Background:

I have a client with an existing Desktop computer running Windows 2000 NT with WW InTouch 7.1.6. The PC has a PKTX card that communicates with a SLC-504 (Master PLC) using DH+ via wwRSLinx as a DDE Server through RSLinx Classic OEM. The Master PLC controls and monitors four (4) other PLCs on the DH+ network.

We have recently upgraded to a new Desktop running Windows 7 and thus upgraded to WW Archestra 2012 R2 (10.6). The old program was migrated and communications have been configured within InTouch/WindowMaker, since wwRSLinx is no longer an option. All settings in RSLinx are identical to the old PC.

The problem:
Communications are extremely slow and have a tendency to freeze completely. This communications failure (freezing) seems to happen at random times. Most recently it was running correctly for about a week, then the operator changed a setpoint and communications froze again. A full day later, still nothing had updated, including trends.
I have tried various tweaks to the communications settings in both InTouch and RSLinx hoping to find something that may have been overlooked, with no luck. The most recent modifications included changing (WonderWare) "only update active tags" to "update all tags". It runs better updating all tags, but still lags.
Outgoing commands on the old PC would send instantly, but have a significant delay on the new PC. When changing windows, Incoming information would update on the screen within seconds, but now takes at least 2 full minutes if it shows at all.

Needless to say, the old PC has been put back into service while we try to figure out the issue.

I'm considering trying to run the old 7.1.6 software (with wwRSLinx) in Virtual XP Mode. This would then require the PC to be setup to automatically boot up into XP Mode.

Has anyone done this before?
If so, could anyone walk me through this procedure?

Any help offered is greatly appreciated.

 

the best advice you can get on this kind of thing will come from WW tech support.

--
Bob
http://ilbob.blogspot.com/

 

> the best advice you can get on this kind of thing will come from WW tech support.

Everything I've done up to this point has been step-by-step from tech support and they've come up empty for anything passed this point.
I'm looking for help on forums now because of the ties being cut there.

 

>Background:
>
>. . . The PC has a PKTX card that communicates with a SLC-504 ?

Still using a PKTX? The driver in Windows 7 might be the issue. Are you using OPC to RSLinx? OPC can be unreliable if not configured properly.

For SLC-5/04, I switched to Quest's DHPLUS-ENET gateway a LONG time ago. I use Wonderware's DASABCIP data access server through the gateway.

With some PLCs, it can help to have a watchdog or an InTouch tag pointing at the PLC's clock (S:42) to keep the connection active when other tags are quiet. At the very least, the watchdog can warn operators of a communications freeze.

 

Are you still using "DDE" communciation method within Intouch Window Maker access points, having Intouch communicating directly with RSLinx? If yes, you might consider using wonderware OPC client (which I think is FSGateway), then Intouch will be "suitelink" client of the Gateway (change the application and communication mode of your access names) and Gateway will have OPC client topics pointing to RSLinx. You might have to add a suffix to each tagname address. WW tech support can help you with this.

 

You will want to use the DA Servers that come with Intouch/WonderWare. WW Tech support can help. you will need the IO Server License to go alone with your WW/Intouch. Also make sure you put all the license files in the right place. WW/Intouch uses the one but the IO server uses the other license files.

I am using Intouch with the Compac logix plc and have no timing issues.

 

You may need to upgrade to a Ethernet processor also.