1. When doing an upgrade, will the current protocol drivers be updated / changed if the existing ones are older than the latest drivers on the Adroit CD?

Answer:
- After installing Adroit 5 or 6, the Setup program will look for existing installed drivers in your current Adroit system root, and then search for the same driver on the CD that you installed from.
- If any are found, the Setup program will list all drivers that it found newer versions of on the CD.
- You do NOT have to install any of these at this time.

Note1: This only works if you have uninstalled an existing Adroit installation [NOT using the Complete uninstall option, if available] and then installed again into the same folder!

Note2: This also does not verify every single driver's version, as some specific drivers present exceptions to the algorithm employed.

- This version-check can also be triggered from the Setup program manually as well. Additional help topics are: "Adroit Drivers Install" and "To Update Protocol Drivers that have already been Installed"
    
- If you install to a new folder, this no longer applies and you will need to install the required drivers from the Adroit installation CD.

2. How do I run the OPC browser so that it connects to a remote OPC server?

Answer:
The OPCBROWSER app does not support a connection to a remote OPC server. It only does so if the remote OPC server has been configured as a valid Adroit device whereby you can launch the program as follows: opcbrowser /d:devicename

3. How do I copy the required driver from the Adroit CD to my computer, if I do not have a CD-ROM drive or my CD-ROM drive is not working?

Answer:
Note: This assumes that there is another computer available that has a working CD-ROM. Close all Adroit applications. If the computer with the working CD-ROM is on the network, then share this CD-ROM drive and connect to this shared CD-ROM drive and copy the required files from this share to the Adroit folder. If the computer with the working CD-ROM is not on the network, then copy the required file onto a floppy disk and then copy this files from the floppy disk into the Adroit folder. To locate the required .DLL file, browse the Adroit CD and open the “Drivers” folder then search for an “.INF” file, which is an abbreviation of the protocol driver name, this will specify the full name of the protocol driver, if it is the required driver then locate the .DLL file with the same name as the .INF file and copy this file into the Adroit folder. Run the Adroit setup program now, the driver may be there in the list, if it is not, please read the accompanying .DOC file which is also in the “Drivers” folder on the Adroit CD, to receive more help, MS Word needs to be installed to read this or have our support desk FAX a copy to you. Note: If the driver requires supporting files or other components, then phone the support desk to assist with installing these components manually, since this method bypasses the Adroit driver installer.

4. How do I connect Adroit to Mul-t-link?

Answer:
Adroit can connect to a Mul-t-link Version 9.0 if it is running the multilink driver. Both machines must be on an ethernet network, running TCP or netbios/netbeui) The Adroit machine also must run the same protocols, and use our multilink driver. Note: Any tag scanned from the Mul-t-link computer into Adroit, do not count as a scanned point and is not added to the number of scanned points used, by design.

5. Why, when using the SPECTR driver, do devices show the “commsfail” state when they are not actually failed?

Answer:
This problem will occur with all devices, which contain digital outputs, whose "scan inhibit" header bit is set. Note: This may apply to all telemetry drivers.

6. Why cannot I get the S7 Functions driver to communicate, using H1?

Answer:
In the "Setting the PC-PG interface" program, set the SAPI database, as follows: 1.Select the relevant protocol, select Properties, and select the S7 tab. 2.Check the "enable S7" tick-box, if it is present. 3.Browse in the Adroit.LDB file, which will be in the same folder as the wincc.ldb. 4.Close everything and re-start the machine for the change to take effect.

7.  What is the fastest rate that Adroit can log data?

Answer:
When recording or logging values in Adroit, it is important that you select the logging method that best suits your logging requirements. Adroit provides the following logging methods:
    
1. Proprietary Adroit log files: This logging method has been specifically designed for the needs of the SCADA industry to provide improved logging performance.
    
The fastest configurable time is 1 millisecond.  Whether this is ACTUALLY achieved or not is a function the ability of Adroit to scan the items at that speed.  This depends on the speed of the FED protocol, the speed of the FED link, the number of configured scan items and the speed at which these items are scanned.
    
Note: These log files only hold a maximum of about 5 million samples in the log file so a 10 mS log rate only provides about 13 hours of data.
    
2. OLE DB-compliant database: This is ideally suited for logging slow moving data, like production and batch data values from the Agent Server and is not intended for high speed logging due to the inherent inefficiencies of the OLE DB interface. As a result, although the fastest configurable time is 1 millisecond this is not normally achievable via the OLE DB layers.

- When using Adroit to view this logged information, the Chart and Trend documents can display changes in data as fast as 1 second  (sample rate).

- Although the user can configure a rate down to 0.1 second, Adroit makes no guarantees about the ability of these documents to display data at this rate in real-time as it impacts CPU load.
- Ultimately the trend/chart speed can provide no better resolution than the faster of either the scan speed or the log rate.

8. How do I configure the INTRAC driver to perform a manual or automatic interrogation?

Answer:
To make the driver perform a Poll on demand (i.e. Manual interrogation): Scan an agent (usually a digital) to the address as follows: {A configurable address range}- "OS:{station x}:{group(s) x}:9 time" E.g. 1:A:9 0 ---> outstation=1 group=A bit=9(Manual Poll) time=0 For Automatic interrogation - If the time is changed to something other than 0 say 10 then the driver will "automatically" interrogate every 10 minutes. Note: Remember to "output enable" the tag!

9. An OPC tag-address browsing tip, when using OPCBROWSER.

Answer:
1.) The OPCBROWSER application does not inherently support a connection to a remote OPC server. It only does so if the remote OPC server has been configured as a valid Adroit device whereby you can launch the program as follows: opcbrowser /d:devicename
2.) Running the OPCBROWSER in this way also allows you to keep the browser open after browsing in a scan-tag, this avoids the time needed for the browser to open each time (the speed of browsing is a function of the OPC tag database size and the OPC server itself, not our browser).

10. When upgrading Adroit, will the current protocol drivers be updated / changed if the existing drivers are older than the drivers on the installation CD?

Answer:
- After installing Adroit 5 or 6 into an existing adroit folder, the Setup program automatically checks for any existing drivers that have been previously installed in your current Adroit system, typically C:\Adroit. The Setup program then searches for these same drivers on the CD that you have installed from.
- Any of these driver(s) located on the installation CD, which have a newer version will be listed.
- You are then able to choose which of these listed drivers you want to install.

Note: You do NOT have to install any of these drivers at this time.

- This automated driver check only works if you have un-installed your previous Adroit installation (without using the complete removal option) and then have reinstalled in the same folder.

Note 1 : Not all drivers are verified, since some drivers may require full re-installation of 3rd party components.
Note 2 : If you install into a brand new folder, you will need to install all the drivers that you require from scratch.
Note 3 : This version-checking routine can also be triggered from setup manually.
Related help topics are: "Adroit Drivers Install" and "To Update Protocol Drivers that have already been Installed"

11. Why when using the Adroit OPC Client driver, do I not receive the correct timestamps from my OPC server?

Answer:
This is because the driver is optimized to not interpret the OPC timestamp by default, to use the OPC time from the Server: 1. Run Adroit setup 2. Click on the drivers tab, select the OPC driver device you are using, and click "configure" 3. Click on the "advanced" button. Ensure that the checkbox "Use timestamps from OPC server" is ticked. OK the open windows. 4. Re-start your agent server.

