Appendix B - AutomationDirect
Contents
1. Reprioritize your NICs by going to Advanced Settings This is different depending on which Windows OS you have If you have Windows XP 1 Start gt Control Panel B 2 Double click on the Network Connections icon 3 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings If you have Windows Vista 1 Start gt Control Panel 2 Double click on the Network amp Sharing Center icon 3 At the left of this window click on Manage network connections 4 Press the lt ALT gt key to make a menu appear at the top of this window 5 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings If you have Windows 7 8 1 Start gt Control Panel Windows 8 in Desktop View move the cursor to the right hand side of the screen then at the bottom select Control Panel 2 Select Network and Intranet at the top 3 Double click on the Network amp Sharing Center icon 4 Press the lt ALT gt key to make a menu appear at the top of this window 5 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings Once you have the Advanced Settings pulled up then it is the same for all Windows OSs 1 On the Adapters and Bindings tab in the top window select the connection you are using 2 Use the green arrows at the right to move this connection to the top of the list 3 Press lt OK gt and close Network Connections window 4 You may have to reb2. 1 On the Adapters and Bindings tab in the top window select the connection you are using 2 Use the green arrows at the right to move this connection to the top of the list 3 Press lt OK gt and close Network Connections window 4 You may have to reboot your PC Uninstall or disable one NIC Make sure that the NICs don t have common protocols enabled i e IPX and TCP IP In other words you might enable IPX on one NIC and TCP IP on the other NIC but not on both simultaneously Comm error reading program from PLC The mode switch on the PLC is in the RUN or STOP position Switch it to the TERM position This error means that DirectSOFT received an incorrect response from the PLC so the physical connection is probably OK however it is possible that the port of the PLC itself is defective If you are using a USB to Serial converter it could be there is an incompatibility between your PC and the converter e g we know of an incompatibility between the Belkin F5U409 CU converter and the Toshiba 5005 laptop Make sure you are not running two copies of DirectSOFT simultaneously like v3 0 and v4 0 Also along these lines if you do install two versions this is OK as long as they are in different folders and are not run at the same time DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 7 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting _ We have found that RSLogix Allen Bradley soft
3. Only use this to fix a problem The parameter and color numbers are not defined in a user friendly manner 2 Became available with DirectSOFT v3 0c Build 54 01 Sep 2000 3 Became available with DirectSOFT v4 0 Build 18 09 Dec 2002 4 Only available in DirectSOFT v4 0 Not available in DirectSOFT v5 0 5 Only modify this if you have received the Infinite Loop Timeout message This parameter became available with DirectSOFT v4 0 Build 20 27 Jun 2003 B 14 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting Other Possible Issues How to Change USB Serial Port Assignment 1 Close DSLaunch and DirectSOFT B 2 Use Windows Start button Start gt Control Panel gt System gt Hardware gt Device Manager WinXP or earlier Or Start gt Control Panel gt Device Manager WinVista Win7 Depending on your version and setup of Windows these paths might be more or less direct than listed You can also type in Device Manager in the Windows Help and get specific directions 3 Go to Ports expand the section and locate your USB converter It must be here with no yellow warnings and must have a COM port assigned e g COM5 or similar Right click on the adapter select Properties Select the Port Settings tab Click the lt Advanced gt button There will be a field in the lower left that shows the COM port assignment Click the right edge of that field and all the COM ports
4. will show up 8 Select COM1 or COM2 as long as they do not show In Use 9 Click lt OK gt on all the windows that opened up Your USB adapter should now show the COM port you have selected NO On Ff 10 Close Device Manager and Control Panel 11 Start DSLaunch DirectSOFT They might auto detect your PLC and create a link for you If not then follow the normal procedure to create a link and select whichever COM port you selected for your adapter PORT UNAVAILABLE OR IN USE This message is typically caused by the Allen Bradley software RSLinx controlling the COM ports You must turn it off with Task Manager Allen Bradley Harmony can also cause this Siemens software can cause this as well In much rarer instances docking stations or IR transfer adapters can also cause problems Laptop AC Adapter Issue If you are having problems connecting to a PLC with a laptop and you are using a serial connection or USB to Serial converter try closing DSLaunch DirectSOFT removing the AC adapter so you are running just from battery Then re open DirectSOFT and try to connect again DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 15 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting NOTE Exhaustive FAQ s for DirectSOFT as well as other HOST Engineering products can be found at http hosteng com B 16 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition
