Black Box GEH-6510 - Manual

2 •••• Chapter One - Introduction DDE Server User’s Guide About DDE DDE is the acronym for Dynamic Data Exchange, a communications protocol thatallows independently developed Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 programs to sharedata and instructions with each other. DDE implements a client-server relationshi...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter One - Introduction •••• 3 About the PMCS DDE Server The PMCS Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Server is a Windows 2000 SP2application that allows other Windows 2000 SP2 applications to access data from GEdevices and third-party devices. It communicates directly with other ...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter One - Introduction •••• 5 Running PMCS DDE Server as an NT Service The DDE Server (as well as other PMCS Servers such as Event Server andWaveform Server) can be set to run as an NT Service, rather than as an application.Running the DDE Server as an NT Service requires...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Two - Overview •••• 7 Chapter Two - Overview About PMCS GE’s Power Management Control System consists of four basic parts: the power-management devices, the network connecting the devices to the host, the PMCS DDEServer software, and the client applications. This sect...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Two - Overview •••• 9 Devices Power-management devices are primarily measurement devices – they measure awide variety of power-related data or control data describing what is happening at adevice. This data can be read remotely (over a network) by power-managementsoft...

10 •••• Chapter Two - Overview DDE Server User’s Guide Networks The network consists of an interface at the host PC and the cables connecting thevarious devices to the host. There are physical requirements and limitations to thenetworks, which are explained in GEH-6502, POWER LEADER Network Architec...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 11 Chapter Three - Getting Started Introduction In this chapter, we’ll explain how to configure the PMCS DDE Server for use:starting the software, understanding what’s on the screen, setting it up forcommunications, and telling it what dev...

12 •••• Chapter Three - Getting Started DDE Server User’s Guide After this information is entered into the Server, the Server knows which data youwant, how often you want it, and where to get it. Launching the Program First, let’s launch the program. To start the PMCS DDE Server, open the GE PMCSpro...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 13 • Toolbar — Located beneath the menu bar. These control buttons provide point-and-click access to commonly used controls. These controls are discussed in more detail in the following sections. Where applicable, Help icons appear below t...

14 •••• Chapter Three - Getting Started DDE Server User’s Guide Configuring Communication ports NOTE: If your host is running on an Ethernet (TCP/IP) platform, see the Ethernet Users Only note at the end of this section. The software (Modbus version) supports up to 256 RS-485 ports. The numberactual...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 19 Type a valid IP address into the IP Address field. This is the network address of thedevice to which you are assigning a port. Click OK to accept the settings and return to the main server configuration dialog. With the exception of the...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 21 than 20 characters long (8 characters if used with a third-party HMIclient). Only alphanumeric characters and underscores are permitted;the topic name cannot include spaces or special characters, such as: +* / /, ? () “ ‘. Com Port This...

22 •••• Chapter Three - Getting Started DDE Server User’s Guide When the Server is in Run mode, the Suspend Protocol menu item is available. Suspend Protocol permits you to pause the operation of the Server without breaking the DDE links established by client applications. You might wish to do this ...

24 •••• Chapter Three - Getting Started DDE Server User’s Guide in the Devices for Display list at the left. Simply click on a register group to select it for display. Clicking on a selected group deselects it. You’ve completed configuring the PMCS DDE Server, started its operations, and areviewing ...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 25 “trust” this share before any client applications will be able to request data from theshared application. An important thing to remember is that each user of the host PC must trust the share for the DDE Server if View Nodes are to be a...

26 •••• Chapter Three - Getting Started DDE Server User’s Guide Results To check the results of running the utility, use the Microsoft DDE Share tool,DDESHARE.EXE, which should be located in the winnt\system32\ directory. Three shares will be created, GE32MODB|* GE32EIND|* and GE32MTCP|*. (Afourth s...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Three - Getting Started •••• 27 NDDE Error # : <message> Errors and error messages are defined by the NetDDE API Trouble-Shooting VNDDE.EXE Problem: The messages NDDE Error 1: Access is denied and NDDE Error 24: Cannot bind to DSDM service are displayed. Solutio...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 33 Chapter Four - Menus andToolbars In this chapter, we’ll examine each menu and toolbar item in detail, describing itsfunctions and options. As in Chapter 3, we’ll assume that some buttons (such as OK and Cancel ) are self-evident and t...

