FactoryTalk View SE: Direct tags work, HMI tags with the exact same address don't

I have a project that is conversion from RSView32 7.2 to FactoryTalk View SE 9.0.

A large portion of the project connects to two OPTO 22 controllers via OPC. I have the Opto 22 OPC server set up in my project. I can browse the tags and everything. Here's the problem I'm having.

Everything in this project is HMI tags. There are hundreds of objects using them. So naturally, I thought if I could establish communications with the OPC server, my work was done.

But apparently not. I discovered an interesting problem that I've looked on the Rockwell Knowledgebase for, called Techconnect, all to no avail. If I create an numeric display object, and put in the OPC address directly, for example:

::[CONT|ip|tcp:10.10.9.231:20011]FT;Value[4];TS

It works fine. I read the number in. Everything's great. If I cut and paste that address into an HMI tag and reassign the numeric display to the HMI tag, it wireframes. I tested it out in FactoryTalk Live Data Test Client. If I add the HMI tag, Bad Quality, no Value, if I copy and paste the address into the Test Client directly, Good quality, good value.

I'm at the point where I'm about ready to just replace all the HMI tags in the entire project with direct addressing. I'd like to avoid that, but if I have to, I have to.

So, I guess my main question is...why would an HMI tag not work but a Direct tag with the exact same address work just fine?

Update:

I tried creating a new application using Kepware communicating via Modbus TCP to our building control system. I have the same problem. It appears to be an issue with HMI tags reading OPC addresses. I'm speaking with Rockwell technical support now. I'm also attempting to see if earlier versions of View SE have the same issue.

Update 2:

I recreated the conditions on a Windows XP Virtual Machine running View SE 7.0 and Kepware 5. HMI Tags WORK in version 7 but not in 9.

I guess the further away FTV is getting from RSView32, old features are being left behind.

HMI Tags, the backbone of the RA proprietary database systems were kinda migrated to the SQL implementation since Rev. 6.1, however, they've been acting like surrogates since.

I've had to convert to Direct Addressing tens of FTV ME and SE applications for similar reasons; monumental or not, since new applications are being developed using Direct Addressing at least there is a contiguous approach to anything FTV.

dmargineau said:

I guess the further away FTV is getting from RSView32, old features are being left behind.

HMI Tags, the backbone of the RA proprietary database systems were kinda migrated to the SQL implementation since Rev. 6.1, however, they've been acting like surrogates since.

I've had to convert to Direct Addressing tens of FTV ME and SE applications for similar reasons; monumental or not, since new applications are being developed using Direct Addressing at least there is a contiguous approach to anything FTV.

Click to expand...

It sucks because it makes the conversion prospects less feasible as time goes on.

If I had known this wasn't going to work, I might have looked into simply re-doing the project in Ignition instead of FactoryTalk View. Literally the only reason I used it was because I thought it would be less work. With every upgrade, Rockwell is pushing customers with legacy products to different brands.

Okay, the issue has been solved.

Turns out, this was a *drum roll* DCOM issue! Surprise, surprise.

I followed Technote 54281 to open it up on the OPC Server application and the HMI tag suddenly started working. It surprised me because I thought you only have to mess with DCOM if it's a remote OPC server. Turns out it's true even if the server is Local.

This same thing is happening to me. In fact, everything works if it's set up as a local station, but not when set up as 'Network Distributed'. On DCOM default properties, I enabled DCOM, set default authentication to 'None', and default impersonation level set to identify. Anything I missed? TIA

i have the same problem, and still trying to find a way to solve this. the technote 54281 not helps me
anybody have other solutions?