5. Dump Causes link to output serial connection debug information to a file for troubleshooting links This feature is used in conjunction with DBWin32 logger e PROGRAM COLORS Modify default program colors The parameter numbers and colors are not defined in a user friendly manner Therefore this should only be used to fix a problem UDPPortNumEnable Enable or disable UDP port numbering parameter for links B 12 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting PROJECT PATH Modify default project path LadderPalette Enable or disable ladder logic palette UseLargeBtns Modify toolbar button size BACKUP PATH Modify default backup project path B RTSxDelay Modify serial RTS timing control OnTheWeb Enable disable the DSLaunch s DirectSOFT on the Web feature INFLOOPTIMEOUT Set DirectSOFT s internal loop timeout value as a protection against infinite loops that can cause crashes This number is the maximum number of loops allowed to do an internal operation in DirectSOFT Under normal conditions this number will never be reached But in cases where there could be very large databases this number may need to be increased to allow DirectSOFT more loops to complete a certain operation DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 13 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting Parameter Name Heading in File Syntax Notes Example COMxEnable devasync dll CO
6. MxEnable y x COM port number y 0 to disable 1 to enable COM5Enable 1 ModemEnable devasync dll ModemEnable x x 0 to disable 1 to enable ModemEnable 1 EthernetEnable devether dll EthernetEnable x x 0 to disable 1 to enable EthernetEnable 1 Comm Server Autosense x x 0 to disable 1 to enable Autosense 0 devasync dll Dump x x 0 to disable 1 to enable Dump 1 PROGRAM COLORS X y x parameter number y color number 9 16711680 UDPPortNum Enable2 devether dll UDPPortNum Enable x x 0 to disable 1 to enable UDPPortNumEnable 1 PROJECT PATH PATHS PROJECT PATH x x lt folder path gt PROJECT PATH c MyProjects LadderPalette3 SETUP LadderPalette x x 0 to turn off 1 to turn on LadderPalette 1 UseLargeBtns4 SETUP UseLargeBtns x x 0 use small buttons 1 use large buttons UseLargeBtns 1 BACKUP PATH PATHS BACKUP PATH x x lt folder path gt BACKUP PATH c MyBackups RTSxDelay devasync dll RTSxDelay y x On for on delay Off for off delay y lt milliseconds gt RTSOnDelay 5 OnTheWeb DSLaunch OnTheWeb x x 0 to disable x 1 to enable OnTheWeb 1 INFLOOPTIME OUT Notes SETUP INFLOOPTIME OUT x x 1 to 4294967296 INFLOOPTIMEOUT 65536 1
7. PENDIX COMMUNICATIONS B TROUBLESHOOTING In This Appendix Communications Resources 20 B 2 Editing the DSxxx ini File 05 B 10 B 15 Other Possible Issues 00000 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting BI Communications Resources If you are using an ECOM and have Windows XP on your PC with a firewall particularly with SP2 then you must do one of the following 1 Turn the firewall OFF 2 Create an exception for CSMAIN EXE application located in the BIN folder under your DirectSOFT folder 3 Create an exception for port 0x7070 28784 for both TCP and UDP protocols which is the port number that all of our Ethernet devices use for communication You can control which communications resources on your PC you want to let DirectSOFT use by altering the DirectSOFT initialization file DS600 INI Startup Using the resources enabled in the INI file DirectSOFT s CommServer tries to find PLCs on startup If it finds any it creates DirectSOFT links to them If it finds none it opens without creating links While using the communication resources on your PC during startup one of the following events messages will occur DirectSOFT comes up normally Error connecting to PLC or No response from PLC This means DirectSOFT found the resource on your PC OK but it had trouble connecting to the PLC Check cabling or other physical devices outside of
