Tips and Tricks with Factory talk view studio and Panelview Plus hmi

[jtashaffer]

I was modifing a .apa file today. I made my changes, created my runtime and loaded it on the panelview. It all worked great but when I power cycled the unit to make sure it would come back up. When I did it gave me a error saying (runtime not found at storage card) I look online and couldn't find anything. I called tech support and they said I need to setup to boot to config, the load file, change it to run on startup. Power cycle again and it work. It clears the storage log when it boots to config.

 

[jtashaffer]

Anyone ran in to this?

Post your tips and tricks that you have ran across over the years

 

[rQx]

i know that I have had some problems when having a PanelView+600 HMI. Don't remember exactly but it's something like this:

It had a program in it lets say it's called 200_1, i made changes and downloaded a new program 200_2. Loaded the config and the HMI was running fine. After reboot the HMI loaded 200_1. I think that I had to deselect that the program should run at startup, just to select it again and it worked. Not 100% this is correct but I know I've had problems when downloading new programs to the HMI.

 

[Ken Roach]

I don't understand the sequence of events you are describing. Are you suggesting that the terminal deletes a log when it boots to Config Mode, or that it deletes an application file when it boots to Config Mode ?

I don't know if you're describing a reproducible malfunction, or a procedure that is necessary but undocumented.

I've loaded thousands of applications into PanelView Plus terminals that rebooted into Runtime mode.

I've definitely run into the poorly-defined function that rQx describes; the criteria for setting a specific *.MER to be the file that runs on reboot seems elusive.

While downloading with the reboot after download checkbox marked always makes the terminal run the Runtime I just downloaded, I've never been clear on what exact steps are required to make a Runtime into "the current Runtime".

 

[HJTRBO]

After loading the new runtime after a USB transfer I always head back out to the 'Startup Options' and cycle the selections of all the boxes. Works for me everytime for V5.0 & V5.1 on our plant HMI's. Since doing these extra steps I have never encountered the problem of the HMI reverting back to a previous .mer revision after cold starting. Disclaimer; I can't say that this method is valid on other runtime versions as I have not tested on them.

 

[jtashaffer]

You had to make it boot to config mode after loading a new runtime if you don't it will try to load the original runtime. It was version 5:10

 

[jtashaffer]

Anyone else got any tips and trick to factory talk view studio me and panel view plus

 

[rQx]

We aren't able to use the trend functions of the PV+600 HMIs we are using. The log files in the HMI randomly crashes and is unable to be displayed and no new entries is added. RA has no idea what the problem is so we don't use the trend or log functions anymore.

 

[rexcramer]

I am trying to build a graph that shows the last 50 or 100 bottle weights, the target weight, and the upper and lower allowable limits of the bottle weights.

The problem is when a person navigates to a different screen, the graph will not run in the background, and then when you go back to the graph screen you have to weight for the dots (bottle weights) to populate the graph again, a several minute process.

Any suggestions on a macro or something similar that could run this graph in the background, to make it pop up with the last 50 bottle weights immediately?

Thanks

 

[Ken Roach]

In the situation described by rQx, it sounds like the data logging service is crashing, and doing so inconsistently.

I would pursue that specifically with RA Technical Support to see if there is some way to identify why the service is crashing. Maybe it's a known bug, maybe it's some specific combination of factors like the CF card format, the runtime memory usage, and the number of tags on scan.

I personally encountered a bug where the data logging service would fail to start, every time. It was very clearly announced by the FactoryTalk Diagnostics service in the diagnostic logs, so we knew it was happening. It was in specific sub-revisions of 5.00.xx and 5.10.xx firmware of the PV+ 700-1500 logic module. I figured out which versions *did* work correctly and used only those.

 

[Ken Roach]

In the situation described by Rex Cramer, it's application-dependent. I can't tell by the description if this is an ordinary Trend object or of it's an array of Bar Graph or other animated objects.

If the graph depends on values that are only used on that one Screen, they are probably going "off scan" when that Screen is closed.

One method might be to put those tags into the Data Log Model, so that they are polled in the background and held in history for a period of time.

Another method might be to not close that Display, but rather make the other displays "On Top" of it instead of "Replace". That way the PV+ will consider that display to be open at all times and keep the tags "on scan".

The downside of course is that Displays that don't close keep on taking up memory and you could eventually run into performance issues with the terminal.

 

[jtashaffer]

It seems to me that most of the issue happen from the 32bit to 64 bit switch. Watcom database to the squall database

 

[rQx]

In the situation described by rQx, it sounds like the data logging service is crashing, and doing so inconsistently.

I would pursue that specifically with RA Technical Support to see if there is some way to identify why the service is crashing. Maybe it's a known bug, maybe it's some specific combination of factors like the CF card format, the runtime memory usage, and the number of tags on scan.

I personally encountered a bug where the data logging service would fail to start, every time. It was very clearly announced by the FactoryTalk Diagnostics service in the diagnostic logs, so we knew it was happening. It was in specific sub-revisions of 5.00.xx and 5.10.xx firmware of the PV+ 700-1500 logic module. I figured out which versions *did* work correctly and used only those.

We had a case (the former programing company had) and it was forwarded to Rockwell Automation from Sweden to England (I think it was I didn't handle the case). If I remember correctly they said it had something to do with how the Windows CE booted, and it ruined the log function. Their solution was to add a memory card (ish) with a file that could boot CE better or something like that.

I know it seems pretty vauge explanation but I didn't handle it, another company did. But our customer didn't accept the solution so we just put the trend in the trashcan and haven't thought of it since