Unity v13 "DIFFERENT" Online Issue when it shouldn't be

BAJ

Member
Join Date
Jan 2006
Location
Maple Grove, MN
Posts
201
I have a customer who has had this happen twice on one of their systems now with v13 of Unity, once by their system tech and again today by me.

The issue is we try to *start* making a simple change to the PLC program and Unity says the change cannot be made without building offline. When this happens, it appears something changes in the PLC or a non-project file because despite having NOT built or downloadeded any changes, the online status shows the red "DIFFERENT" on the status bar at the bottom of the Unity program window.

Even if we close Unity, reboot, and open a previously saved copy of the PLC program (has the original date and time stamp) which was known to match the program in the PLC just prior to this happening, we still get the DIFFERENT indicator.

As for the simple changes, their tech was trying to change the value of a numeric constant in a FB task, I was trying to change one variable to another existing variable on the input pin of a block in a FB task. This is routine stuff I've done 100s of times in Unity.

Trying to upload the PLC program fails with a generic error message.

They recently upgraded to v13, and I don't have a lot of time working in with v13 yet. I have logged many hours on v8, v9 and v11, and have never had this issue.

Any suggestions? I may get a window to download the offline, rebuilt program to the PLC tomorrow, but from conversations I've had with others who were around for the first incident (I was out-of-state), even that may not completely clear this up. Unfortunately with the holiday week most of the players who were involved in the first incident are out on vacation.

Does anyone know if there's another way to get around this? One person mentioned there may be some temporary files somewhere that can be deleted which may help and prevent the need for the download?

Thanks,
-Brad
 
I'm still on V12. Have never seen this issue though; only one similar thing where my old laptop crashed mid build and i had to do a full download.

Have you tried Schneider tech support? YMMV but the PLC guys where I am are pretty good and if theres a bug they generally know about it early on.

What processor and firmware? Have you checked the compatibility table in the Unity Help file? Generally older processor firmware works fine with newer versions of unity but worth a check.
 
In unity you can create watch windows to see the status of a tag. If you did this in logix5k, it would have no effect on the downloaded copy, but in unity it counts as a change. I have seen people do this, and when it says "you've made changes do you want to save?" they will hit no. There's probably another solution, but we just told everyone to save the project if they add a watch.
 
I dont think this has got to do with a watch window as the program would upload from plc with no issues. Just for interest sake have you opened the *.sta file that is automatically created when you save a built online project. Normally has the same name with "auto" at the end and try to go online then?
I am going to check what service packs and fixes are available for v13 and get back to you
 
Progress, but still stuck with original issue

So I got in this morning and Unity was up with a message that it was disconnected from the PLC (this happens when the screen saver locks the computer), which was odd because I left it disconnected last night. So I connected and it came up EQUAL! The project had no name so it appears someone got it to upload. I have been unable to find out who did it, but apparently it's someone who is smarter than me as I tried to upload 3 times yesterday and all failed.

I did add an animation table yesterday, so that likely explains why I wasn't EQUAL after opening the original program. The animation tables don't get downloaded to the PLC (they were all gone in the uploaded program this morning), so I cannot fathom what that has to do with the programs being equal.

All this is well and good, but it still doesn't explain why I can't change one variable for another of the same type (both REALS, I checked) on an input pin of a function block without building offline and downloading with v13. I tried this same change again and get the pop-up indicating an offline build and download will be required to continue.

I did reach out to our local support guy but he might be on vacation this week too.

Thanks for all the feedback, you guys rock!

-Brad
 
Yeah animation tables shouldn't cause a build if they are not included in the upload information. This is a project setting to include or not.

Have you tried this same thing in the Simulator? I'm curious to know if the same thing happens. Is this just an ordinary tag that isn't part of a UDT or a DFB? If it's part of a user defined type that is in use then yes you can't change it without an offline rebuild.

(You'll need to do a full rebuild to connect to simulator, so save a copy before doing that).
 

Similar Topics

hi there is someone can share me patch for Untiy PROV13 ? please share thanks,..
Replies
0
Views
1,166
Hello all, I have a good one I need some help on. I have version 13 of Unity Pro but my customer is wanting version 12. I only have access to...
Replies
3
Views
3,006
Hello, I am using Unity pro V15. I have Quantum CPU 671 and Ethernet NOE 77101 configured. I have configured IO scanning on NOE. I have attached...
Replies
5
Views
137
HELLO MY FRİENDS ı have problem. ı tought you can solved thıs problem for me. First of all When I checked all the cable connections of the...
Replies
0
Views
381
Hi All, I haven't installed Unity Pro in years and needed to install it recently. I initially tried installing Version 11.1 and the whole...
Replies
3
Views
631
Back
Top Bottom