34 •••• Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars DDE Server User’s Guide Server Menu The Server pull-down menu is shown below. Descriptions of the Server options follow. Run NOTE: The Server automatically goes into Run mode when the application is started. Run mode and Configure mode are mutually exclusive...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 35 Suspend Protocol/Resume Protocol This menu item is enabled when the Server starts running. Suspend Protocol and Resume Protocol are mutually exclusive options. One or the other is displayed on the Server menu, depending on the current...

36 •••• Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars DDE Server User’s Guide I/O Traffic Display When the Server is running and client applications are requesting data, you may viewthe sending and receiving of Modbus packets. This is useful for checking what ishappening on the network or for debugging any prob...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 37 Select the type of message from the list box and click on the Select Color button to select a color. Click on the Default Color button to set a message color to its default: Tx Bytes - BLUERx Bytes - BLACKError Message - REDStandard M...

38 •••• Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars DDE Server User’s Guide All the currently active devices are displayed in the Device List box. Select any of the devices for traffic display by highlighting the device and selecting the OK button or by double-clicking on the device name. Hint : Multiple devi...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 39 Save Display To File Selecting this menu option saves the I/O traffic buffer to a file. You are prompted toenter the file name to which the buffer is to be stored. The default file name is iotraffic.txt . Port Statistics This menu opt...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 49 Enter the scan interval to be assigned to the device (default is 1000). The scaninterval is the target time in milliseconds at which the current device will be scanned;it is the scan time which could be achieved under optimal circumst...

50 •••• Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars DDE Server User’s Guide Generic Comm Interface The second option available from the Configure pull-down menu is the Generic Comm Interface . Select this option to open the Generic Communications Interface window, shown below. The DDE Server’s Generic Communi...

52 •••• Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars DDE Server User’s Guide Reports Menu The Reports pull-down menu is shown below. Descriptions of the reports options follow. The options available on this menu permit several kinds of reports to begenerated and saved as .txt files on disk for viewing and prin...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Four - Menus and Toolbars •••• 53 Help Menu The Help pull-down menu is shown below. The options are all standard Windows functions. Contents brings up a listing of all the topics for which help is available. About Server presents the program version and copyright info...

54 •••• Chapter Five - Troubleshooting DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Five - Troubleshooting Trouble-Shooting the PMCS DDE Server This section provides you with some simple steps that can be taken to isolate andcorrect communication problems. The problems described here represent the mostprobable c...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Five - Troubleshooting •••• 55 Communications – Client to Server This section explains the most common error situations that can occur whenattempting to establish DDE conversations between client applications and the PMCSDDE Server. When a client requires the status o...

56 •••• Chapter Five - Troubleshooting DDE Server User’s Guide When you have checked all of the above, restart the client and switch to the Server’sprogram window. Make sure I/O Traffic Display is on; various messages should be appearing in the window. This indicates that the client and the Server a...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Five - Troubleshooting •••• 57 If the device is an EPM 3710 or 3720, check to make sure the device is set to 32-bitmode, with invalid objects set to yes and password protection set to no . These settings must be made at the device itself. If the problem is with a Mult...

58 •••• Chapter Five - Troubleshooting DDE Server User’s Guide Trouble-Shooting Flowchart The flowchart below may help you quickly isolate problems and direct you tosolutions. If you work through the flowchart and still experience difficulty, refer tothe Troubleshooting chart in the next section. If...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Five - Troubleshooting •••• 59 Trouble-Shooting Chart The following table lists a variety of common problems, possible causes andrecommended solutions. Error Condition Possible Cause Solution Many device time-out errors. Protocol Timer Tick set too low. Communication ...

66 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options Warning CAUTION : For advanced users only ! These advanced options are for experts only! Do not attempt these actions if you arenot sure of what you are doing; it is possible to render your PMCS DDE Serveri...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options •••• 67 Step 3. Next, select the generic device from the Configured Device Types list, and click the Function Codes button to add the functions codes supported by this device type. Setting up the register groups for a device type is mandatory; y...

