Database Spy Usage

In design mode it will show a value for a tag as long as the tag is defined. It will not attempt to communicate with the PLC unless it is in run mode (or you manually start the Driver Runtime task).

If a PLC tag is not being read, then it is possible that the address is not correct (check spelling / syntax).

Are you using the Main driver sheet and/or Standard driver sheets? Do you have more than one Standard driver sheet? On Standard driver sheets, I have seen that if one of the tags on a sheet is not correct then all of the tags on that sheet will not read. You can enable Field Read Commands and Field Write Commands on the Output window to see if any of the driver sheets have errors. It is also possible that you have exceeded some physical limitation of the driver(number of addresses, number of bytes, etc.) see driver manual.

The Output window not clearing is a bit of a head scratcher. Normally you right click on the Output window and select Delete to clear it.

I think what i am concerned about is that everything was working until I did a verify, and it has not worked since. On the PLC I copied the tag value to another tag and then displayed both values in Indusoft. The copied value is displaying OK but not the tag I want. Then I renamed the tag and Indusoft picked this up as a deleted tag and asked me to replace or delete it. Found the new tag name through the browser and let the software replace the faulty tag. Run Indusoft again and now 17 of the temperature readings are showing properly, but the one I had renamed was missing. It now found another missing tag, and after then prompted for a Verify. After this was finished I lost all my temperature readings again, although the copied tag was still working.

Decided to uninstall Indusoft and then do a fresh install. This seemed to fix the issue with the Database Spy, but the Output Window still does not function as it should. Is there a setting in the windows registry which needs manually adjusted to allow the right click menu to appear. Still have not been able to get the temperature readings from the PLC.

Interesting... I have 3 screens. If I have my development environment on the left most screen, the dialog does not appear. If it is in the middle screen, it shows up in a horizontal position proportional to where I click on the output window (left edge of output window = left edge of screen). If it is in the right screen, it shows up with the lower left corner at my mouse pointer.

That does appear to be the problem, although before I reinstalled i think it definitely was not working. The first screen does not show the menu. The second screen, which is where I am designing has the menu of to the left. If i am close to the LHS it will appear on the first screen. On the third and fourth screen it appears just below and to the right of where I right click.

Thanks for that.

My Next problem is how to get the tag values back. As I said, they had been working up until I did a verify. They did come back for a while, but because the program was complaining about missing tags I did another verify and that seems to have stopped them again. It is all the input cards for temperature measurement which are not working. If I copy the value on the PLC to another tag I can see them and the PLC is working properly. I have other PLC's with a similar setup and these have no issues with the temperature cards. I might just change the PLC to see what happens.

What InduSoft version are you using?
What Driver are you using?
Are you using Driver Sheets or Tag Integration?

I always use Driver Sheets. It requires more work to set up, but it is more efficient and flexible (can group tags by function, can control enable/disable and read/write of individual driver sheets with code, etc.). I seem to remember others having problems with Tag Integration, especially with complicated data (multi-dimensional arrays, structures (classes), etc.).

I have the latest version and use drivers, ADPRO, KOYO, MODBU and MOTCP. For some of the PLC's which do not seem to handle real numbers properly I have to use the driver sheets. This seemed to take a lot of effort, and then I found that once you have a few PLC's on the sheet it would be difficult to spot tags you have already created. When I discovered tag integration was able to keep all your devices separate, I then started using it with no problems. It is only now on this PLC that I am having problems with the temperature cards.

With a bit of luck I managed to find a version of the tag export CSV file which seemed to work all the time. This only had half the tags in it, so I manually started adding the missing ones until I had the full set. This was working last night, so I continued on with working on other parts of my program. This morning the temperature readings have stopped again. This is what the output window is saying.

[ID: 63CC] ADPRO Read Block - Station: 172.20.5.104;.\Tags_CSV\Ammonia Compressors_basic.csv, Address: TAG:Head Temp 13 and 14 On 16 cyl to TAG:Head Temp 15 and 16 On 16 cyl > Invalid block size [05/05/2020, 08:24:01.708ms]

I may add these values to the driver sheet and see if they work properly there. The fact that I do not see any way of separating the PLC's is just a bit confusing for me. I have used KEPServer and liked the way it was structured.

Going through my shared tags list I have found duplicates. Should I be deleting them.

Ammonia_Compressors.Head__Temp__3__and__4__On__16__cyl

Ammonia_Compressors.Head_Temp_3_and_4_On_16_cyl

At some point the program has started putting two underscores for the spaces.

You can have multiple Standard driver sheets for a driver. You could have one (or several) Standard driver sheet(s) for each PLC. This should help you keep tags organized. If the PLCs are identical, you would be able to configure one PLC then cut and paste the records into the other sheets and update the tag names (which should be fairly easy, especially if your PLCs are defined as classes or arrays).

Also, there is driver cloning, if that is needed. (Probably not, but throwing it out there as it is needed for some drivers where you need different driver settings to talk to different devices).

Deleting the duplicate tags has fixed my problem Now I have to ask is my computer causing the problems or is it the software. Had another problem where a tag I had created a year ago was not recognised. AutoFormat(Maturation_Chills.Mat_1_Return_Air_1_Corrected) Fixed the problem by adding another underscore between the words. AutoFormat(Maturation_Chills.Mat__1__Return__Air__1__Corrected)

The software does give me grief in other minor details. Adding text requires clicking once to place the text, then type the first letter, click again to move the focus of the text, click again on the text and then go to the properties so I can enter what I had set out to type. Trying to move an object a few pixels cannot not be done with the keyboard arrows. One has to click on the object and then use the arrows. As soon as you let go of the mouse the object goes back to its starting position. Some items have a security clearance of 10 so I set my login details to be above this. When I log in I cannot change the values so I have to log in with a clearance level for the fitters which is set to 20.