12. Are you losing OPC communications, for no obvious reason, when running Adroit on a Windows 2000 or XP machine? Or does it take 30-45 seconds to connect to a remote OPC Server? Note: Adroit 5 includes the Adroit OPC Server.

Answer:
This is caused by a problem on Win2K/XP operating systems that allows you to incorrectly configure the DCOM protocols. These OS's do not support datagram protocols for DCOM. Ensure that any of the datagram protocols have been removed from DCOM protocols tab and that there are ONLY connection-orientated protocols listed. The step-by-step procedure to follow to do this: 1) Bring up the Component Services Administrative tool a) (Win 2000) From the Start Menu, point to Programs, Administrative tools, then click Component Services. b) (Win XP) From the Start Menu, point to Settings, click Control panel, click Administrative tools, then click Component Services. 2) In the console tree of the Component Services Administrative tool, right-click the computer on which you want to configure the protocol, to bring up the context menu. 3) Click the Properties menu to bring up the Computer Properties dialog box. 4) Click the Default Protocols tab. 5) If you have any of the Datagram protocols (UDP/IP or IPX) listed, click to select, and then click remove. 6) If you do not have any of the connection-orientated protocols in the list, click Add to bring up the Select DCOM protocol dialog box. 7) Choose Connection-orientated TCP/IP Protocol as the protocol sequence, and then click Ok. 8) Add any or all of the connection-orientated protocols to the default protocol this way. 9) Move Connection-orientated TCP/IP Protocol to the top of the list. 10) Restart the computer for the changes to take effect. To achieve the same protocol configuration on Win2K or WinNT4 one can simply run DCOMCNFG and select the "Default Protocols" tab and go to step 5 above. For more information on the subject refer to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q245197 and/or http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q242022

13. Why when scanning analogs from the Newron Systems' Lonworks OPC server, do I get incorrectly scanned values in Adroit?

Answer:
This is because the Newron Systems' Lonworks OPC server returns a string instead of an analog value and this causes the incorrectly scanned value in Adroit. This is by design and not a bug in the OPC server, the string is actually a high-byte, low-byte decimal presentation of the raw bits in a "0,0" to "255,255" =65535 format, analogs are 12-bit (0-4095) equivalent to around "15,255". A script has been written to get around this problem. Please contact our support desk for a copy. Note: In simulation mode this Lon-OPC server works correctly with Adroit.

14. When I install the Lonworks driver in Adroit, why cannot I communicate to the PLCs?

Answer:
The Lonworks driver requires NL215 and a dongle, it does not run on NL220. However an OPC connection using our OPC Client driver will work on NL220, however the custom Lonworks packed types are not supported, since they are not native OPC data types, and as such you need to do some configuration in Adroit to access the 8-bit analogs that get packed.

15. Why, when scanning with certain OPC servers from 16-bit values, does the server only return a 16-character string, and not an integer?

Answer:
The OPC server only sees this register as a 16-character text string. To work-around this, it is necessary to scan the item into a string, for instance, using a Text agent, as follows: 1.) Create a Text agent. 2.) Find the advanced registry key in Adroit help "EnableTextBitStreams", follow the instructions and set this to 1. 3.) Scan the OPC item into the text agent value slot. 4.) Create an Expression agent. 5.) Configure this Expression agent, as follows: a.) Set it to continuous mode. b.) For v1, browse in your text agent's "status" slot. c.) For the expression value, select any destination tag to accept the converted value, or leave blank. d.) For the expression itself, type "v1 >> 16" (no quotes) this will strip away the lower 16 common status bits.

16. How do I configure a tag, so that it will never be read from the PLC, only written to the PLC when its value changes?

Answer:
In order to configure a pure output, setpoint type tag, set both the "Output Enable" AND "Scan Inhibit" status bits, and to specify a fairly large NON-ZERO typically (60000 mS) scan period. The reason you can afford to make the scan period quite large (10 to 60 seconds or so) is that outputs get sent out immediately anyway, so there is no point in wasting bandwidth by scanning outputs at a high frequency.

17. Why does the value of my scanned tag not update or is unsynchronized with the field?

Answer:
One possible cause is if the “Scan Inhibit” status bit had been set for the agent, in which case the tag will never be updated from the field, even if the driver receives data for it. In this case, if the Agent Server is set to “save on exit”, the last saved value will still be present in Adroit, for this tag upon reloading’ alternatively if there is no save on exit then the cold start value or default value will be present. Note: Individual slots can also be Scan inhibited via the Advanced Headers dialog. Scan Inhibit, should only be used very rarely, for example, for "WRITE ONLY" hardware.

18. Why does the Adroit driver for Siemens S5 PLCs via L2 only work on older ISA bus computers?

Answer:
The Adroit Siemens L2 driver uses software device drivers, which have gone out of production as have ISA slots on motherboards that accept the CP 5412-A2 interface cards. Currently there are 2 ways around this problem involving OPC servers available from 2 different vendors, Inat and Applicom. Visit www.inat.co.za or www.applicom-int.com for more information. Additionally OPC utilizes the Adroit OPC client driver, which is installed as part of Adroit or can be downloaded from our website www.adroit.co.za/drivers/drivers.asp.

19. When using the MODBUS serial driver, some of the process plus modules stop polling. It turns out that memory on the PC gets critical after 20 minutes of running. Perhaps this due to control action queuing, which consumes memory if controls are sent faster than the driver can handle them because re-writing the expression to not keep sending values all of the time fixed this.

Answer:
The controls are being sent too fast/often. In ADROIT 4.2 onwards you would be able to scan-inhibit tags that do controls to prevent the scanning from comparing the last controlled value to the feedback (Read back in) value to the tag, normally if the feedback differed, the control was re-sent, causing a back-log of controls. This may also be due to the way the process plus modules work with outputs, the outputs cannot be read normally.

20. I have received the following message concerning my Modbus driver: "The Open Procedure for service "MODBUSI" in DLL "E:\Adroit\MODBUSI.dll" failed. Performance data for this service will not be available. Status code returned is DWORD 0." Performance monitoring of any counters for this driver is also not possible, either through perfmon, or an Adroit Perfmon agent. How can I fix this?

