RSView Communication Driver 1

[Stanfi]

I have a RSView32 project running on a Windows 2000 workstation. Occasionly the RSView project will stop communicating with the PLC. I will view my communication driver settings, and it will say that my primary communications driver is "none loaded". I will reconfigure the driver, and it works fine. My PLC is a SLC 5/04, communicating on DH+ with a KTX card in the PC. Anyone else had this problem? Know of a solution?

Thanks

 

[Bluenoser337]

Do you have the correct version of RSLinx (Gateway) for use with your version of RSView?

 

[Stanfi]

Yes, I am using the version of links that came bundle with the RSView package.

 

[Bluenoser337]

Okay...Have you tried posting in the Rockwell Software forums?

http://www.software.rockwell.com/forum/rsview32/

Good Luck!

 

[Kiljoy]

The RSView software is "loopy". I have gone round and round with Rockwell tech support with just such problems. Fortunately for me, my local distributor knows more than the tech support guys.
You did not mention the series of PLC, but here is the problem I ran into. The Panelview Plus was designed to talk to the Control Logix platform. If you are using a SLC or Micrologix, it's hit or miss. Also, it wasn't really designed for serial DH485 either. If you are talking to a SLC or Micrologix, either use full duplex DF1 or Ethernet.
The Rockwell guys got a bit ahead of themselves (in my opinion) and the software is full of bugs. I made the mistake of uninstalling in the wrong order and tech support had me deleting registry information so I could fully remove it before installing the next version.

 

[Bluenoser337]

Yes...be careful if you ever install a newer version of RSView and then try going back to the original version...you'll be sorry!

 

[Stanfi]

I was talking to my customer today who has this machine. It appears that what happens is that the power goes off (past the run time of the ups). The computer dies, so when it is rebooted and the RSView Project is restarted, the communications driver is not loaded. So it appears that if the project is not properly shutdown, then it affects the communications driver setting.

 

[djs]

Hello;
Try configuring RsLinx to run as a service on your machine. This should solve your problem.

 

[Stanfi]

It is running as a service. That is something we always do.

 

[djs]

Hello;
In your orginal posting you stated "I will reconfigure the driver, and it works fine". What exactly do you do? Do you open up RsLinx? Another possibility is that RsView is not correctly stating up RsLinx or waiting for the RsLinx service to start. Two ways to correct this. Try to un-install RsView and re-install. The other is to get into RegEdit and play around with the service dependencies (not recommended).

 

[Stanfi]

I got into the system settings in my RSView project, and reconfigure the Primary Communication Driver. I have to do nothing to RSlinx.

 

[djs]

Hello;
Check to see if RsLinx is running before and after your go into RsView. Another way to check is when this event happens again, shutdown RsView. Make sure that RsLinx is running, and then start up RsView. If it works, then you know that RsView is not starting up RsLinx, or is not waiting for it to completely start.

 

[marshg]

Try using a startup macro that can execute a VBA subroutine to write what the Primary Driver is when RSView32 starts up. The macro command for this example will read VBAExec Channel_Define

I copied this example from the help file for the object browser in VBA. It is located at RSView32.Channel.PrimaryDriver within the object browser. Hopefully this will lead you in the right direction. Good Luck!


Sub Channel_Define()
Dim oChannel As Channel

'Get a reference to Channel 4
Set oChannel = gChannels(roChannel4)

'Configure the Channel
oChannel.NetworkType = "TCP/IP"
oChannel.Messages = 3
oChannel.PrimaryDriver = "AB_ETH-1"
oChannel.SecondaryDriver = ""
oChannel.ActiveDriver = roActiveDriverPrimary

'Write the configuration

oChannel.WriteConfiguration

'Release resources associated with the object
Set oChannel = Nothing
End Sub