8. aking the needed INI file change you should start the debug window logger 1 Start gt Programs gt AutomationDirect Tools gt DBWin32 Logger 2 Start DirectSOFT DirectSOFT will ask you if you want to enable the debug mode Answer lt YES gt 3 Now DirectSOFT will dump information into the open debug window Save this data into a text file and send to Automation Direct or Host Engineering Editing the DSxxx ini file PICK THE GROUP OF INSTRUCTIONS BELOW THAT BEST APPLIES TO YOUR PC If you have Windows Vista skip to the heading Windows Vista below If not read the information under the heading Windows XP and Windows 7 8 Windows XP and Windows 7 8 e If you have DirectSOFT v3 then the INI file must be searched for and manually edited The easiest way to do this is 1 Close DirectSOFT and DSLaunch 2 Use the Windows Start button Start gt Run 3 Type in ds300 ini and press OK This will open the file in NotePad text editor 4 Make the edits save the file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT e If you have DirectSOFT v4 v5 or v6 then the easiest way to edit this file is 1 Close DirectSOFT 2 Start DSLaunch B 10 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting 3 In the left column under Utilities double click DS400 ini or DS500 ini or DS600 ini This will open the file in NotePad text editor 4 Make the edits save t
9. c could be using the COM port e Error opening connection to Ethernet device This is usually caused by having two or more NIC Network Interface Cards try one of these options Reprioritize your NICs by going to Advanced Settings This is different depending on which Windows OS you have If you have Windows XP 1 Start gt Control Panel 2 Double click on the Network Connections icon 3 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings If you have Windows Vista 1 Start gt Control Panel 2 Double click on the Network amp Sharing Center icon 3 At the left of this window click on Manage network connections 4 Press the lt ALT gt key to make a menu appear at the top of this window 5 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings B 6 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting If you have Windows 7 8 1 Start gt Control Panel Windows 8 in Desktop View move the cursor to the right hand side of the screen then at the bottom select Control Panel 2 Select Network and Intranet at the top B 3 Double click on the Network amp Sharing Center icon 4 Press the lt ALT gt key to make a menu appear at the top of this window 5 On the menu at the top select Advanced gt Advanced Settings Once you have the Advanced Settings pulled up then it is the same for all Windows OSs
10. esponse times In the link s Advanced Settings Link Editor Port Tab increase the Timeout value to at least 2 or 3 times the response value e PLC is not in terminal model The mode switch on the PLC is in the RUN or STOP position Switch it to the TERM position e Unable to open Online Program The mode switch on the PLC is in the RUN or STOP position Switch it to the TERM position DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 5 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting B e CSMAIN EXE error or DirectSOFT locks up or mouse hangs up This means that DirectSOFT s CommServer has accessed a resource on your PC that has a conflict or doesn t exist First try upgrading to at least DirectSOFT v4 0 Build 22 We B believe we have fixed the last of these types of failures in this build If you have v3 0 there are some improvements in Build 80 however it could still have some problems since we have stopped development on v3 0 If you have DSData simultaneously using the same link as DirectSOFT then instead make separate links i e one link for DSData and one link for DirectSOFT Try disabling all resources in the INI file Make sure TCP IP protocol is loaded If using v4 0 Build 16 or earlier or v3 0 Build 71 or earlier you may need to 1 Upgrade to later version 2 Make sure IPX protocol is loaded see DirectSOFT FAQ0183 for installing protocols for the NIC you are using Microsoft ActiveSyn
11. he file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT B Another option to try if the steps above do not work 1 Close DirectSOFT 2 Click Start button 3 In the Search programs and files box type in DS400 ini or DS500 ini or DS600 ini 4 Click on the search result and edit that file save the file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT Windows Vista Windows Vista has some extra protection features so the above procedures may not work depending on its settings Windows Vista has a feature called UAC User Access Control that is by default turned on However it is possible to turn this feature off and this dramatically affects the editing of the INI file To modify the UAC setting 1 Use the Windows Start button Start gt Control Panel 2 Click on User Accounts 3 Click on Turn UAC ON OFF This will tell you if this feature is ON or OFF Depending on this setting go to the proper section below UAC ON or UAC OFF UAC ON With UAC ON the security measures of Windows Vista create a virtual store copy of your INI file and redirect DirectSOFT to use this copy instead of the one that is normally stored in the C Windows folder e If you have DirectSOFT v3 v4 v5 0 or v5 1 then you will have to find this file manually and edit it 1 Close DirectSOFT and DSLaunch 2 Use Windows Explorer to browse to c Users lt username gt AppData Local VirtualStore Windows 3 Find the DS300
