Month: August 2000

ControlShop v08/28/00 Release Notes

Posted: 8/28/2000

  • This latest release of ControlShop now has 2 new Clients. FTAlarm, and FTBatch. You can run these clients in demo mode.

General Features and Overview for FTAlarm

  • FTAlarm monitors alarm conditions specified by the user across multiple devices. Alarms are entered in a spreadsheet format with up to 3150 Alarms per Alarm sheet. Triggered alarms can be logged, printed, audible wave and/or flashed to the screen. Configuring FTAlarm Communications.

General Features and Overview for FTBatch

  • FTBatch is a stand-alone component of ControlShop. It allows multiple numeric values (called batches or recipes) to be written to one or more devices (PLCs) at a time. These values are displayed in the row and column spread sheet-like cells. Each Batch Sheet can have up to 255 rows and 255 columns. Each row of a Batch Sheet represents one batch. Each column represents one address in one device. All the values in a batch (row) are downloaded at one time. Although each can write to multiple addresses in multiple devices, each column refers to only one address in one device. These values can be entered manually or read from the numeric fields of external user-defined Access database files. The external Access files are named externalfile.MDB.
  • A Batch Sheet can communicate with multiple servers. Each server may include multiple devices. Multiple devices can be written to as long as the device belongs to a server to which the Batch Sheet window is communicating. One or more devices must be added to a server before any addresses can be added to a Batch Sheet window.

Bug Fixes in FTLogger, v1.41

  • Corrected problem where attempting to add a device or verify an address belonging to a Server that was unable to be loaded can give an exception.

ControlShop v08/14/00 Release Notes

Posted: 8/14/2000

Features in 505Server

  • Increased maximum communication packets per port from 256 to 4096 to allow the Logger to log up to 25,000 addresses in one log sheet using TCP/IP.

Solutions in 505Server

  • Corrected potential errors such as “invalid data sent with packet” when viewing certain addrs.
  • Corrected problem being unable to write to 32-bit non-real loop and alarm addresses using TBP protocol, and being unable to write to 32-bit non-real TCC and DSC types using NITP protocol.
  • Corrected problem where server could have reported wrong values when requesting 32-bit signed values.
  • Corrected possible GPF if modifying an existing event.
  • Corrected problem where it was possible to get an event from the server telling the client that all data in a group has been read when in fact some data may not be read yet.
  • Corrected “Server Error. Address is out of Range” when entering a Loop or Alarm value in the Data Window that is in the new limit for the 555-1105/6.

Solutions in ModServer

  • Corrected problem where TCPIP could not handle the same IP address assigned to different ports, resulting in Modbus-TCP/IP bridge not working correctly.
  • Corrected problem of only supporting a max TCPIP ports of 26 when it should have been 256.

Solutions in FTTrend, v1.24

  • Corrected GPF when zooming in less than one second.
  • Corrected menu problem when loading a file with the child window maximized.
  • Corrected problem when adding a realtime point to a first Y-axis when there is more than one Y-axis and the last point exists in the 2nd Y-axis. This did only occur when adding points Online.

Features in FTLogger, v1.40

  • Added capability to now support the use of Microsoft Access 97 files.
  • Added the ability to log to a column data base.
  • Made modification to now change the DATETIME field type to either DATETIME or FLOAT depending on the update rate.
  • We now allow setting the max size a file can reach. Additionally the user is allowed to span to a new file when this occurs.
  • Modified import where if importing doc and “Verify Doc” is checked, we may receive an error if a duplicate tag was found that was attached to a different address. The only option was to select OK and not import the duplicate tag. We now give two additional options. In addition to ignoring the duplicate tag, the user can cancel the import at this point or overwrite the existing tag with the new tag..
  • Added “Demo” mode in addition to offline and online modes which can be accessed under the main menu “Mode”. This mode is similar to offline except that random data is generated, displayed and logged for each value.
  • Added ability to do a cancel of doc import/export.
  • Added ability to overwrite doc as well as merge doc during an import of documenation.
  • Increased the ability to log up to 1500 addresses in one log sheet.
  • Added capability to now prevent the user from using the same log database file across log sheets.

