PVP and Modbus RTU Serial

[CMx 0]

Currently we have a G&L (Giddings and Lewis) Pic 900 PLC that partly is communicating with Parker Automation CTC operator terminals through Modbus over serial. We are currently wanting to replace these CTC screens with Allen Bradley Panelview Plus 700's with ME station version 6.04.16 and KEPWare version 5.3.320 installed. I have been through the MachineShop Interact software that was used to design the CTC screens and have applied all of the settings in FactoryTalk View Studio. I am really new to Modbus so I have no clue about the messaging and tagging protocol and I have a bald spot and a headache after reading for about 10 hours with no better understanding. This is what I have seen so far and dont understand: The Interact tags look like this: Tagname Address: @BIT2 @BIT3 @BIT4 @BIT etc.. Address Reference: MBUS\1$00003 MBUS\1$00004 MBUS\1$00005 MBUS\1$ etc... The KEPWare tags look like this: Tagname Address: @BIT2 @BIT3 @BIT4 @BIT etc... Address Reference: 000003 000004 000005 00 etc... I think this may be where my problem lies. Everything I have found from AB is outdated. It shows where you have to load the KEPWare drivers by firmware upgrading the PVP but the version they are speaking of is 3.0 and such. This PVP has version 6.0 and seems to have the KEPWare drivers installed. Some of the errors I see when running the application are: [FactoryTalk]: The Item is no longer available: HHT1UW1.G&L.@BIT1 (Basically all of the tags) Unable to load project \Windows\Kepware\KEPServerEnterprise\V5\default.pfe The Modbus RTU Serial device driver was not found or could not be loaded. The other thing that I have noticed between KEPWare 4 and 5 is that in version 5 there is no option for selecting the default project for FactoryTalk like there is in V4. The last 2 I did not get until I changed the server in FactoryTalk project from KEPServer V4 to V5. The PVP says it has version 5.3 on it. Everything is connected using Modbus Serial. I have been all over searching and pulling my hair out for 2 days over this with no resolve. Thanks Edited 24 Apr 2013 by CMx

[pcmccartney1 141]

I may be telling you something you already know. I had to configure the Serial Port, can't remember if I did this on the PV+ or in the project. Setting up all the serial port parameters. Next I had to configure a tag database in the kepware server on my PC. Then I had to point to the tag database from within the project. I think I had to change a path setting in the kepware server regarding the default location. Not much help, I know. But I did this almost three years ago, so I'm writing from memory.

[Ken Roach 194]

The error message suggests that the documentation is correct and the Modbus RTU driver is not loaded onto the terminal until you perform a firmware load that includes the Modbus RTU driver. The Kepserver OPC architecture might be there, but the Modbus driver probably isn't. I have only used the RA drivers on PV+6, but that was certainly the case in FactoryTalk View v3, v4, and v5. The *.PFE file is included in the *.MER runtime, but I know in earlier Kepserver implementations, FTView would use the PFE file that was designated by the "default file path" in KepServer Enterprise. It didn't matter what file you were editing or had open; it would use whatever you pointed to in the 'default file path' field, even if it wasn't called 'default.pfe'. This may have changed, if Kepserver v5 has no such field. Remember also that the onboard serial port is "COM1" or "SERIAL1"; if you have tested this driver with a USB/RS232 converter or other PC-based COM port, then Kepware might still be pointed to COM3 or COM 4 or something else.

[CMx 0]

Thanks for the insight guys. I started to go the route for doing the firmware upgrade for the KEP drivers but I think I could not find my version on AB site. Ill look again but I have bigger fish to fry now. In FT I changed the server back to version 4 and now all I can do is open my project. If I try to edit a button tag or anything it freezes and has to be shut down thru task manager. I've repaired, rebooted, registered files etc. and still freezing. U use to think AB was so user-friendly until FT.