KepserverEx

[RonB]

KepserverEx v6.11.718.0
Studio 5000 v33.00

Has anyone ever run into an issue with adding strings (that are part of a UDT) into Kepware?

In other instances we've successfully pulled the UDT without issue. My problem comes into play with the introduction of a string that the plant wants to pass into the collected data.

When I auto-generate tags in Kepware I get the following error.


UDT:

After first unsuccessful channel/device setup I deleted and followed the recommendations regarding tag setup. (no change in doing it with LEN disabled)

Terminate StringData at LEN In the logical addressing modes, reading STRING.DATA causes an automatic read of STRING.LEN in Symbolic Mode.This may be bypassed by disabling the Terminate String Data at LEN option.

I have read the following;
https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS358743
https://www.kepware.com/en-us/products/kepserverex/drivers/allen-bradley-controllogix-ethernet/documents/allen-bradley-controllogix-ethernet-manual.pdf
Page 80.

I went on to create a test tag. With generic name test, but addressing directly to "****_NUM.DATA/16" and in an OPC client it shows the correct value without error. (at least as far as I've tested)

 

[TheWaterboy]

What do you get when you let Kepware auto-create the UDT from the PLC

 

[RonB]

To answer your question. The CIP error listed above.

Talked to Kepware support. After very basic troubleshooting they had me try to replicate the issue by updating the version to the latest. (6.12.xxx.) (I installed on a test box, as the original Kepware issue was on a production server. I didn't see the error in testing.)

Kepware support said it must be an issue with software.

I continued testing as I'm not usually happy with that answer and found out that the reason it wasn't erroring was because the external application that was trying to pull tags through Kepware wasn't pointing to the "test box".

In the original Kepware server, I disabled the channel/device. Went to external application, checked the configs and changed from "ns=2;s=channel.device.Global.Cooler_Num.DATA/16"
"ns=2;s=channel.device.Global.Cooler_Num.DATA"
Re-enabled channel/device and all is fine. With a quick client I'm able to get a value and no more errors.
*I did leave the "Terminate at string len" option turned off, but I don't think in my case it would have mattered as the only thing being passed are single or double digit/character strings.

 

[TheWaterboy]

Glad you got it to work - Curious.. with the setting you have now (ignoring LEN) if you get a double digit string on one poll and a single digit string on the next, is the second character cleared?