12. irectNET or ECOM protocol instead of K sequence this will be repaired in DirectSOFT v6 0 e Operation not supported This means DirectSOFT gave a command that the PLC did not recognize or the checksum of the transmission was incorrect Possible solutions are as follows Check physical connection COM port cable USB to serial driver etc Slow baudrate down If this works this is an indication of possible noise interference Attempt to clear scratchpad memory in the PLC and power cycle A means of troubleshooting would be to use the Dump 1 feature See the following under DUMP heading USB TO SERIAL Devices These devices have drivers with them that should make them act like regular COM ports However there have been a few vendors that don t do this with their drivers DirectSOFT thinks it is talking to a COM port Ethernet NIC or modem The order of installation however seems to be important 1 Install USB device driver first 2 Connect the USB device secondly DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 9 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting DUMP used to troubleshoot SERIAL and MODEM links When you can t figure out why things won t work right you can use this debug function with a little help from Automation Direct or Host Engineering This parameter is in the INI file To edit the DUMP parameter in the INI file see the section on editing DSxxx ini After m
13. ke a regular COM port DirectSOFT thinks it is talking to a regular COM port If this is the case there is no immediate fix Host Engineering periodically updates DirectSOFT attempting to compensate for these kinds of driver problems If using a USB to Serial converter sometimes it is very important that you load the driver first before connecting the device itself In fact in some cases if this is done in the wrong order it takes special steps to fix the problem See the website of the manufacturer of your converter for details Try disabling all resources in the INI file Transport protocol error This means you are using Ethernet as a link and it timed out This is commonly due to one or more of the following issues Bad cabling check all cables to make sure they are OK e g Are they susceptible to noise due to bad shielding etc Using wrong cable crossover instead of straight through or vice versa Make sure that the Link light is ON this means that the cable electrical connection is good The cable is running through a very electrically noisy environment ECOM not seated properly It should be flush with other cards or filler caps If your PC has two or more NICs Network Interface Cards try one of these options Use the Pic a Nic feature to select the network card that the PLC is connected to DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 3 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting _
14. oot your PC B 4 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting l Uninstall or disable one NIC Make sure that the NICs don t have common protocols enabled i e IPX and TCP IP In other words you might enable IPX on one NIC and TCP IP on the other NIC but not on both simultaneously There are multiple LAN connections in your Network Connections Disable all but the one you are planning on using There are Bridged LAN connections in your Network Connections Unbridge them by setting them simply to Disabled There are WAN connections enabled Disable them Using an HO ECOM ECOM100 and the PLC firmware is not up to date Make sure it is Using an HO ECOM ECOM100 and a DO 06LCD display but it is not up to date Make sure the LCD has a date code of 032A or later Using an H2 ECOM ECOM100 and you have it installed in Slot 0 the slot adjacent to the CPU Install it in a different slot Using an H4 ECOM ECOM100 and it has bent or retracted pins on the ECOM and or the CPU Check for bent retracted pins The ECOM CPU or the backplane is bad Extremely busy network traffic Isolate the network Busy network or PLC sluggishness Under the Link s Advanced Settings Link Editor Port Tab try increasing the Timeout and Retry values e g Try going to a DOS command prompt window and using the ping command to ping the ECOM s IP address If Ping works note the r
