I currently have a PR1 connected directly to a Windows PC via an ethernet connection. My groov View HMI is connected to my PAC Control strategy as an Opto 22 Controller, and the strategy is started from my groov Manage interface. If my Windows PC requires a restart (thanks Windows Update!) my strategy continues operating as normal (I can monitor I/O points and do changes via groov Manage) but my groov View interface freezes up and does not refresh process variable values or recognize user inputs like button presses. In my mind, since groov View is running directly in the PR1, a Windows PC restart should not affect it. In fact, this was a big appeal when selecting between groov View and PAC Display. Is this expected behavior? Right now, the only way to get groov View to work again is to restart my strategy, which is less than ideal.
My current hypothesis is that since my EPIC controller is connected via an IP address to groov View, when the Windows PC (which is the ‘network’) is disconnected, the IP address is lost and groov View cannot reestablish connectivity. Perhaps groov View is communicating with the PR1 brain via the network instead of just directly from the device internals. I could not find any information on the groov View user guide on how to properly set up my Opto 22 Controller besides using an IP address or hostname (host name does not work either). Any information on this would be appreciated!
Is groov View using 127.0.0.1?
If not, it should be.
Try it with that.
BTW, on a personal note, the forced Windows update and the subsequent reboot and random breakages really pushed me too far, since many of my personal PC’s don’t surf the web etc, I blocked the updates. With them powered by my DIY solar UPS, I have had stretches of over 2 years uptime, the only restarts are due to installing software which is done when I am at the PC.
Thanks for the suggestion. I changed the controller IP address and it is able to interface with my strategy. Unfortunatey, when I restarted my PC the groov View screen was frozen as usual. I tried to restart groov View from groov Manage, but the system is still hung up. groov Manage shows my I/O points working as expected. When I get my I/O point values from the Local I/O device instead of my Opto22 Controller, however, I see the values updating correctly in groov View! Not sure if that points to some additional configuration needed when connecting to the Opto 22 Controller device beyond the IP address switch.
I took a look at the groov View logs and no error message immediately shows up, but I notice that the ‘DeviceController’ Logger connects to my Computed Tags, but not to my Control Engine. Let me know if there is any logging I can share or other troubleshooting I can pursue.
Please reach out to our support group.
There is something about your setup that is non-standard and they will help you dig into it and get it sorted. https://www.opto22.com/support
Just for posterity I will mention the solution that the Opto support group provided (thanks Norm!)
The issue was that the control engine configuration in PAC Control was not using the local loopback option. This, combined with the direct ethernet connection between the PR1 and the Windows PC meant that when the PC restarted, the network disappeared and errored out the communication between groov View and the strategy. Using the loopback option resolved this issue as the control engine was no longer ‘looking’ for a network.
You may want to add the IO Enabler chart to your strategy - even though the IO is local, sometimes the IO server (MMP server) can get overloaded and restart and your control strategy will not automatically reconnect.