Answer:
If you are experiencing problems with a specific driver, giving errors concerning the performance counters not working or loading, do the following: 1. Delete the Registry key described below. 2. From the Start menu, click on Programs and select the Adroit 5 menu and click on the Setup icon. In the Adroit Setup dialog, click on the Drivers tab, click on one of the devices configured for this driver and press the Configure... button and OK this configuration dialog. This should replace the Registry values deleted in step . Note: The driver re-installs itself as a performance monitor extension every time you confirm settings by clicking "OK" in the setup dialog for any one device configured for it, the message "Performance counters successfully installed" appears at this time. 3. Test that it has solved the problem that was experienced. MPORTANT: This is advanced information, if you use the Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, use this Registry Editor at your own risk, if you have any doubts, please contact the Adroit Support, before changing the registry. Delete the following driver-specific Registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\XXXXXXXX", where XXXXXXXX is the name of the driver (derived from the DLL name of the driver in your Adroit system folder, which is typically C:\Adroit) Deleting this key will prevent Windows from loading the relevant Adroit driver as a performance monitor extension. Note: Almost every Adroit driver (except SIMPDRV.DLL aka "SIMPLC") has this performance monitor ability built-in. For WINDOWS 2000 ONWARDS, if the performance DLL is deemed "faulty" by the operating system, it may flag the DLL in order to skip loading in future, the above procedure will clear the flag, but is only useful if the driver has been subsequently updated. If the driver has been patched to resolve problems with the performance counters not working, this PATCHING, IN ITSELF, DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY CLEAN UP THE "FAULTY" FLAGGING AND REINSTATE ITSELF. When querying this note please supply the driver DLL filename, the Adroit version, driver revision and operating system used.

21. How do I set up a PCU Server for the SISTAR driver?

Answer:
We no longer distribute the driver, since the 3rd party software (PCU Server) has been discontinued by Siemens. Refer to the MS Word document called SISTAR.DOC, which is present in the same directory as our Adroit driver. It contains detailed explanations of how to install the PCU Server software and set up the PLC's and the network. Note: Persons using this driver must be aware that the Ethernet H1 protocol stack may become incompatible with newer operating systems.

22. How do I find out how to set up a driver?

Answer:
When a device is added for a driver, its configuration dialog is displayed. For help on how to complete this dialog, refer to the MS Word document, which the same name as the driver, which is installed into your Adroit directory when you install the driver. The document can also be found on the CD, in the Drivers folder. Example the "Siemens S7 functions" driver is called SIES7FN, and its associated document is called “SIES7FN.DOC”. Every driver on the Adroit CD can also be found on our Website, we suggest you use the website to download newer versions of a driver if you experience problems. For more information, search for this Adroit Help topic: Driver Installation

23. Why does my Adroit Analog value show maximum range, when the value from the PLC is negative?

Answer:
- You are probably using an unsigned Integer value when scanning to the PLC, when you actually want a signed value.
- We use suffixes on our item or I/O addresses to control data presentation, example 'I' for integer, and 'L' for32-bit longs, 'B' for BCD etc. The suffixes used, follow standards implemented by the relevant hardware vendor, and where none are evident we use our own, each driver document has a table which lists all of our supported presentations. Therefore, please use a Signed Integer 'I' suffix to the value when scanning to the PLC e.g. 40001 I as per page 5 from Modicon MODBUSI protocol driver documentation.

24. Why can’t I add scan-points, when using the Mitsubishi E71 driver, even after stopping its device?

Answer:
This was a bug that has been fixed in Revision 94 of the Mitsubishi E71 driver.

25. Why cannot I get the S7 Functions driver to talk on MPI?

Answer:
In the "Setting the PC-PG interface”, select the Access point of application to be the CP card i.e "CP_L2_1:" In the Protocols section below it, select the "CP 5611 " selection. Re-start. Note: The S7 programming software will still run, only it will communicate slower, while Adroit is also running.

26. How do I convert Adroit from using the Pager driver to using the User-defined driver instead?

Answer:
The User-defined driver has superseded the Pager driver; hence, it is recommended that for trouble-free paging that the User-defined driver be used instead of the page driver. A system using the old Pager driver can be updated to use the new driver, by using the following procedure. If at any point, these instructions do not make sense, please query it with our support desk. Remove the old driver: 1. Open Adroit setup, click on the Drivers tab. 2. Select a device in the left-hand list that has "(Pager exception based driver) next to its name. 3. Write down the NAME, and also record the phone number it dialed, and the COM port number. 4. Remove the device, using the Remove button 5. Repeat Steps 2-4 for all Pager devices. 6. Close Setup 7. Open Explorer and move the PAGER.DLL file out of your Adroit directory, or delete it. Install the new driver: 1. Install the new User-defined driver (userdrv.dll), use the Setup program or simply copying it into the Adroit directory is fine. 2. Open Adroit setup, click on the Drivers tab 3. Add the devices again, this time linking them to the new driver, the name in brackets behind each will now be different, using the same phone number and COM port again. 4. If dialing MTN, place an extra comma behind the 3 of the 083 e.g. 0,083,9009000 With all the devices installed again, Adroit should work just as before, only it will page reliably. Note: You must have at least Revision 20 of the new driver. For help, look for notes on how to find a driver's revision number.

27. How do I communicate to a GSM modem when using the User-defined driver?

Answer:
Although the User-defined driver has an SMS/Cel-modem protocol selection, this "script" does not pre-configure the modem, in order to save time. Follow these steps to perform the necessary pre-configuration, once this is completed even turning off the device will not lose these changes: Note1:Actual hyperterminal instructions may very depending on which opperating system you use. Exit all un-needed applications before starting. Note2: A "0" in this explanation it is a zero, not an uppercase "o", case is not important, but uppercase is used. 1. If not installed, install hyperterminal, as follows: 1a From control panel, select Add/remove programs. 1b click on the "windows" or "components" tab, and select hyperterminal under "communications" to install. 2. Select windows start/programs/communications/hyperterminal, hyperterminal will launch 3. Type in a connection name (you can save this profile if you need to use it again). If this is the first time you run hyperterminal, it may ask to install/configure a modem, ignore this step by providing any needed information or skipping as needed. 4. Use default settings at all these steps, select the COM port you are using, baud rate 9600 and no handshaking. 5. Click on the "Connect" toolbar icon; then type "ATZ" (no quotes) followed by Carriage-return 6. You should see the text ATZ as U type it, and the next line should read OK. 6a If you see your typing ATZ appearing twice, click on the menu "File/properties" click "ASCII setup", and remove the check from the box "echo typed characters locally". OK the settings, and click the "connect" toolbar icon. 7. Type ATE1 and , the unit will respond with OK. 8. Type AT&D2 this turns the handshaking to the default that is required. 9. Type AT+CMEE=1 this turns error reporting mode, which the datascope displays as a number if an error is reported, the unit will respond with OK. 10. Type AT+CMGF=1, this puts the modem into Text mode. the unit will respond with OK. 11. Type ATE0&W0, this will turn echo off, and save the modem settings to profile 0. 12. Type ATE0&W1 to save into profile 1, since some modems have profile 0 and 1, and others have 1 and 2. 13. Turn the modem/unit off, turn it on 5 seconds later. 14. In hyperterminal, type AT+CMGF?, the unit will respond with AT+CMGF=1, this verifies that our settings have been saved, else go back to step 5. 15. Close hyperterminal. 16. Run your Adroit Agent Server and send a test message.

28. I am using the pager driver but I am getting errors, why?

Answer:
The pager driver has been superseded by our User-defined driver.

29. Why is “Unknown Error” returned in the datascope whenever the Allen Bradley Ethernet (ABTCP) driver tries to poll a device?

