rdrast

I use Ignition, a cheap "HDMI Stick" PC, and a cheap Large Screen TV here for the big display boards.  I already have the Ignition Unlimited License, so there is really no cost, but in your case, you could get away with a lower-cost, stand-alone license.  Probably still less than FTView SE.

Try running RSLinx on the server as an application rather then a service. By default, DDE is deprecated, and there is isolation between user applications (Access) and services (RSLinx) on all OS's past Windows 7.  

Second for Red-Lion N-Trons. I've had too many failures of the Stratix Switches, and they are significantly more expensive and quirky then the N-Tron's, so I've been swapping out the Stratix we have for N-Trons, and haven't had any issues.  Bonus is that the NTron switches boot up Much much faster than the Stratix switches, eliminating a lot of problems with system power cycles. N-Tron has medium power direct POE switches, but for higher power devices, or just plain lots of them (PTZ Cameras for example), I do go ahead and just use the pass through injectors.  

Upgrade the PV Firmware?  

Usually, a simple cross reference will show all usages of any location in a PLC, start there if you have problems like this.

Yes, as long as they are reading the same state flag from the PLC. I'd stay away from using "Smart" controls on HMI's though, especially if you are going to have multiple HMI's.  Smart controls are the types of controls ON THE HMI that include steering logic, or specialty logic; like multi-state buttons that index through a bunch of states.

Most AB thermocouple input modules don't need any scaling, or simply need the direct reading to be divided by 10. What module is the IT2C?  If you mean the IT2I, it doesn't require any scaling at all.  If the readings are off, are you certain you are using the TBC terminal base? You need the base with the cold-junction compensation built in.

Is this a floating point number? Is the result actually zero? Or very very close. My first guess, is that it is something like 1.02E5 or similar, and there isn't enough room in the display to show it.  

FTView, and it's install are about 100% broken.  Your best bet is to MANUALLY install SQL Express, and all of the .Net / VB libraries before starting the View installation.   Rockwell had their install scripts written by a senile raccoon with rabies (ironically, one of their top developers), so you can't expect much.  

What PLC?

I can't imagine why you would need this, but the VBA Application property "Application.ConfigurationFileName" will give the full path to the server's project file. It won't do anything to find the client file location, but again, that is rather pointless to know.  FTView is basically just a glorified, and poorly implemented web server/dedicated browser system.  Your actual project will ALWAYS reside where Rockwell wants it.  Moving it will completely break the FT Directory and your project.

If you have installed a new version of RSLogix, er, excuse me, Studio 5000 for a new firmware processor, it will completely break alarms and events in a totally unrelated FTView installation if you ever touch it again. If you did install Logix, er, Studio, go ahead and install the exact same version on the HMI server and client computers.  No need to license it, just go through the hour long install process so it can fix the totally unrelated View installation that it broke. Or do yourself one better, and switch to ignition.

I'd suggest you just use the "Logix 5000 Clock Update Tool" to set a schedule, and sync the PLC's to a computer that updates from the GPS.  Much simpler, and no program changes required.

94 times out of 100, that error is caused by the FTView install incorrectly trying to launch an external install program. 98 times out of 100 from there, the installer it has issues with is the .Net runtime (since Rockwell calls it with incorrect installation parameters, but they are too stupid to fix the issue). First solution to try, before frustrating yourself with FactoryTalk Non-Support, is to manually install VB.Net, directly from Microsoft.  FT*^&&* version 8 probably requires .Net version 3 or 4, so install both.  Also, install IIS manually on windows, then run the FT&**^ installer again.

Yes, the EP24DC is used to provide another voltage source to the devices downstream from it (to the right).  You don't want to pass too much current through the buss, so adding a separate distribution module shares the load.  You can add another if you need.  These are similar to the FPD module, which allows providing 120VAC downstream to 120VAC modules. If I recall correctly, the AENT can support up to 63 modules.  The buss limits are a maximum of 10Amps per group, so for every expected 10A load, you need an EP24DC.  Rockwell specifies (without doing a current calculation) a maximum of 13 modules between power sources, either the adapter, or EP24DC's. See Here