Ausman

Sorry Derek, can't remember for sure, but I'd say the loading wheel. I think I could do other things at the time, it wasn't a full lockup. I seem to remember that it got as far as breaking existing driver links, though, I had to do a restore. The instances ages ago were the start of my thoughts that are pretty much summarised here: I hate W10 and don't use it personally except on some laptops that are used externally a lot. A client site has it and I have written about headaches I have there with Msoft breaking things by installing drivers they think are best. Sadly I can see the day when it will be the only option, as we need more and more "security" that "only the latest OS can deliver". Never mind that it is vastly more big brother, and we actually pay them to use it! Until that time I have various W7 installs in use, happily purring away. I even have some laptops with XP, for all the field work to older plc systems and sensor interfaces etc. No external net connections on these, though. cheers, Aus

I've just looked at hardware configs and it is interesting that HSC Reload only appears for snap-ins, perhaps other controls only work on snap-ins as well. So Gabriel and Flex are probably right in their thoughts. It seems strange that a reset on an expansion requires a full hardware reset. What Gonzalo wants doesn't seem to be too unusual. Creators please! Aus

Have a good read through this topic and references therein for some pointers that might help: You may also be running into problems with 32 bit drivers going onto 64. cheers, Aus

Do other programs exhibit the same slowness during the time Visilogic does? W10 might be doing one of it's "background" things that is taking a while to complete. This gobbling of all resources doesn't show up easily in task manager and can be a real head scratcher. And very infuriating. cheers, Aus

I have had drivers that have been inadvertently blocked by my A/V upset the installation process of other programs, to the point of halting the progress at that point. The driver install program doesn't know how to proceed if the driver install isn't allowed, and sits there indefinitely. Given that this has happened regularly to someone else on the same system, perhaps your site's A/V is the issue. In the past I used to have this occasionally happen with drivers for "illegal" 232 converters, until I twigged to the myriad of imitations out there upsetting things and took more care to only use genuine products. Discussion about this exists on the forum. Do a search for Prolific and then look at USB references. Lastly, are you on Win 10? It defaults to updating drivers itself, which has caused me untold grief on other systems until I turn it off. I have to check this periodically because it "magically" turns itself back on! I can't get it to stick...Microsoft (thinks it) knows best. cheers, Aus

Sorry Gonzalo, over to others more knowledgable! I don't use HSC at all, but there is obviously something I am missing in my interpretation of how to do it...same as you! Before we finally give up, have you tried changing your MB350 to one of the Function keypad inputs SB? Maybe this is not being called properly? I look forward to other people's thoughts. cheers, Aus

Please also do a full Initialise and Reset and then see if it works.

And is it in a subroutine that is definitely being called when needed?

Have you got the Immediate Reset as the only element in the net along with it's activating condition? Aus

Hmmm. I have never had that issue. But whenever I have changed a drum parameter, it is always done as new program name. I do a compile, and then if ok I save as a different name and then do the download. (No matter how small a change, I always do sequential program saves so that I can always reference something older if needed.) Maybe this is the issue if you are simply changing numbers? Have you also tried an Initialise and Reset via Connection/Communication & OS/2nd tab/Bottom right? Perhaps the PLC needs an initialise to get things working correctly. FYI, I also draw your attention to the way I use drum. They are always an occasional part of the process, only called when needed. My method is to have some, or all of the times as the maximum allowed, with triggers derived from the program that will force a step increase if the current step has been performed correctly/enough. This way the drum is active only as long as necessary. My physical conditions can vary significantly, with unusual hiccouphs in the process meaning the "master" timeout for each step is a must, essentially forcing things along to eventually end the drum or sometimes do it all again. So my drum use is a little different to the way it is really intended. cheers, Aus

Hi Hex, In case you haven't got this info, here is the Drum help as a pdf. It is normally found in Help under Function Blocks. For each Drum you use, you need a separate initialisation/configuration. It sounds like you may not have done this. cheers, Aus Drum.pdf

Hi Jamie, my quick look at that manual says you should be able to change your parameters using 485, which is likely the connection method already in use. At present they must be disconnecting this to do the programming with the PC. I think you could certainly develop code for the 1210 to write to the drive. (Comms start at page 68.) So you could remotely connect to the 1210 to do so, or have the program set up to let users do whatever is needed. However, why does this need to happen? Drive parameters constantly need altering doesn't seem to make sense? cheers, Aus

Before you do that, I'd be looking at getting the U90 software onto a PC and see if you can access the program in the Jazz. If you can, most of your problems are solved. https://unitronicsplc.com/Download/SoftwareVersions/U90/U90Ladder_6_6_36.exe Install this program using Run as Administrator and run the program with administrator rights. To let the program connect to the Jazz you'll need the adapter that best suits your systems, likely the PRG. Talk to a local Unitronics supplier about modules you find starting here: https://unitronicsplc.com/support-technical-library/ Dig down to Jazz Hardware and then RS4 or PRG. cheers, Aus

