Topics

61

Open Discussion / writing to excel

« on: June 03, 2015, 01:03:06 PM »

Hi all.  I know this topic has been discussed before.  I am starting a new project that I need to populate an excel form with data read by AHMI.  Can anyone explain how and provide some code samples how to do this, thx!

62

Support Questions / OPC Help

« on: April 26, 2015, 10:30:45 PM »

Archie Im trying to connect to a device with OPC.  Im very new to using OPC.  Does the AHMI driver only support connection thru serial Com port1 or can TCP be used?  I attached a screenshot of the connection that I have connected to the device.  What would be the proper way to enter the info into the AHMI OpcDACom1 driver and a basic label?  Thx   

63

Support Questions / 360 degree meter

« on: April 06, 2015, 08:02:06 PM »

Archie. I would like to add a synchro scope to my project. Is there a meter that goes a full 360 degrees?  Is this in the meter pack for purchase? Thx

64

Feature Request / GE Fanuc SNP driver

« on: February 28, 2015, 07:12:36 PM »

Archie, is there any possibility of a GE fanuc SNP(Series Ninety Protocol) driver?  I use GE fanuc mostly in my projects and can get away with Modbus for many of the newer versions, but I do have many older projects that are at a point where the original OIT is failing and would like to have AHMI as an option to replace them.  I attached a link to a pdf that may help if you decide to create a driver.  Thank you.
http://support.ge-ip.com/support/resources/sites/GE_FANUC_SUPPORT/content/staging/DOCUMENT/0/DO225/en_US/1.0/gfk0582d.pdf

65

Support Questions / MessageDisplayByValue backcolor

« on: February 05, 2015, 09:56:56 PM »

Hey Archie, I upgraded my project to 3.97e from 3.97c and now the back color of all my MessageDisplayByValue controls will not stay to what I set them to.  The attached shows one that is set to white but a build will return the back color to black.  Any ideas? Thanks 

66

Support Questions / new features

« on: January 31, 2015, 10:10:54 AM »

Archie can you give an overview of the new Datasubscriber and BasicDatalogger features?  I see there is now a collection field for these but the editor does not allow me to add anything.  Also the Datasubscriber can now be used for multiple registers by seperating with a comma such as 40001,40002,40003 etc.  how do you access the value of each register?  Thank you.

67

Support Questions / sharing data between two applications

« on: January 31, 2015, 12:21:34 AM »

Hi Archie,I'm having some trouble with my project and dont know if its my design or possibly the driver.  I am using ModbusTCP. I have several devices and each has its own form such that device1 is form2, device2 is form3 and so on.  I use the main (form1) to monitor all devices and this polls all the time regardless of visibility set to 500ms. I do this to monitor for events on devices that are not being viewed.  The trouble I have is sometimes when I go from the mainform to a device form, I get data that does not update.  It appears that the driver doesnt switch to the opened form and update the data everytime.  Sometimes it does though, there's no predicability.  Question: Is this a common design that the driver is known to work??

Now to the subject of this post.  My thought was to possibly create two applications where I have a mainform in app1 that monitors all devices but does not have any graphics. I would set this to minimize(not sizable)  App2 will host the devices and graphics and only poll when viewed.  But I need to get data from App1 to App2 for say alarm ack and to set a flashing indicator.  How do I pass data between the apps? Tell me am I out of my mind or is this a reasonable approach.  If its not then I will need to rethink my design. Thanks

68

Support Questions / Erratic data update with multiple devices on same IP

« on: January 20, 2015, 03:13:25 PM »

Hi, Im connecting to two devices via an ethernet gateway using ModbusTCP. IP is 172.16.0.2 for device1= id1 and device2=id2.  What Im experiencing is very inconsistant data update the second or third time the page is opened.  Usually(not always) the data seems to update just fine the first time the page is opened.  However if the page is closed and then reopened a couple minutes later the data doesnt update or does so very slowly(minutes later).  I can tell right away if the data will update by viewing the Tx & Rx lights on the gateway.  When data is updating these lights blink rapidly in unison as they should but they blink very slow and erratic when the data doesnt update.  There is no way for me to view the data on the downstream side of the gateway but i took a couple Wireshark captures.  I am not well versed with decipering data captures but I did notice that sometimes only 2 or 3 words are requested by AHMI according to wireshark.  Dont know if this is normal but I would assume it would poll all 10 at a time.  Poll rate is 1000ms(I tried 300-1500ms with same results).  both captures show when the data is not being updated, one after a couple minutes to reopen the page and the other is on initial page opening.  I removed the second device and noticed that data is updated fine everytime.  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance 

69

Additional Components / Line shape as AHMI control

« on: January 13, 2015, 11:19:20 AM »

Hi Archie. I'm wondering if it's possible to make the Lineshape control of VS an AHMI control where color can be assigned by bit and possibly rotation as well. Or is there a different VS control that has similar function as the LineShape that I haven't found yet? Is this out of the realm of possibilities?  Thanks.

70

Support Questions / MessageListByValue Invalid time stamp

« on: January 12, 2015, 03:53:52 PM »

Hey Archie, Im tried to use the MessageListByValue with the timestamp and get an invalid timestamp format error.  Looking in the properties field for this, the default format is h:mm tt.  i changed this to hh:mm ss but still get the message.  thanks 

71

Support Questions / Running two instances of AHMI on the same PC

« on: January 12, 2015, 11:43:18 AM »

I would like to run two instances of AHMI at the same time on one PC.  The reason for this is to be able to use one app to monitor status of several devices and report alarms via email and activate an audible alarm.  The second app would be the normal user interface and would view data/silence alarms when the device page is opened.  I have tried this in one AHMI app by using the main form to poll data of all devices at a rate of 30 second intervals regardless of visibility.  But I find the data refresh of the pages being opened is very slow or doesnt happen at all.  I assume this is because the driver for the device is busy updating the mainform and not the page that is being opened.  Is this a good way to monitor the devices or is there a better way?  Bottomline is the PC is not monitored by a person at all times and needs to send an alarm email if a process goes out of range.    I am using v3.94  Thanks for the help.

72

Support Questions / disappearing datasubscribers

« on: January 11, 2015, 12:45:02 AM »

Just wondering if anyone else has been having the issue where datasubscribers just vanish?  I am doing quite a bit of developing lately so I have been starting and stopping the project debugger alot.  every once in awhile i notice items not working that had been.  When I look at the design.vb, the datasubscribers are gone but the code for them is in the .vb, I add them back to the design.vb and have to copy the code to them and everything works again.  It is terribly frustrating, do I have some setting wrong that does this?  Thanks   

73

Support Questions / adding graphics to Graphic Indicator

« on: January 10, 2015, 01:26:36 PM »

I would like to add a third and possibly fourth graphic to the Graphic indicator.  how do I go about adding these fields in the properties of the Graphic Indicator?  I think I have added PLCAddressValueSelect3 and 4 but cant find out how to add the graphic select 3 and 4.  Thanks 

74

Support Questions / v3.96 with animated picturebox

« on: January 05, 2015, 12:11:44 PM »

Hey Archie, I tried to use an animated picture box with v3.96 today and when the control is added to the mainform the border flashes rapidly and does not allow any property changes to it. Any other control is added with no troubles.  Thanks

75

Support Questions / keep data subscription on main form

« on: January 04, 2015, 03:48:23 PM »

I want to keep data subscriptions active on the main form even if not the page is not opened, what code changes do I need to do this??  Thanks