Wonderware Intouch Communication Loss

I apologize in advanced if this has been answered before but I was unable to find an answer searching the forum.
I have Wonder InTouch on a PC that is communicating via Ethernet over copper and radio. With our current radio configuration (which is planned to be upgraded in the future) the signal cuts in and out sometimes. Most of the time communication is re-established in InTouch with the Allen Bradley Micrologix PLCs but sometimes and individual PLC will not reconnect. With it in this state RSLinx will show the PLC connected and I can ping the IP address, I can even connect via RSLogix via another PC. It is not always the same PLC but it is always one that is on the radio backbone. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

It depends where your problem actually resides. If you're referring to the PLC, those connections can generally be monitored with some type of heartbeat tag where you can have the PLC monitor and if the connection goes dead, you can create logic for re-initializing that connection provided the external connections are good to go once they recover.

I have not personally dealt with radio connections but have operated in Wonderware for years around GE, AB and Siemens. If your problem is on the Intouch side of things not reconnecting to the PLC, I currently operate in Archestra 2014 version. I don't believe they have a function for auto-reconnect in my version but there are workarounds you can create scripting for. I believe there is a target name in Wonderware called IOSetAccessName. You could create a script in Intouch that monitors a heartbeat tag in the PLC and if it goes dead, you have a script redirect the IOSetAccessName to another IO (even if it's a junk IO that doesn't actually exist), and then redirect thereafter to your real IO target. Once it tries to reconnect, look at the heartbeat for update of live status and if still dead, continue the script.

Software toolbox back in the day also offered some software clients for monitoring some connections, perhaps it will pertain to your setup or prompt other ideas as well. I'll attach the file for viewing.

Let me know how it goes and hopefully some of this pertains to your issue and can help generate some ideas for solution.

You can also check the SMC for any logged errors.
"System Management Console>Log Viewer>Default Group>Local" to see if the SMC is showing any communication errors.
It should show "Entering Slow Poll Mode" on that device when comms fail, and before that will be any errors in comms.

Thank you both for the input, it gives me somewhere go to continue troubleshooting.

I just found that a reset to the particular DASABCIP re-establishes the broke connection. Is there script to do that automatically?

You can try this command...
IOReinitialize();

timadsen01 said:

I just found that a reset to the particular DASABCIP re-establishes the broke connection. Is there script to do that automatically?

Click to expand...

you can tie it to a script of a button. i have done that.

Check whether your DASABCIP (DA Server) has a valid license. For example, InTouch V10 only supports until certain version (I forgot exact number), but if you installed newer version, SMC log file will report license warning and cut off communication at interval.

Have you found the root cause?

What version of the ABCIP server are you running? There are known issues related to reconnection after communication loss. Your AVEVA support contact should be able to check if there is a hotfix or upgrade that will resolve this.