Hi and welcome, for starters I have attached a general info pdf on Jazz in case you don't have it. Some of your questions are answered in this, particularly the ability to clone the program and running values. 1). Possibly, depends on what you have implemented relating to your further questions. 2). Always a good idea anyway, not just for battery failure. Gremlins can strike and make even the most reliable things have hiccouphs. The system's values that might be crucial to running correctly need to be stored as well. 3). Yes, but you may not be able to get to it, depends on the supplier's thoughts as to whether their program is proprietary. 4). Possibly, but who knows what will be around then. And if it ain't broke, don't fix/change it.....just be ready with all your eggs in the basket. And don't forget where you've put the basket, either! I don't use Jazz, others do and will surely weigh in with their comments. They're pretty simple and I doubt that it is doing a lot of stuff. cheers, Aus JAZZ_USER-GUIDE_06-06.pdf

Dear Creators, can we please try and get this error fixed in Visilogic? It has always been a source of frustration for me, and other newbies have been caught as well. It is simply incorrect that when online the power rail shows active when a subroutine is not being called. I cannot see how this can be too hard to implement. Although it isn't the ideal solution, I suggest the following which to my mind is an easy method to at least get monitoring working vaguely correctly. There is some sort of internal flag that says to go to a sub, so if that flag is ON then the monitoring of that sub can say that the left hand power rail is on as well, and anything subsequent is shown correctly. If the flag is OFF, the left hand rail shows off and nothing else is shown active either. Edit: Or perhaps the active elements could be shown in a different colour with the left hand rail still off? Although I know of this issue, it is still easily forgotten when trying to analyse why a particular item isn't working as expected, when you are being shown that it is powered. Many people here have devised ways around this problem, but to me it shouldn't be happening in the first place. cheers, Aus

This sounds like they are in a subroutine that you haven't called. Utils/Call/Call Subroutine. etc cheers, Aus

Great explanation, Joe. And humour as well!! cheers, Aus

That's interesting Flex. Every time I do any sort of download, even for the most minor things, it always puts the PLC into stop mode. I always thought Reset was the optional part depending on complexity. However, I always use Download & Burn as my default. Does Download (only) simply do a change to the most minor adjustments without a stop? Always learning something new here. cheers, Aus

More information please Don. What model reader, it's outputs etc. cheers, Aus

Hi Suthan, Are you saying that when you download to the controller, an alarm you have set in the existing controller program is being activated and freezes things? Normally a download puts the controller into Stop mode until finished, so an Alarm process shouldn't happen. cheers, Aus

3 = Connection exists, but there is an error in the MODBUS commands, -11 = ??? Although it might be a pain to implement, can you try 9600 8N1 on the second line? And are "half the reads" consistently the same slaves? And why 8N2 on the first? Nearly everything I work with Modbus works best at 9600 8N1. But I acknowledge that's just the gear I work with. Many of them you can't even change the parity from N. cheers, Aus

The public link above was dropped due to the constant upgrading of products making it hard to keep the entire library up to date, and the problems this was then creating. However, you used to be able to get the most recent complete library link through a direct ask to support, on the proviso you acknowledge the "possibly out of date" aspects. I haven't done this for a little while but assume that the process is still operational. It is useful to have all info in one place, but essentially the same info is all there for individual download as needed. cheers, Aus

What you say is true Flex, but I have PLC systems I built over 25 years ago still going and their programs and O/System DO differentiate between such things. Other more recent models/makes do this as well. If something made so long ago can do it, why can't the Creators implement it correctly? I respectfully disagree here. Even though I do understand, I shouldn't need to understand what is going on...the program should correctly display what is going on. It's akin to being in a car with everything on the dash saying you're moving along nicely, engine ok etc. yet you look out the window and you're not moving! In the past I have also asked for an automatic check of program name matching to counter this issue. It has caught me out a few times. I can't see that it would be too hard for online mode to first check if the program in the plc is the same name as the one that you are using. With a user choice then available to proceed or not. cheers, Aus

This is a classic example of a quirk of Visilogic that REALLY annoys me. It displays rungs as being live, even if the sub is not being called. I have whinged about this before. I repeat that if my old Win95 & DOS programs I've had for 20 years + for other PLCs can differentiate between active and uncalled subs over a 9600, 232 connection, something of Visi's maturity and current use should be able to do it easily. Even though I love Unitronics, it is a really big failing in my view. cheers, Aus

I think I'd first be going for another cup of coffee with the IT department. cheers, Aus