Online mode users?

PAC Project
1

Hey OptoFans,
Wondering if any of you PAC Control users ever go from Debug more to Online mode (for small changes) and back again? I’m wondering how many folks actually use Online mode anymore. Please speak up if you do!
Thanks,
OptoMary

2

Your question is prompting me to go back and read about online mode. I don’t even know what its for and saw no apparent “difference” when I tried clicking on a whim, compared to just always using debug mode.

3

Annnnnd read it… yeah, for my case, the machines at my job, if I’m messing with them, are already in a state where I can afford to start/stop the strategies, etc, and just push an update I’ve done using config mode. We use our machines for tests that last a set amount of time, and in-between we’re free to tweak. If we’re changing anything but variable values (can do in debug mode), its time to shut down the test anyway. Hope that makes enough sense to be useful.

4

Yes! Makes sense, and that’s a better way to do it. These days, especially with the feature called “Background Downloading,” there are fewer reasons to use Online mode.

In fact, if you want to make small changes like that, even at the same time as another user in another location (like I’ve done before on a live system), Node-RED is better equipped to handle such programming activities. And you can do a “diff” on your project (since it’s all just JSON) to see what’s changed between versions!

5

I use Online mode a fair bit. It allows me to make changes on-the-fly such that I don’t need to take the entire strategy offline to complete the changes and can only tweak a chart that might not be currently in use in my process anyhow. I do prefer to flip to configure where possible and do a more comprehensive download though.

6

Not really. I try to push updates during “off” hours. During initial development/de-bugging the equipment isn’t in production so I can start/stop as needed. I’ve never really thought about using online mode.

Now if it could give me real time, live reading of I/O and variables without slowing the strategy down… I would use it quite frequently.

7

Thanks Everyone. I am one of the users that likely prompted this question, as I’ve been in discussion with Mary on some issues we occasionally see when we use Online mode to modify some code. I was curious how many users do (or do not) use Online edits.

Typically our systems are not in a state where we can afford to restart the entire strategy, as would happen with Background Downloads. It is much easier for us to coordinate time to update and restart a single chart using Online edits.