15. or DS400 or DS500 or DS600 INI file and open it with NotePad DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition B 11 Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting _ 4 Make your edits save the file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT e If you have DirectSOFT v5 2 v5 3 or v6 1 Close DirectSOFT 2 Start DSLaunch 3 In the left column under Utilities double click DS500 ini or DS600 ini This will open the correct file in NotePad text editor 4 Make your edits save the file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT UAC OFF Regardless of the version of DirectSOFT this procedure has to be used 1 Close DirectSOFT and DSLaunch 2 Use the Windows Start button Start gt Run 3 Type in ds300 ini or ds400 ini or ds500 ini or ds600 ini and press OK This will open the file in NotePad text editor 4 Make your edits save the file and exit 5 Restart DSLaunch or DirectSOFT Other Editable Parameters The following parameters can be added or adjusted in the DS600 INI DS300 INI DS400 INI DS500 INI file e COMxEnable Enable disable add or delete serial COM port resources for links ModemEnable Enable or disable serial modem resource EthernetEnable Enable or disable Ethernet resources for links e Autosense Enable or disable the autosensing of links on startup Once links have been created they are validated each time you start DSLaunch e
16. the PC If you are using a DL1085 they tend to be a bit more sensitive to marginal cables and electrical noise Try a new cable especially if you can use the same setup successfully when talking to other DL PLCs e g DL205 On a DL305 system make sure the power supply is capable of supplying enough power for the DCU If the PLC base is old then you may need to replace it in order to get communications to work or try external power for the DCM Microsoft ActiveSync could be using the COM port Error cannot access comm port The port may not be present or another app may be using it This means DirectSOFT can t gain access to the COM port because something else is using it Check to see if anything else is using COM port Start gt Control Panel gt Administrative Tools gt Services for example B 2 DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting i RSLogix ii PDA Software Palm Pilot Pocket PC etc iii GPS Software iv Digital Camera Software B v IR infrared Drivers vi Microsoft ActiveSync vii Palm OS HotSync viii Harmony Services Sometimes if upgrading operating systems e g Windows 2K to Windows XP the COM ports can become dysfunctional You may have to disable all COM ports in the BIOS and then reinstall the upgrade and re enable the ports in the BIOS If using a USB to Serial converter or a USB Port Replicator its driver may not act li
17. thing DirectSOFT tries to do when connecting is to unlock the PLC This is to see if the PLC sends back a warning that there is a password If you get this message instead of a password prompt it means that something went amiss when DirectSOFT attempted to unlock The PLC sent back an invalid response or didn t send a reply at all For solutions try the things listed under Transport protocol error above e Support for the PLC type specified in the link is not installed This is usually caused by one of the following Unknown PLC specified in the link therefore check if the CPU specified in the link matches your hardware DirectSOFT 6 User Manual 1st Edition Appendix B Communications Troubleshooting PLC is not supported with the version of DirectSOFT you are using DirectSOFT cannot find the knowledge base DLL This is usually an installation problem You may need to uninstall and reinstall DirectSOFT making sure you are the Administrator of B your PC PLC responding to link is sending an invalid identifier This may be a PLC problem You might try power cycling the PLC e Error reading PLC ID This means the link can talk to the PLC port but it cannot actually get the PLC ID i e it s connected properly but the specific transaction to read the PLC ID fails H4 ECOM ECOM100s or DCMs have bent pins on either the module itself or on the PLC s backplane for that slot Communication is attempted using D
18. ware interferes with the PC s communcations over serial ports e g COM1 So if doing a serial link and you get this error it could be due to this software Make sure that this software is not running in the background or that it does not run in the Terminate Stay Ready TSR fashion Increase the link s Retries and Timeout values especially if using a modem link If using a modem link make sure that both the Compression and Error Correction are turned OFF e Knowledge base mismatch Message means the CPU picked for the link is not supported in the installed version of DirectSOFT e Error attempting to access unlocked device This is caused when trying to reconnect to a PLC after DirectSOFT disconnected from it improperly Solution is normally to either try again or power cycle the PLC To prevent this from happening in the future either Use the PLC gt Disconnect from DirectSOFT before unplugging the cable to the PLC Close DirectSOFT before unplugging the cable to the PLC e Goes offline by itself after using the link We have found the only remedy for this strange behavior is to uninstall DirectSOFT and then reinstall it e Get a PLC password prompt but the PLC doesn t have a password This is caused by data errors in the communication The problem is electrical noise either due to an excessively noisy environment or a bad cable e g shielding going bad Comm error unlocking PLC The first
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