrated with the simulator. What good is one that you can't run reliably every time or even start. This does add a bit of a discomfort factor in using a G3 panel for a critical project There is no telling what other glitches they might have. Have the panels you have installed to date run reliably?

Thanks again.

shiftedbits said:

Have the panels you have installed to date run reliably?

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Yes, not any trouble with any of them yet (but I only have four of them deployed). I have not even really learned the ins and outs of replacing them in the field, but it has only been a year and a half since the first one went in. I think they will be much more reliable than our panelview pluses. I know the PV300 Micro I replaced in '09 was failing every 30-120 days, but the G304K has lasted 18 months in its place and still going strong.

My emulator troubles have been few and fleeting. 99% of the time, it does exactly what the real hardware will do, even the one time when I created something bad in a database that got the unit stuck in a repeating reboot cycle. I was able to break back in after many attempts, but the emulator and the real hardware (G310C) did the same exact behavior.

I did "brick" a G304K with the beta release of Crimson 3.0 but my supplier had me a new one the next day and it was not yet in production when I did that, so the day of waiting didn't cost us anything.

Monday, call tech support and email them your database. I am sure they will get right on this and have an answer pretty darn quick.

Monday, call tech support and email them your database. I am sure they will get right on this and have an answer pretty darn quick.

Click to expand...

Thanks OKiePC,

I will do that. I mean I can't even get the simulator to run on anything.

ie. 1 virtual tag, No comms. That is it for the entire database. Still no go. It worked once and that was it. I have not installed any other software other than re-instlling crimson.