I am trying to monitor reactions from various charts during comm failures. Unfortunately, PacControl keeps displaying the Comm Error Pop-Up dialog which interrupts updating other unrelated (to this comm error) Charts & freezes PacDisplay updates until the dialog is acknowledged. Once acknowledged (ignore/retry), it keeps popping up every few seconds. This makes it impossible to debug other aspects of the program I need to. I need to be able to Debug it while there are comm errors [B]without actually disabling [/B]the affected I/O rack in PacControl.
[B]
Is there any way that this Modal Pop-Up Dialog be prevented from appearing or delayed for say 30 seconds or so?[/B]
Looks like the debugger is complaining about getting debug info from a point you have named IN1 – is that in your watch window there? Can you take it out?
Also, you may try adjusting your control engine’s Retries/Timeout values to something higher, to see if that helps.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. Of course, as always, if you can tell as a little more about the “big picture” of what and why you’re up to there, I might come up with some wilder/wacker ideas for you…
-OptoMary
It was an IO point (IN1) in the EB-1 Rack that I was interrupting Ethernet comms from. Taking it out resolved my issue. However, that brought up another issue to light that can be misleading. PacDisplay still shows IN1 as still being valid (Input ON) with the Comms disconnected to that I/O rack. I presume this is because of the “IVAL”.
Any way to get PacDisplay to recognize that this point is in Error?
I am a little fuzzy following you on this one… so here is my best guess, but please let me know if I have missed the mark…
You have a controller, and a rack, the rack is offline from the controller, but PAC Display is still looking at the rack and displaying its IVAL…?
Under PAC Display Configurator… Select Configure -> Runtime.
On the last tab, you see the IO unit, is the box checked?
Normally you would want that, since it means that PAC Display can bypass the controller and get any tags it needs directly from the IO unit. Faster and more better.
BUT, in your case (I think), since its offline, you want to get it from the controller and that way any sim commands and manual point toggling you are doing from PAC Control Debug mode will be reflected in PAC Display Runtime.
OptoMary answered my initial question about the Pop-Up error Dialog and I was able to get rid of it by not having that I/O point on my Watch window as she pointed out.
However I still have a secondary question. That is …
How do I get the PacDisplay to reflect the [B]ACTUAL STATE[/B] of an I/O Point?
i.e. When that point is On/Off or in Error state, I want Pacdisplay screen to indicate as such AT ALL TIMES.
For an Example…
My Controller is reading a Digital Input from a EB1-Rack (IN1)
In PacDisplay, I have a Graphic screen that displays the On/off state of this IN1.
When actual input vale of IN1 changes states it is correctly displayed on PacDisplay initially.
That is until step 4 happens.
Now I disconnect the Ethernet Cable for my EB-1 Rack.
PacDisplay graphic for this IN1 continues to display this point as being “ON” instead of displaying its current error state. This is true even after half an hour has passed by with the Ethernet cable disconnected.
[B][U]How do I get PacDisplay to indicate that this input point is currently in ERROR (or an unknown state) since my controller nor PacDisplay Runtime is no longer communicating with this I/O rack ?[/U][/B]
It is set correctly. I also have the Read Tags Directly from I/O checked. (see post above from Ben). This appears to be either
a. PacDisplay Issue or a Bug, Or
b. User Error (configuration/ Set-Up error).
This is a simple setup. I am using Version 8.5
1. PacControl - Two Charts. (Compiled charts Running in PacSim Ver. 8.5)
Chart 1 keeps track of Elapsed time and updates each second.
Chart 2 simply checks to see if I/O unit (EB1 Rack) is Online and if not sends “Enable Communication to I/O Unit” command to the controller. This chart runs at 5 second intervals.
2. PacDisplay:
Monitors One Input from EB-1 Rack.
Displays the Elapsed Time, Control Unit Errors, and Enabled Status of EB-1 Rack.
3. EB-1 Rack (firmware Ver 9.xxx) with a 4 Point Input Card and a 4 Point Auto/ Manual/Off Output card
Couple Of issues.
#1 Enabled Status of EB-1 Rack. (Incorrect on PacDisplay)
When EB1 Unit is physically disconnected (Ethernet Cable Removed), from time to time, this displayed status changes from Disabled to “ENABLE” state when the rack is not even connected.
Where is it getting this change of state from? From the Enable command being sent from my Comm check chart?
#2 I/O point(s) from EB1 is not correctly updated on PacDisplay screen when Comm’s go from Normal to Fail to Normal again.(This is true for both Inputs and Outputs)
That is unless I close the PacDisplay screen and reopen it again. Then the I/O status is correctly displayed. Screen shot below is after recovering from a Comm Failure. Same thing happens when going from Normal to Failure where point on screen shows normal until I open and close PacDisplay screen.