Answer:
- One possible cause of this state is that there is a problem with the ActiveX control for this driver and/or with its registration process.
- Please ensure that this ActiveX control (asabtcp.ocx) is revision 2.6.1.1, as follows:
1) Locate this file, using Windows Explorer, this file should reside in the Adroit system folder, typically C:\Adroit.
2) Right-click this asabtcp.ocx file and select Properties.
3) Open the Version tab and ensure that the ‘File version’ is 2.6.1.1.
- If this file does not have the correct version, then install the latest release of this driver, which will provide the required version of this file and register it correctly. However, if this file has the correct version, then ensure that this file has been registered, as follows:
1) Open a command prompt, change directory to the location of this file, typically C:\Adroit
2) Uninstall this ActiveX control by typing “regsvr32 /u asabtcp.ocx” at the prompt and pressing ENTER.
3) Reregister it again by typing “regsvr32 asabtcp.ocx” at the prompt and pressing ENTER.
Restart the Agent Server and test if this has resolved this “unknown error” problem.

30. How do I find out more information about a driver?

Answer:
More information on a driver is available in a MS Word document, which the same name as the driver, which is installed into your Adroit directory when you install the driver. The document can also be found on the CD, in the Drivers folder. Example the "Siemens S7 functions" driver is called SIES7FN, and its associated document is called “SIES7FN.DOC”. Every driver on the Adroit CD can also be found on our Website, we suggest you use the website to download newer versions of a driver if you experience problems. For more information, search for this Adroit Help topic: Adroit Drivers Install

31. Does Adroit support “Burst logging” applications?

Answer:
"Burst logging", requires fast logging for only a few seconds in a batch. But since the fastest that Adroit can log is around 200ms, this places Adroit outside of this kind of application. But if a driver "stretches" burst data over an interval, it can quite nicely be logged and trended; time scales will look funny, but it will be workable. We just need to have the driver do the stretching up to a point where Adroit will handle the data nicely.

32. What is the maximum scanning interval I can use?

Answer:
65535 milliseconds, the equivalent of 65 seconds. Telemetry or 'report-by-Exception' drivers work differently, and often ignore the scan-interval specified. Longer intervals are not possible with polled drivers, if a longer value is specified, Adroit uses the modulus 65535 of the value.

33. Why is the following message displayed, when I am importing scan-tags from the CSV file: "Invalid device address or slot already scanned"?

Answer:
This message appears in either of 4 known cases: 1.) - The scan-tag you wanted to scan does not exist (the slot may be missing or the tag may not exist). Ensure that the tag already exists. 2.) - The scan-address is not recognized/interpretable by the driver. Try a different address or read the driver documentation that was installed with the driver. 3.) - The slot you tried to scan is already scanned. Edit the tag, click on header, and then click Advanced, select the desired slot from the list; to see if the "scanned" header bit is on for any specific slot. 4.) - The operation timed out! The operation may still succeed however, close and re-open the Configurator to check. This occurs only after about 10 seconds of waiting with an hourglass mouse cursor. Stopping the device or reducing scan back-log helps reduce this occurrence. Also try increasing the default "remote timeout" value of 10 seconds to about 20 second, this option can be found in Adroit Setup/Advanced page. In all the above cases, an alarm is generated on route 0 of the defaultAlarmlist, simply select File/New/Alarm, to see the alarm for more detail, as to determine which of the 4 cases is relevant. Note: If the tag does exist, then this is caused by scan configuration information having been deleted or lost without properly unscanning the points in question. As a result the individual scanned slots believe they are still scanned. The workaround for 4.1 users is to start up the server with a special command-line parameter "-ss" that will have the effect of ignoring scan status. 4.2 (and later) users simply need save the WGP file and restart the server.

 

34. Why, when I am use the GSM modem driver, with a Falcom modem, does the driver keeps reporting that it got an unexpected response?

Answer:
This is because the modem is echoing the instructions sent back; follow the following instructions to turn this off: Open up Hyperterminal. Send ATZ by typing in "ATZ" followed by carriage return. Send ATE0 (set oecho off) followed by carriage return. Note: Since the modem will no longer echo back, therefore no longer will you be able to see what you type in, in which case check the terminal setting "echo locally typed characters" and continue. Send AT&W (write settings) followed by carriage return. Turn the power to the modem on and off.

35. Why does my GST FEP driver, report that all the outstations are in transmission, but all the tags are bad?

Answer:
If all the outstations are showing states that are not possible, it could be that the card base address is wrong, confirm this by looking at the Datascope and error logs, you will see some messages like Length bad/CRC error/invalid station #numbers. Change the base address in the driver setup, re-boot and re-start the Agent server.

36. Can I use the same Adroit protocol driver executable file (DLL) on a version of Adroit that it was not specifically written for, like when I upgrade my Adroit version?

Answer:
OPC client driver and SISTAR drivers may NOT!! be run with different versions of Adroit other than those for which the files were intended. OEM drivers might not always work across Adroit versions. The following drivers work across all Adroit versions regardless: OMRSYSMC, SIE3975R, ABXKF2B, DLRML81, ELEOLV24, MITAJC24, MITAJE71, TI500, YOKOGAWA. To run any other driver on a different version: 1. Install the version of Adroit that the driver came with, 2. Then un-install the Adroit but keep the driver DLL file at this point. 3. Install the Adroit version you want to run, possibly in a different folder. 4. Copy the backup-up DLL file from step 2 into your Adroit folder. When running a new driver on an older system, certain features will degrade.This will not affect stability, the driver will run as if it was the same as the older version. i.e. a driver does not retain all improvements made to it when it is run on an older version of Adroit.

37. What is a Profibus?

Answer:
Profibus is a network, not a protocol. It is a name given to the hardware and base protocol used on a 2-wire network popularly used in the process industry to network small intelligent I/O devices and PLCs. Which allows many vendors: Siemens, Modicon, Endress&Hauser and many others to use a common bus to connect devices on the same network and all talk together. Just like ethernet uses Netbeui, Netbios, TCP, IPX ; Profibus carries many higher-level protocols DP, FDL, FMS, FM7 etc.

38. When there is any communication on any of the serial ports on my Windows 2000 (or XP) machine, this is continually detected by the Plug and Play as a serial mouse and the operating system attempts to install the serial mouse driver. Is there any way to prevent this from occurring?

