So I’m having trouble getting PAC display to start up on a particular computer. It is a Windows 10 computer. PAC Display configurator version is 10.3b. So what happens is that we usually have the Runtime in a start up folder so when the computer starts up, it just starts the runtime. However it gets stuck. None of the information loads, but it doesn’t turn everything red as if the display can’t communicate with the controller. So I’ve tried restarting the computer, going into the task manager, stopping the runtime and starting it again using the configurator but I don’t get far. When I try to do that, it gets stuck at “attempting to connect to IO scanner.” I can ping the controller it’s trying to connect to so it’s not a networking issue. Let me know if someone has an idea.
Freddie,
Does your PAC Display project open properly by executing the *.UUI file?
We do something very similar to your approach. We are also running Windows 10 touchscreen pc’s. Basically we create a shortcut of the ‘yyy.UUI’ file from our \Display folder. We also add a 10 second delay before it executes the opening of the 'yyy.UUI file. This tends to give time for other processes to open.
We copy this shortcut, once it is verified that it opens PAC Display without errors, to the ‘shell:startup’ folder. This is accessed by clicking the Windows ‘Start’ symbol in the lower left corner of the Task Bar, type in ‘Run’, enter ‘shell:startup’ in the ‘Open’ field. Paste in your shortcut. Close all programs, shutdown the pc, power back up. Does PAC Display open?
We have had success with this approach, am not sure of your ‘IO Scanner’ portion, that may have to do with something in PAC Display itself.
Example of the ‘Target’ path in the shortcut properties:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Opto22\PAC Project 9.0\DisplayR.pro.exe” C:\xxxxx\Display\yyyy.UUI 10
[ xxxxx = user folder, if used ] [ yyyy = name of your PAC Display project ]
Example of the ‘shell:startup’ path from using the ‘Run’ command:
C:\Users\zzzzz\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
[ zzzzz = folder of the current user account ]
We just figured it out, turns out we had to restart the controller… we’ve had to do this in the past so I don’t know if the controller needs replacing. We put our runtime in the common startup folder, so when the computer boots up it just runs. This normally works well in many places, for some reason in this particular place we just have this issue.
This sort of thing always rises an orange caution flag for me… If an application cant connect and restarting the controller gets it connected again, I always wonder if there is a bit of strategy code that is not handling comm errors or time outs correctly.
In other words, all the controllers connections are busy or locked and so it cant accept any new connections. Rebooting clears all those and away you go again.
I encounter this issue as well. But the difference is my PAC display connects to control engines via public IP. There are 2 strategies data included in the display.
Both strategies use the same public IP address but different ports (22001 and 22002, I/O: 2001 and 2002)
Both strategies can start and run together.
But when trying to open the display, it will be stuck on the ‘attempting to connect to IO scanners’ message.
I have tried restart the controller but no luck.
The above configuration and testing are done inside a server VM.
Opto22 pro version software is installed inside VM as well.
Everyone here at Opto really wishes that no customer ever (EVER) puts a controller exposed on the Internet. Its a really really really really bad idea.
Please read and think about this networking guide for SNAP PAC.
If you have any groov products, please read this guide:
Ok, so after you read that and still chose to do the bad thing, the ports you have chosen are already in use by Opto services. Hence your errors.
You should chose much higher random port numbers to get away from using anything that Opto already uses and change PAC Terminal and the port numbers in each controller via PAC Manager.
I understand your concern about the security and stability topic.
FYI, we are using EPIC devices.
Instead of using groov View, our client prefers desktop display software on their server. So we have to go for the PAC display. Because of the miles away range between the server and project site, we choose port forwarding to establish the connection for now.
Besides, in the documents, I can see that I am using the wrong port for the 2nd EPIC device. I will choose much higher random dynamic ports.