Solutions in FTLogger, v1.40

  • Corrected problem being unable to import a tab separated doc file.
  • Corrected problem where comma separated files saved in excel (as .CSV) by default do not show up in the documentation import/export browse dialog.
  • Corrected problem where during an export of doc, default extensions are not getting tacked onto the filename in the “Text File” edit box if an extension is not listed.
  • Corrected error message displayed when entering an invalid value for max logger rows. The valid range read 10-1000. Now reads 5-1000.
  • Corrected item when logging values to a database, if there is a database error, not all of the values in the logsheet get updated.
  • Corrected problem where it was possible to create a log sheet without running a server, thus making it impossible to create a device for the log sheet.
  • Corrected problem where selecting “OK” from the event acknowledgement dialog could give an exception if we entered “log window setup” from the “setup” button in the new log window dialog.
  • Corrected problem where Log sheets that are iconized were not logging data to the database file.

PLC WorkShop for Modicon v5.01 Release Notes

Posted: 8/10/2000

Features

  • The state of ladder status is now saved for each comm. path.
  • Added the following DX zoom screens: XMIT, Compact STAT, Micro STAT, Momentum STAT.
  • Added support for TCOP modules ADU210, ADU214, ADU257, DAU211, 212, 220, 250, 252, 253, and 292, KOS260-24, KOS260-64.

Solutions

  • Corrected wrong port type saved with file save through TCP/IP to SA85 Bridge.
  • Corrected problem where the JSR did not show constants as a valid type for top node.
  • Corrected item where Site License window was coming up for the Server after PLC WorkShop was already executed.
  • Corrected problem where we were unable to load an EXE loadable to PLC program.
  • Corrected problem in the TCP setup, modifying the retries or time out would give Port range error.
  • Corrected problem where the column display in the Cross Reference was sized incorrectly, too small, when doing a new and sizing the window and rebuilding XREF.
  • Corrected problem where sizing the Cross Reference Window to about two columns was causing a divide by zero GPF.
  • Corrected problem where in continuous mode the Append or Insert network was not working properly for the End of Segment.
  • Corrected problem when connected with the TCP/IP, and with SA85, if you do a save, it would default the filename as the description name that you had for the TCP/IP address.
  • Corrected problem that Cut by Parts was allowed online. This caused the node editor to malfunction and possibly GPF.
  • Corrected problem where Import of DOS PGR’s was not bringing in the Headers.
  • Corrected problem of Merge not merging the Headers.
  • Fixed memory leaks in Status and Powerflow which could have caused a GPF.
  • Corrected problem where Import FTK with 1 tag, and Edit the doc gave GPF.
  • Corrected problem when trying to import doc of an FMD, it gave error doing shared Doc with object open.
  • Corrected in PCOP, where you could not clear Specific IO or Global IO devices above device 2.
  • Corrected Loadable screen online: The File Contents always displayed in WORDS and the Current Program showed in BYTES.
  • Corrected problem where loadables larger then 50K would cause an overwrite in the configuration code.
  • Corrected problem where Compare of loadables did not work online.
  • Corrected problem where number nodes of logic used by an EXE loadable was only 1/2 of what it should have used.
  • Corrected problem that TCP/IP to Modbus Plus bridge did not work. SGATE bridge software needed to be upgraded. Also a minor change was done to server to communicate to multiple PLC’s better.
  • Corrected problem where the Latch Coil attaches the picture for a falling one shot on the cursor.
  • Corrected GPF that occurred Online by dropping a Latch coil on top of a regular existing coil, and clicking off of it.
  • Corrected problem where changing PLC type from Quantum to A145 caused the TCOP to get mixed up and unable to add modules.
  • Corrected problem where import of Doc only, of a PGR, was not bringing in the headers.
  • Corrected problem where opening a PGR file and doing print, would give error “Please enter a 0X register range from 1 to 0”.