68 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Function Codes Click on this button to attach or detach function codes to a device type. You willneed the device’s Modbus RTU protocol specification to know the correct codes toadd for the new device type. Clicking this button displays t...

70 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Adding a Register Group Click this button to add a new register group. The Select Register Group Type dialog box appears: Enter the Register Group name. The name may be up to 20 alphanumeric characters and cannot include embedded spaces ...

72 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide read. This is useful for registers with settings of a more permanent nature, which needto be read but are unlikely to change. Invalid Register Blocks A register block consists of a contiguous piece of a device’s memory that containsmany ...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options •••• 73 Add Click this button to access the Add Invalid Register Range dialog box. Enter the start and end addresses for the invalid block, following the addressingconventions. Modifying an Invalid Register Block To modify an invalid register bl...

74 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Enter the new name in the Register Group field, then click OK to accept or Cancel to back out of this dialog box. Importing or Exporting a Register Group Click on one of these buttons to import or export a register group. The ImportRegis...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options •••• 75 Adding a Mnemonic Click the Add button to add a mnemonic. The Add/Modify Mnemonics dialog box appears: Enter the Mnemonic Name . You may use up to 20 alphanumeric characters, but no embedded spaces or special characters, such as + * / /,...

76 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Optimizing Server Performance Networks vary widely from one to another. Every network has different devices,different numbers of RS-485 ports to support, a different number of devices, andvarious client software requesting different amou...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options •••• 77 When either the Protocol Timer Tick or the Valid Data Time-out fields have been changed, the OK button is enabled. It is disabled until any changes are made. Click on this button to accept changes. The changes take effect the next time t...

78 •••• Chapter Six - Advanced Options DDE Server User’s Guide Maximum Query Retries This is the number of time-outs that must be encountered from a device before theServer declares the device dead. The default value is 5. Increasing this value increases the length of time before a device is declare...

DDE Server User’s Guide Chapter Six - Advanced Options •••• 79 can be changed on a device-by-device basis by altering the TimeDownLoad Period parameter for an individual device in the .ini file. The value should be entered inmilliseconds. Note that increasing this value will free up processor time f...

80 •••• Appendix A – Register Addressing Conventions DDE Server User’s Guide Appendix A – RegisterAddressing Conventions Data-Addressing Conventions The PMCS DDE Server is capable of interpreting both decimal and hexadecimaladdresses. This allows access to the Modbus RTU protocol’s extended register...

DDE Server User’s Guide Appendix A – Register Addressing Conventions •••• 81 t represents the type of data, if there are any special conventions. See the following section “Special Naming Conventions” for details. A indicates that the data is an Array. See the following section “Register Array Forma...

82 •••• Appendix A – Register Addressing Conventions DDE Server User’s Guide Examples Here are some examples of different types of register numbers: Registernumber Represents R00005 Coil command, number 5, with Read/Write access to the user R31005 Dynamic value, number 1005, Read Only access R43010 ...

DDE Server User’s Guide Appendix A – Register Addressing Conventions •••• 83 Individual Bits In Registers Individual bits in registers are read-only. They can be read as discrete/integer tags byusing the following notation (explained beneath): R indicates a Register address follows. f indicates the ...

84 •••• Appendix A – Register Addressing Conventions DDE Server User’s Guide Register Array Format If multiple data items are being requested from a single topic, it is more efficient torequest a block of contiguous registers than to place multiple requests for singleregisters. This is referred to a...

DDE Server User’s Guide Glossary of Terms •••• 87 Glossary of Terms Terms You Should Know Application Name – The name of the DDE Server program. This is supplied by the DDE client to establish a DDE conversation with a DDE Server application. Client – An application requesting data from the DDE Serv...

DDE Server User’s Guide Index •••• 89 Index C client, 2client-server, 2Configure menu, 37 D DDE, 2, 3DDE Server, 1DDE Server icon, 10Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Server, 3 E Ethernet, 3Event Logger, 3 H Help menu, 51 I Installing PMCS DDE Server, 3 M Main window, 10 Main window controls, 10menu bar, ...

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