Answer:
To resolve this problem you must edit the registry, if you are using Windows 2000, you must also ensure that you have installed the Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 on your computer, if you are using Microsoft Windows XP then you do not need to install the latest service pack. IMPORTANT: This is advanced information, if you use the Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, use this Registry Editor at your own risk, if you have any doubts, please contact the Adroit Support, before changing the registry. For the full instructions regarding the resolution of this problem, refer to the following Microsoft knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283063 Or implement the following registry changes for Motherboard-based COM Ports: 1.) Start the Registry Editor, by clicking Start, Run, type regedt32 in the Open box, and press ENTER. 2.) Now you need to determine which HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is being used before you can make the registry change. Click on Start, Settings, Control panel, then open the ‘System’ applet, click on the ‘Hardware’ tabbed page and click on the ‘Device manager’ button. In the Device manager expand Computer. If your computer is an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC, then open the following registry key of the serial port of choice: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ACPI\PNP0501\Port#\Device Parameters If your computer is a Standard (Non-ACPI) PC, then open the following registry key of the serial port of choice: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\*PNP0501\Port#\Device Parameters Note: Port# = InstanceID, e.g. this will be 1, if your serial port of choice, is port 1. 3.) Open the Edit menu, select ‘New’ and click ‘DWORD Value’, and then add the following registry value: SkipEnumerations 4.) Open the Edit menu, click ‘Modify’, ensure the ‘Base’ is Hexadecimal and type in the following value into the ‘Value data’ edit box: FFFFFFFE 5.) Exit the Registry Editor.

39. How can I send an ON to a PLC continuously, without ever turning it OFF?

Answer:
- This can be achieved by output-enabling and scan-inhibiting a 'Boolean' agent and scanning it to the required bit in the PLC. This will allow you to repeatedly send a '1' or '0' state to the PLC, even if the Boolean does not change value.
- This behavior is NOT possible with other agent types, like the Digital agent, because they perform filtering to ensure that they only update if their value has changed. Therefore a change in value is normally a signal to the scanning sub-system to invoke a driver.
- Boolean agents do not perform this filtering and so they indicate that the value has changed even if when its value has not changed.

Note1: This 'feature' is not guaranteed to work in future.
Note2: Scan-inhibiting a tag does not prevent the driver from physically performing a poll (polled drivers only) for the PLC values, the polled data is simply not used to update the tag, as scan-inhibit implies it should.

40. Why, when using the KepServEX OPC Server do some of my scan-points not update?

Answer:
When using KepServEX, scan-points do not update unless their values change, this is specific to the Kep EX server. This problem occurs whenever a scan-point is added, or the device is started and can be diagnosed, by starting the device agent, and looking at the driver datascope, normally all the I/O's should give a one-time update, but in this case they do not. To work-around this, enable the "Use synchronised polling" checkbox, in the OPC driver setup and restart the Adroit Agent Server.

41. I am using a Modicon/telemechanique product that is not listed, what MODBUS serial driver should I use?

Answer:
Essentially, the main difference between models, is the number of registers the PLC can provide in one request. The longer this is, the faster the communication usually is. The maximums differ from device to device, generally if you are unsure, you should select the model 984, if you are using a Modicon/telemechanique product that is not listed, use model 984. If you experience problems, select model 84, restart adroit, and then work up this list until you stop encountering problems, alternately consult your vendor documentation, and find a match in our table per the modbusi.doc.which is installed into the adroit system folder along with the driver.

42. Can I use an Allen-Bradley driver to talk to an SLC 503 via the Data-Highway?

Answer:
Yes, and No. We have a DF1 driver, which uses the serial port to communicate with the SLC500 range 01/02/03/04, via the RS232 port and not the Data-Highway. There is also a 9-pin connector on the PLC, (not the RJ connector) which is commonly used for programming purposes, this port supports the DF1 protocol, hence our SLC500 driver uses DF1. Note: Our older KF2B module driver will probably not be able to talk to the SLC, and you would also need to purchase a RS232 to DH converter to do this.

43. What is the cause of my intermittent communication problem?

Answer:
Determine which request is causing the communication failure. If the driver fails once and then succeeds this means that the fault lies within the PLC and that this is NOT an Adroit problem. But, if the same request is continually causing the communication failure, then the problem lies in the configuration of the Adroit driver, follow the following steps to trouble-shoot the location of the problem: 1. Backup your database (WGP file) 2. Export into Excel and then Unscan all the tags to that PLC. 3. Save & restart the server. 4. Gradually add the scanning back in (in very small groups) waiting about 30 seconds between each. Watch for the errors. 5. When the problem occurs, you have the error someplace in your last group of tags. Now check that these scan-points that have just been added have actual addresses in the PLC. S Sometimes due to a driver bug, if you read the last register/value in a memory block, the driver tries to read the (invalid) one after it. Verify that is not happening. Note: the above steps only apply if the problem is observed on the datascope as being repeatable, that is, the same driver request causing the same error.

44. Scanning Tips or Golden Rules for Scanning

Answer:
Rule 1: If available, scan the rawValue not the value slot, this is especially important for Analogs.
Rule 2: Never scan signed values into Marshall or Multistate agents, typically scan device addresses that end in "I" or "L".
Rule 3: Don't scan faaaaaster than you have to.

45. Can you send me the Mitsubishi protocol driver manual.

Answer:
On the Adroit CD in the “Drivers” folder you will find the manuals for every driver supported by Adroit, in form of MS Word (Microsoft Office 2000) DOC file. The relevant driver file is copied into your Adroit installation folder when you install the driver. It is necessary to first determine which Mitsubishi driver you need to open, e.g. FX = mitsufx.doc Ethernet = mitaje71.doc or Serial = mitajc24.doc If you are not able to find the relevant file, then it also possible to download the latest driver and its supporting document from our website, http://www.adroit.co.za/drivers/Drivers.ASP. If the download does not work, click on the "mail driver to me" link next to the download link (it has an envelope icon). Note: If you do not have Office 2000, it is also possible to supply this document in PDF format.

46. My tags scanned with a 'F' suffix (or a 'L' suffix) have garbage values, what do I do?

Answer:
- Because the majority of devices that we (Adroit) interface to, are Modbus clones which use an Intel byte-ordering scheme for data transmission, our Modbus drivers defaults do not initially suit genuine Modicon or Schnieder equipments. This is intentional.
- If the equipment has a Gould Modicon or Telemechanique/Schneider badge on it, you will need to toggle the options for float ordering, and long ordering in order to retrieve any 32-bit values correctly from the front-end.

47. Why when using the OPC client driver, is it possible to start up the Agent Server and find that all of the scan-points have disappeared?

Answer:
Due to the way Adroit loads up scan-points, it is possible that they get "filtered", and saving the agent server thus saves without any scan-points listed. This is because of the mechanism used to add a scan-point. The system works like this: 1. Read the point from the WGP file 2. Pass the point to the relevant driver 3. If the driver could not load, or considers the scan-point illegal, discard this scan-point. 4. Add the scan-point to the I/O list Hence when the WGP file is saved, any I/O that could not be validated on step 3 are missing. If the OPC Server could not load, or could not "test" that the I/O exists, step 3 fails. WORK-AROUND: For the OPC driver, the advanced dialog has a tick-box "Do not validate items", turn this on once the commissioning is complete. However, this will not resolve problems when a remote OPC server is un-available. In this case ensure that the WGP file does not get saved, and revert to a backed up WGP once the OPC Server fault is rectified. Note: If the driver fails to load (OPC Server missing), the Agent Server will generally not complete loading and terminates after displaying an error message box indicating that a specific device agent is faulty.

