kdobsontn

I had an HMI get stuck in Initialize Variables on boot, and the fix was to Clear All Memory and download the program again.  The problem for you is that you won't be able to connect to do this in Sysmac Studio.  There was a post about someone who did a firmware update and "bricked" their HMI, and the resolution was to do a system recovery which involves a formatted SD card with a file loaded on it and setting DIP switches (image attached).  The post was here - https://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?/topic/31943-firmware-update-killed-my-na-hmi/ but it may not be the easiest/best solution for you.  Being that you can't even connect, it may be worth a shot though.

Hello all, I am looking into creating a system where I have an NX102 in a main panel, and numerous satellite panels (up to 20) with EtherCat Slaves which would then have daisy-chained EtherCat slaves. Essentially, the main panel would need a GX-JC06 to allow branching out, but this only has 6 ports.  1 of them would be used to connect to the master (NX102), but would I be able to connect one GX-JC06 to another?  I highly doubt the GX-JC06 behaves like a typical router, but I can't find any documentation about creating more than 5 branches. Thanks, K

I can read the documentation here shortly, but does the spool count only happen when you try to execute a query or will that start once it looses connection? 

I thought about doing something like this, but I don't think the PLC-DB connection settings has spooling enabled (easy enough to change). When in production, it's pretty frequent intervals (cycle time of maybe a minute or so), but the goal is to not let the machine run if there is no database connection - I don't want to run a part and finish the sequence only to find out the cable wasn't plugged in.  This may be the way to go in my case, but I do find it hard to believe there's no heartbeat monitor on something so simple.

This is what I was going to suggest - Version Control Explorer.  We don't use it where I am currently, but it looks really promising (as long as everyone does their part with pushes and commits). IIRC, it was an add-on to the normal license, so you or your company would have to cough up some dough for it. -K  

COM ports are usually mapped without any issue from the Host to the Client, but network connections would require you to bridge the network adapter and setup the VM to NAT translate.  There are too many factors to explain here without knowing your hardware, the VM you plan to use, the device your connecting to, and the subnet it's on.  

That's correct.  You'd basically install an OS within a VM to do your work within, and then if you needed to pull anything out of it, you should be able to copy it to a flash drive.  This is fairly common practice if IT locks things out or Windows pushes an update that renders your software useless.  There are some additional hoops to go through when trying to connect to a PLC via Ethernet, but there are some good resources for setting it up. Main thing is to think of it as your personal sandbox.

Time to start using VM's, it would seem.

I would like to get some feedback or alternate suggestions in terms of monitoring a database connection. The attachment here shows the current programming for the DB_Connect function block which requires the Execute input to constantly be ON.  From what I can tell, if the connection is dropped - let's just say the Ethernet cable is unplugged - this input will still be on, and according to the function block, still connected. The Get1minClk is in place to continuously try establish this connection once powered on, but I cannot find any way to periodically check this connection without dropping it and reestablishing it.  My understanding is the _DBC_Status.Run only checks that the PLC service is running properly, but is there a way to monitor a heartbeat of the connection TO the database?  The only way I've found thus far is to drop the connection and reconnect.  But this would be detrimental to the system as it would possibly be reconnecting to the database while trying to write to out to it and hold up the show.  As it stands in the second image, the Ethernet cable is unplugged, but the connection shows no errors. Thanks and happy Friday! -K  

I encountered an issue that technical support was not exactly able to help me out with, and I wanted to share what I learned here for the next guy. Specifications: Omron NA5 HMI v1.10 connected to NJ PLC via Ethernet Issue: Made a change to a screen where I copied and pasted a button from a different screen.  The screen where the button was copied to had some sort of issue, but it was still able to compile and transfer to the HMI.  It worked for several days until the HMI was power cycled by maintenance, and it was stuck in a black loading screen saying "Initialising Variable System" with a scrolling wheel and green LED on the HMI panel.  It stayed in this loop indefinitely.  The HMI still had a ping, could be connected to from Sysmac Studio, and could be transferred to and from.  Troubleshooting section of the HMI mentions something about initializing failure with a red LED which required a system recovery, but no description for this state. Troubleshooting: Power cycled the HMI, but this resulted it getting stuck back in the same loop. Connected with Sysmac Studio with most recent backup and transferred from the HMI to get the current program.  Before transferring in this synchronize step, I could see a page that was on the target device that wasn't in the source.  I'm not exactly sure how it got there as it wasn't in my backup, but I had green in the comparison list when I shouldn't have.   Reverted program changes, downloaded to the HMI, and power cycled.  Still stuck in black screen with same message. After several other modifications, I eventually had a heavily stripped down program of the backup and downloaded to HMI.  Power cycled with same message. Resolution: In Sysmac Studio under HMI View, select HMI from ribbon, select Clear All Memory, confirm the target device, and select OK.  Once this has factory reset, I made sure the IP address was configured as necessary, connected, transferred backup, and all is well with the HMI now.  Even after loading a backup from several months ago, I could not clear this issue without a factory reset. Hope this helps!

Thanks Michael, We have several of these in the plant, and we are trying to avoid having to A: upgrade all of them or B: upgrade everyone's version of Sysmac Studio.  Coworker has tried to uninstall and reinstall Sysmac Studio, but something is setting it up with a newer version.  Is there a way to completely uninstall and reinstall from scratch without automatically updating?   -K

Hello all,   My coworker is running into an issue where his version of Sysmac Studio has been updated, but this is causing a version mismatch from an existing project.  He has called Omron, and they are saying that there's no way to downgrade the OS.    Project operating system version = 7.4.0 Device Operating System version =  7.3.0   So the OS on the NA5 would need to be upgraded to match the version of Sysmac.  Does anyone have any suggestions to revert the automatic upgrade that has occurred? Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, drforsythe....I didn't know this was an issue, but I will give this a shot!

Hi all, I've ran into an unusual situation where I could use some suggestions.  I have an AB PLC working in the field, and an existing fixture that needs to be transferred from an Omron PLC into our AB.  I have an integrator who did some offline development with a welder that uses Anybus communication.  He sent a .ACD file to implement the logic from.  The file has an Ethernet module configured but more importantly, it's showing EDS not registered.  I've asked for the EDS he used, and none of them work when trying to register it via right-click and register.  I can export the module, but it won't import into the current PLC program because there's no EDS (shows EDS error after the import).  If I try to take the program that was sent to me online with the PLC, it will automatically upload and overwrite the build.  I can't even open the properties of the module to see what the integrator did. The end goal is to have the offline developed module implemented into the current program, but it seems like everything I've tried to do has me against a wall.  Is there a way to go online without uploading?  Maybe there's a way to implement this I haven't learned yet?  Any suggestions would be much appreciated, and if more information is needed, I'll be glad to provide it. More info:    PLC Type: 1756-L82E ControlLogix 5580    Rev: 30.014    Studio 5000 Version 30.01.00 - Standard Thanks, K

@Michael Walsh Fantastic...thank you very much.  This is a side of Omron I have not looked into yet. I recently updated my Sysmac Studio so I'm not sure if yours is different.  I ended up copying and pasting the Data Types into my program from the library reference popup (clicking OK didn't add them automatically).  I definitely need to look into how to create a library file because we have quite a bit of hardware coming in that this will be useful for.   Thanks all for your help, -K