MarkV Cimplicity Help!!!

Our remote site consists of three 7ea turbines running on Mark Vs. Each one has an HMI running cimplicity. These HMIs are connected to a main HMI in the main control room for the site. This HMI is then networked via a leased line to our facilities 45 miles away. We are having communication issues where the data is not getting back to the main office 45 miles away. The leased line provider has checked their equipment and can't find a problem. We are able to ping across from one to the other but the Cimplicity data is not making it through. The HMI at the remote site is getting data... Please help... Any suggestions?

You need to get someone to your site to help you determine if all your CIMPLICITY projects "match" the configurations in the panels, and are configured properly as servers and/or viewers. We just can't ask for, nor can you provide enough, information for us to be able to help you via this forum. This is a hugely complicated system you potentially have, and worse, you haven't told us if it worked previously then stopped working, of if this is something which is just now being implemented and hasn't yet been made to work, or what. What you are describing is possible, within limits, but it isn't something we can troubleshoot or configure in a few Internet exchanges.

To quote another contributor to control.com, "Your question is too broad." (I'm going to remember that, Radhakrishnan, and use it often!)

Could you please provide more information?

1. Is this a new installation or was the set up functioning correctly?

2. If it was functioning correctly, what is the method used? Modbus or OPC

Upon getting your reply, we can address the issues.

I am going to make some broad assumptions. First, the main HMI located 45 miles away is a VIEWER not a HMI server.

Mark V HMI Servers are connected via a proprietary arcnet cable connection protocol named by GE as Stagelink.

Your viewer is probably connected to the main HMI servers (at each turbine) via Ethernet TCP connection not a direct arcnet cable connection.
The ICMP ping and a IP address are not something that an arcnet connection uses.

Download a copy of wireshark on the internet and install it on your remote viewer. During your TCP packet analysis you will probably find problems with TCP packets dropped.

Once you show your leased line providers the problem, although a ICMP ping does work, they will be able to repair the leased line connection problems. It is usually a VLAN setup problem on the ethernet switches.

Good Luck.

CTTech,

Excellent advice, and you are correct, the remote HMI is most likely a Viewer.

I've seen this a couple of times, and both times it was because of changes made at the local HMIs which weren't properly propagated to the other HMIs.

But, we really didn't get enough information from the originator (still haven't).

Having sad that, it could still be a problem with the leased line, and your suggestion should definitely be tried. I've had so many problems with fiber optic lines over the years, and it's *never* the fiber optic lines, at least that's what's always said when it's first mentioned.

There is a quick check you can do at a viewer. Open the point control panel (you can right-click on a screen and select it from the context menu). The points should show up in the form \\project\point_name, where project is the name of the server's project, and point_name is T1_TNH, or whatever.

Is the project name correct? If not, check the properties of the shortcut you are using to open the screen. The shortcut will specify the project. The Shortcut Target should be something like C:\CIMPLICITY\HMI\exe\CimView.exe /project PROJECT /alwaysmaximized /nomenutitle f:\cimproj\screens\unit_control.cim
PROJECT must be the project you are trying to get data from. And you must use a shortcut to open the screen.

Now, if the project name is correct in the point control panel, try to browse for more points. Use the blue + sign. Can you select the project? If the project does not appear in the drop down list, the viewer is not seeing the project's broadcast on the network. If the server (or viewer) has multiple NICs, it is possible that the viewer is listening on one network (e.g. 192.168.201.nnn) while the server is broadcasting on another (e.g. 192.168.101.nnn) or vice versa. GE knows about this issue, and if they supplied the HMIs, they will probably help you solve it.

Sorry it took so long to find my way back, but we have resolved this issue. We were able to swap from the leased line to our own microwave T1 system and we have not lost communications since.

Thanks for the responses guys. Hope to be more active now.