48. What determines the order in which PLC’s start up and how can the order be changed?

Answer:
Device agents start their communications in alphabetical order about 5 seconds apart from each other, if a device cannot communicate, or has a lot of scanning tasks, it may take longer. The order is regardless of which driver is used.

49. Is it possible to scan multiple different tags from the same PLC address?

Answer:
Yes it is, but the inverse is not i.e. it is not possible to scan the same tag from multiple PLC address as this would cause an obvious data validity/integrity problem.

50. New hotkeys have been added to the Adroit 4.2 and 5.0 driver monitor launcher program.

Answer:
The Adroit 4.2 driver monitor launcher program, as from September 2002, allows driver devices to be added and removed using the Insert or Delete keys, respectively. To use these keys, select the relevant driver and press the required key, a warning message will be displayed. This feature can also be used to delete driver devices for a driver that is no longer installed/working on your PC, identified in the Adroit Setup as an "unknown protocol driver", since these cannot be removed by the Adroit Setup program.

51. Why does the Analog agent display a correct value from 0 to 9 but an incorrect value when the scanned in value exceeds 9?

Answer:
This is because the value is actually BCD, and it was scanned it in as a decimal format. Since BCD values from 0..9 are identical to the decimal values, although higher values will be totally incorrect. Refer to the section in the driver document called Supported Addresses for specifics on how your driver supports BCD values, and type in the scan address accordingly.

52. Why does Adroit always take such a long time whenever I add or remove scanned points from a device that is either off-line or un-available or disconnected?

Answer:
If a device is either off-line or un-available/disconnected, then it should be stopped, since both Adroit and the driver will always attempt to resume communications as soon as a link is restored, this is attempted to the exclusion of most other functions of the scanning. For this reason, functions like adding and removing I/O while in "recover connection" mode do not perform optimally. Hence we recommend stopping the Device agent first, so that the scanning sub-system and the driver will stop consuming valuable system resources, while attempting to get the communications working again. It is also recommended to stop the Device agent when adding and removing (and importing) more than one scan-point.

53. I have imported scanning for my device, but some of my tags are still gray and I am not getting any communication errors. But if I unscan and re-scan the tag, then it comes right, why?

Answer:
Some tags might have been scanned with 0 (Zero) as a scan-time, this has the odd side-effect of not polling. If the driver is a polled driver, the tag will never get data from it, and thus stay gray. Also ensure that you are not in a cluster on your own in Standby mode, or have forgotten to start the device agent. Please ensure that the tag is gray because it is "scan bad" and not "agent bad", to check, use the configurator, find the tag, and click on the "header" button. If the scan-time was zero, modify the CSV and re-import, or adjust the relevant tags scanning, and then save and re-start your agent server.

54. Why do I get loss of precision when scanning floating-point values?

Answer:
Floating-point values are stored as a pattern of bits, just like in any other binary value. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) have defined many standards for floating point values, notably the 4 and 8-byte formats used store the value, something like this: 1.) 1 bit for the sign of the exponent (the exponent holds the position of the decimal place) 2.) The required number of bits for the exponent itself. 3.) 1 bit for the sign of the mantissa (these are the digits, regardless of their position relative to the decimal) 4.) The rest of the bits for the mantissa or "digits". Depending on if the float is the 4 or 8 byte variety, less/more precision and range are possible. The minimum and maximum values for a 4-byte float are: 1.175494351 E – 38 thru 3.402823466 E + 38. For an 8-byte float they are: 2.2250738585072014 E – 308 thru 1.7976931348623158 E + 308. Notice how the 8-byte float also has more digits or mantissas, another thing to look out for is the number of mantissas, since these also are packed into the float, the number of digits stored will vary, since the actual digits are stored in base 2, but we read them in base 10. Hence the number of mantissas for a 4-byte float is 6 to 7 (depending on the exact values) and this guarantees only 6 places. So that the value 1.23456 is valid, but any digits after that may become lost. For an 8-byte float (Adroit uses these internally) the number of mantissas is 15 to 16. Most hardware (PLCs) do not support 8-byte floats, since most of the data is acquired from 12-bit analog input, hence the 32-bit / 4-byte float is perfect for the application. Note1: This leaves us with only 6 usable digits. Note2: Some devices do not use the IEEE float formats, in such cases similar limits apply, and our drivers will achieve all conversions in software.

55. I have 7 Modbus PLCs all connected via radios, the communications are not working, but did work when we tested with only one PLC, why?

Answer:
Drivers interlock all communications on a communication resource (e.g. COM1) so that it is not possible for the driver to do 2 polls at the same time on a port, but is possible to do 2 polls at the same time on 2 different ports. This means that the request to a RTU #1 has to complete before the request for data from RTU #2 starts. But if RTU #1 responds very slowly, the driver may timeout before this response has been given and so will query RTU #2 for a response but receive the response from RTU #1 instead, see below: Driver -> "request data from RTU @1" Driver -> ...waits for response and times out Driver -> "request data from RTU #2" RTU #1 <- "response, here is the data" Driver -> Huh? Nope Station ID is wrong or message is trash! RTU #2 <- "response, here is the data" Driver -> ...what, I have not asked you for anything, possible corruption. Note: When I speak about an RTU, see the word PLC, RTU=Remote Terminal Unit. Hence the driver loses sync with the confusing traffic. To rectify this, we usually make the timeouts longer to accommodate any late responses. Additionally in the specific case of Modbus, you can also increase its "NET Latency" setting. This "delay" is provided by the MODBUS specification and must be imposed by all Modbus master devices when they stop talking to one RTU and start talking to a different RTU. The delay is provided to give the new RTU some "wake-up" time. The default delay is 3.5 characters wide, which is usually <20 milliseconds, but you can make this figure bigger, I suggest 500ms or around about 1/2 the normal response time of an RTU to cater better when using the system with RADIOS. This may help compensate for a distributed radio network using many repeaters, which slow down the message round-trip. The driver will then use this delay in-between interlocking, whenever a new device is about to be polled. Making the scan-times longer is an artificial way of preventing "on-air" collisions; longer timeouts is a better way, since you do not lose performance when the RTU responds within the required time. It is however still good practice to make your scan-interval longer, because this minimizes the queuing of tasks to be performed by the driver. Scan-tasks are created by Adroit (not the driver) whenever the scan-interval expires. Once a scan task has been created it is given to the driver, where it joins the queue of existing tasks. Hence when scan-times are too short, the queue of existing scan-tasks to performed by the driver increases, which cause configuration-tasks, such as the adding or removal of scan-points or the starting/stopping of the devices, to arrive at the back of this same queue. If the scan-intervals are configured to be longer, then the queue of scan-tasks is reduced, so that the configuration-tasks can be dealt with sooner. The length of the task queue also affects control actions or writes to the device, which are usually not prioritized to the front of the queue.

56. How do you remove a device from the system?

Answer:
First remove the device from the configurator and save the WGP file, then open the 'Drivers' tabbed page of the ''Adroit Configuration Setup', select the unwanted device and press the 'Remove' button. If a device is removed from the Adroit Setup, but still exists in the WGP file you will be able to load the WGP file, until it has been re-added to the Adroit Setup. For more information, search for this Adroit Help topic: Drivers Configuration.

57. I am using a MOSCAD RTU, what PLC model should I select when configuring the MODBUS driver?

Answer:
Use the "Mod 256D/64A" PLC model, because this will allow for longer responses and requests, resulting in better performance. As from revision 30, this driver also correctly "splits" tables to work with MOSCAD equipment.

58. When using Wago digital I/O-modules, I have noticed that when I reset an output bit in Adroit, the physical bit output stays high! How can I prevent this from occurring?

Answer:
- In Wago digital I/O-modules (such as Wago 750-513 Digital output and Wago 750-400 Digital input), the state of the output bits are shifted 255 places.
- Therefore to work around this, set scan inhibit on and the digital output will begin working correctly.

59.  How do I scan marker bits from a Mitsubishi FX PLC?

Answer:
The document for the MITSUFX driver clearly shows that BOOL tag slot types cannot be scanned to markers, this is by design, since Mitsubishi does not allow us to write to the markers as bits individually in the protocol, without using a read-mask-write algorithm. Hence the omission, use a Marshal agent to do this instead.

60. Why, when running the Agent Server as a service, does my protocol driver not work, yet when I run the Agent Server normally, it does work?

Answer:
Our S7 Functions driver and certain OPC Servers may exhibit this problem, which is related to the time needed for services to start. If you can stop and start the Agent Server Service from the Windows Control Panel after booting up, and it works fine, then run the registry editor (regedit) and go to. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adroit Technologies\Adroit\Workgroup\WG.INI, find or add the DWORD the key value "StartupDelay", this delay is in seconds, type in a decimal value of 30. Shut down the computer, and then boot up again to verify proper operation. If the period is too short, double the value. The default value here is zero. IMPORTANT: This is advanced information, if you use the Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, use this Registry Editor at your own risk. Also do not implement this change unless you understand exactly how these will affect the operation of your Adroit installation, if you have any doubts, please contact the Adroit Support, before changing the registry.

61. I had Adroit communicating nicely with the S7 functions driver, and then I stopped it to do something in step-7. Now When I run Adroit again, it does not communicate anymore, why?

Answer:
To run Step-7, the "Application Access path" selected in "Setting the PC-PG interface" gets changed to S7-ONLINE. You need to change it back to your CP card (example CP_L2_1:) for Adroit to configure connections and to communicate. This is only a problem when running the "Advanced PC configuration" version of Simatic-Net where Netpro is used to set up connections.

62. Can I get Adroit 4.2/5.0 drivers to work on my Adroit 4.1 installation?

Answer:
With the exception of the OPC driver, Adroit version 4.2 and 5.0 drivers are interchangeable. But this is not the case for Adroit 4.1. Since the actual interface has not changed, it is still possible for most (note: not all) Adroit 4.2/5.0 drivers to work in Adroit 4.1. However, you do need to complete the following have previously installed Adroit 4.2/5.0 as follows: 1. Un-install your 4.1 (no settings will be lost). 2. Install Adroit 4.2/5.0 to a different (new) folder, so as not to overwrite any files, and then re-boot as needed. 3. Do not run Adroit, since saving any files you may open will stop them from working in Adroit 4.1. 4. Un-install the Adroit 4.2/5.0, then install Adroit 4.1 again into your original folder. Note: This uninstall process does not remove the new shared system files which are required by the Adroit 4.2+ drivers. 5. Re-boot. You will now be able to use the Adroit 4.2 or 5.0 CD-ROM to install drivers, the website files, or use any hot patches sent to you. PLEASE NOTE: Specific drivers will not tolerate this procedure, OPC Client, Spectrum Tele-RANGER, DNP-3 and any driver that supports clustering mode changes. Please query us as needed if in doubt. In such cases a license upgrade is the only way to access the new features/drivers fully.

63. Why when using the Spectrum Teleflex driver (spectr.dll) is only the first [DIN32] index per channel being validated correctly while all the others fail?

Answer:
There was a bug in the validation routine that caused this problem, which was fixed in Rev 30. To determine the driver revision, select the spectr.dll file and right click and select “Properties” in the properties dialog select the “Version” tab and under “File Revision” under “Item name” if this is not 30 or more then get an updated driver.

64. What model of PLC can I select in the MODBUS serial driver to talk to a TSX micro?

Answer:
You can select model 984 from the list of available PLCs, in future we hope to add such a selection to avoid confusion.

65. Using the Mitsubishi FX driver why can I not scan the Marker M (marker coils) bits?

Answer:
Use a Marshal agent or any Integer slot to scan these Markers M bits. Due to differences in the protocol these Markers must be scanned individually.

66. What function does the “Period” field perform in the scanning dialog, when scanning to an exception-based (or telemetry) driver?

Answer:
None. This "Period" field, in the scanning dialog, is ignored by the Adroit driver/scanning subsystem, because all telemetry or Exception type drivers notify Adroit, that they do not require polling, Adroit then adopts a scanning strategy similar to when you specify zero as a scanning interval, and does not do any polling, instead it waits for data from the driver. The Scanning dialog, however, does not reflect this change and so the “Period” field is still accessible. NOTE: Certain drivers use a mix of strategies having some polled and some non-polled items e.g. Sistar, Enermax and the User-Defined or "User" driver.

67. How do I communicate to Siemens S5 and S7 PLCs from one computer?

Answer:
Applicom International have a H1 card that allows this kind of setup, simply use our OPC client driver to interface between the PLCs.

68. Why am I unable to add scan points when using the INAT OPC server with Adroit?

Answer:
This problem occurs when using the INAT OPC server for H1 as well as for MPI connections to Siemens PLCs (Notably S5 and S7 respectively). Scan-points cannot be added under some situations. Configure your OPC driver device(s), and turn on the "Do not validate items" advanced dialog tick-box. This prevents the driver from using a "temporary" group to perform item validation, which tends to occur too soon/quickly for the OPC server to validate. Re-start your agent server after changing this setting for all affected (INAT) devices.

69. How can I prevent the Modbus Ethernet driver from byte swopping (reversing the byte order of 16bit register updates of integers or reals)?

Answer:
- Revision 48 of the Modbus Ethernet driver driver provides a “Swap word byte order” option in the Advanced Modbus Ethernet settings dialog, when configuring the device.
- By Default this is ON, so you will need to uncheck this setting if you do not require the driver to do this byte swopping.

 

70. How can I perform scanning or import scan-points from a remote workstation?

Answer:
Export the driver registry on the Agent Server computer and import it on the workstation. You do not actually need to have the drivers on your station, just the registry keys. This works as follows. Backup/export "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adroit Technologies\Adroit\ProtocolDrivers", and run this on your workstation. IMPORTANT: This is advanced information, if you use the Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, use this Registry Editor at your own risk. Also do not implement this change unless you understand exactly how these will affect the operation of your Adroit installation, if you have any doubts, please contact the Adroit Support, before changing the registry. Note: Any driver devices configuration on the remote workstation with the same names as on the Agent Server machine will be overwritten. You will now be able to access all the device agents in the Configurator now. Note: When importing and exporting, all file names have to be in "\\MachineName\ShareName\path&filename" format, or the drive mappings used for both machines must be identical, so that file names browsed on either computer will be the same. Note The Agent Server machine must be logged before mapped network drives will work.

71. How do I communicate via OPC to RSLinx or Allen Bradley?

Answer:
1) Configure an OPC/DDE topic in RSLinX for each CPU you wish to access, please see RSLinX help on how to do this.
2) Add an OPC client driver device and select the RXLinx OPC Server and NOT the "remote" RSLinX OPC Server.

Note: If you do not have the latest OPC client driver update, removing a device is not possible.

To add OPC scan-points:
a) Find a tag that you want to scan and click the Scan button, select the device that you have added and answer "Yes" to the popup.
Note: This popup only appears once and puts the device in the "stopped" state.
b) Click the (...) button, next to the Address (which currently contains: "First OPC..."), to launch the browser.
c) Use this browser window to locate the required address or OPC item, which will be under the OPC topic configured in RSLinX/RSWho. Double-click on the required item to select it and the browser will close.
d) Click "scan", the selected item will be added. Click "details" then click "start", click both "OK" buttons.
e) Click the Header button and verify that the ‘Scan Bad’ bit checkbox is not ticked beneath the ‘Condition Bits’ group. If this checkbox is ticked, then verify the OPC topic is the correct one, and that the PLC is currently on-line.

Notes: The OPC browser over an Allen-bradley server is slow when browsing the "online" tags, to avoid this, run the "opcbrowser.exe" program from a shortcut, this program is in the Adroit system folder (typically ‘c:\Adroit’). When adding a scan-point, do not double-click the item in the browser, simply click, and then use the paste key in the scanning dialog. This way you can "alt-tab" between the scanning and browser quickly without having to re-navigate to a browser tag.

WARNING! Online and offline tags differ as follows: if an online tag is not available during Agent-server start-up, that scan-point will be discarded, as if you had un-scanned it. There is an advanced OPC driver option that will ensure that the item is not discarded, called "ignore validation", this option can be enabled once the system is near completion. If this behaviour/outcome is not desirable, try to use offline tags instead.

72. General driver problem troubleshooting guidelines.

Answer:
If the driver is succeeding on the retry, then the fault lies within the PLC, but if the retry also fails either Adroit has a bug or has been incorrectly configured. Follow steps below...
1) Backup your database (WGP file).
2) Export it into Excel and then Unscan all the tags to that PLC.
3) Save & restart the server.
4) Gradually add the scanning back in (in very small groups) waiting about 30 seconds between each. Watch for errors.
5) When the problem occurs, you have the error someplace in your last group of tags.
6) Check that the scan-points you just added are really real addresses in the PLC. And sometimes due to a driver bug, if you read the last register/value in a memory block, the driver tries to read the (invalid) one after it. Verify that is not happening.

Note: the above steps only apply if the problem is observed on the datascope as being repeatable i.e. with the same driver request receiving the same error.

73. In Adroit 5.0.1.0 Spectrum devices show Commsfail, NOT Healthy, NOT Running and NOT Started, even when they are healthy.

Answer:
This bug was introduced in Adroit 5.0.1.0 it has subsequently been fixed in Adroit 5.0.2.0

74. How do I record/log the comms between Adroit and front-end devices?

Answer:
This is actually built into the PDRVMON program.
1) Create a shortcut to PDRVMON.EXE, like you used to in Adroit 4.0 and earlier.
2) Open the shortcut properties.
3) Add the name of the device as a parameter at the end of the command line.
4) Then add these command-line options: /SCREEN1 /L /T This will automatically log the Datascope output with times, to a .TXT file with the same name as the device.
For more information, search for this Adroit Help topic: Command-line Options for the Driver Monitor.

75. Can Adroit achieve the generic InSQL rates?

Answer:
The scanning rates of InSQL are high because it uses dual scanning to the PLC's directly. The reason for the existence of InSQL is for high speed, compacted logging. Any SCADA system that communicates these and other tags from the PLC's, depending on the total SCADA scan configuration, may not achieve these generic InSQL rates.

76. How do I get Adroit talking to the Klockner Moeller X Controller?

Answer:
Klockner Moeller have a new X controller, this controller can only be interfaced to using an OPC interface. The OPC server software, for this, must be supplied with the controller.

77. How do I alarm the SCANRS barcode scanner codes for validation?

Answer:
The driver has a status tag that gets turned on when the validation of any barcode acquired fails. Scan the item into a marshalling agent, using the A:0 address, this tag will update when an error in validation occurs. The values are currently 0 (zero) for OK, and 1 (one) for error, which means if the first bit is alarmed then it will be set to ‘ON', when an error occurs, then the alarm can then be routed etc. as desired. To set up the alarming, locate the required Alarm agent, edit it, and then click on the "Types" tab. Find the agent type in the list ("Marshal" in this case), and add a new type by clicking on the "New" button. Turn the top-right tick-box for bit 0 on, then type in a description or name e.g. "Validation failed", for this new alarm type in the field at the top. Also specify any reported data values if needed. OK all the dialogs, and return to the Marshal agent that was scanned, click on alarm, select your new type from the available ones and select your route to finish the alarming process. Note: A digital agent CANNOT be used for this alarming, since only "integer" slots are supported for the alarming of "A:0" addresses at this time.

78. I unable to update a driver, how can I fix this?

Answer:
1. Close all Adroit programs (stop the agent server)
2. Rename the existing driver file by changing the extension to .BAK
3. Reinstall the driver from the Adroit Installation CD.
4. Run Adroit Setup, and check that the driver configuration is unchanged.
5. Start adroit server again.

79. I cannot remember my device name, how can I start up the Agent Server?

Answer:
Reconfigure the device name and the name of the auto-load file name.

80. When writing to a register, the value does not change, why?

Answer:
This can be due to writing to an input; a driver automatically disallows writing values to inputs, since they are most likely not supported in that protocol. In the Modbus driver, for instance you cannot write to digital input 1XXXXX registers, nor to the analog input 3XXXX registers. A driver in most cases does not generate an error/alarm, but simply fails the transaction. This is noticeable by the tag graying out in the mimic, and then becoming healthy on the next scan. P.S. Whenever you perform a write using any polled (not telemetry) driver, Adroit automatically queues that item/task for reading afterwards.

81. I have one computer talking MODBUS serial to 2 PLCs, why do I get intermittent communications errors, even though I have configured 2 devices in Adroit, and have even tried using the "Net latency" between-station delaying option, which only seems to reduce the problem, not eliminate it?

Answer:
It is possible to use straight RS-232 without 485 converters, the ports on the PLC actually drive into each other, but they will not burn out, if you did this with computer ports they would. The communications errors are most likely due to this invalid electrical situation, and are easily remedied by using 3 RS-232 to RS-485 converters. The MODBUS protocol works point-to-point over RS-232, but can multi-drop on RS-422/485 only. We suggest the use of intelligent converters that eliminate the "reflections" present when using converters.