# Wonderware ModbusSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01 ReadMe

Last revision: 5/31/2006

This document contains important information about the Wonderware® ModbusSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01. Carefully review this document for known issues in this version and possible changes to the ModbusSerial (MBSerial) DAServer documentation included on this CD.

Release Summary

System Requirements

Installation Information

Resolved Issues – MBSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01

Known Issues – MBSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01

Known Issues – MBSerial DAServer Documentation

MBSerial DAServer Documentation

# Release Summary

The Wonderware ModbusSerial DAServer is a Microsoft® Windows® application program that acts as a communications protocol server. It allows other Windows application programs access to data in the Schneider’s Modicon-family of controllers, including TSX Quantum, TSX Momentum, and Modicon Micro. These controllers are connected to the DAServer through either the computers’ serial ports, data modem, or radio modem using the Modbus protocol.

The ModbusSerial DAServer also supports other generic 4-digit, 5-digit, and 6-digit Modbus controllers supporting the Modbus protocol, if the messaging used by these controllers conforms to the specifications described in the MODBUS Application Protocol Specification V1.1a dated June 4, 2004.

The DAServer is primarily for use with the Wonderware InTouch® software (versions 8.0, 9.0, and 9.5). The DAServer can be used by any Microsoft Windows program capable of acting as a DDE, SuiteLink™, or OPC DA client that can also coexist with FactorySuite™ 2000 software.

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# System Requirements

The MBSerial 2.0 Patch 01 DAServer supports the following operating systems:

- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 4
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with Service Pack 1
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2

Internet Explorer 6.0 is recommended on the computer where the product is installed.

## Hardware Requirements

To run a DAServer, the following are the minimum hardware configurations:

- PC with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor speed
- 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM (512 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
- 8 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space
- Super VGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor
- CD-ROM or DVD drive
- Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

## Modbus Controller Hardware and Firmware

You can find information on the versions of the Modbus controllers’ hardware and firmware supported by the MBSerial 2.0 Patch 01 DAServer in the ModbusSerial DAServer User's Guide, Appendix A.

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# Installation Information

Detailed installation instructions are included in the MBSerial DAServer Installation Guide. It is recommended that you read the DAServer Installation Guide before beginning the installation process. In addition to the procedures described in the DAServer Installation Guide, follow the installation and other requirements pertaining to the installation and uninstall orders.

- Local administrator privileges are required to install a DAServer.
- If there are previous versions of DAServers installed on the computer, MBSerial DAServer detects them and performs an upgrade on this product. MBSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01 allows you to upgrade from previous versions of other DAServers without an uninstall of those DAServers. In addition, components which are common to all DAServers on the system, such as the DAS Engine and DAServer Manager, are also upgraded.
- Always install the DAServer locally. During installation, you can install on a network drive. However, if you install the DAServer on a network drive, the product will not work.

## Installation Order Requirements

The installation for the DAServers and other Wonderware FactorySuite™ products on the same computer must follow the order below.

- (If required) - InTouch® 7.11 software followed by the latest available InTouch patch(es)

- (If required) - Legacy I/O Servers
- (If required) - I/O Servers 8.x
- DAServer(s)
- (If required) - InTouch® 8.0, 9.0, or 9.5 software followed by the latest available InTouch patch(es)

This installation order ensures that any differences in the common components included with individual product releases properly install and run without version conflicts. For any future patch on the installed Wonderware FactorySuite products, follow the particular installation instructions from the patch.

## Uninstall Order Requirements

After installing a DAServer on a computer with other Wonderware FactorySuite products, the following applies:

- If any Wonderware FactorySuite product is uninstalled from the computer, all other Wonderware FactorySuite products must be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Note: ArchestrA® products, such as InTouch® software 8.0, 9.0, and 9.5 do not require any installation/uninstall order with the DAServers.

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# Resolved Issues – MBSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01

The following issues are resolved in this patch.

### L00037399: When an OPC client subscribes to item 400050:16, the data type shown in the Type column is VT_UI2.

When an OPC client subscribes to item 400050:16, the server shows data type VT_BOOL in the Canonical column and VT_UI2 in the Type column. The server should show VT_BOOL data type in both columns.

### L00037890: The DCOM Config utility displays GUID instead of the application name.

The DCOM Config utility should show the application name DASMBSerial instead of GUID.

### L00039422: When a PLC goes offline, all PLCs on the RS485 network go into slow poll mode.

When an offline PLC is polled, the server waits 10 seconds for a reply. When the reply timer times out, the slow poll timer starts. This allows the other PLCs on the RS485 network to get regular updates for 10 seconds and not go into slow poll mode before the offline PLC is polled again.

Important Note: For a multi-drop (RS485) network, if a request message is sent to an offline PLC, the communications port is blocked for the amount of time set in the Reply Timeout parameter. One request message is sent after every slow poll time interval to each PLC that is offline.

For example:

Four PLCs are connected to COM 1.
Reply Timeout: 5 seconds
Slow Poll Interval: 30 seconds

If one of the PLCs goes offline and the expected reply message times out, the PLC is put into a slow poll mode and the next request message is scheduled in about 25 seconds (30 seconds minus 5 seconds). Because of the blocking nature of the Modbus Serial protocol, the time slice available to communicate with the remaining three online PLCs is 25 seconds out of the 30-second interval period.
If three out of the four PLCs are offline, the time slice to communicate with the remaining online PLC is 15 seconds out of the 30-second interval period (30 – 3 * 5).

Use the following formula to set the slow poll interval parameter in a multi-drop network. In the formula, the n variable represents equivalent slave PLCs.

Slow Poll Interval >= n * Reply Timeout

### L00040586: If one node in a multi-drop network is offline, $SYS$Status switches between 0 and 1 for all the nodes/topics.

If one node in a multi-drop network (RS485) is offline, $SYS$Status must reflect the communications status per topic/node and not switch between 0 and 1 for all the nodes/topics.

### L00049103: The DAServer cannot continuously connect to a PLC via a radio modem.

Problems occur when setting up communications via a radio modem. The RSSI signal level is too high and it results in transmission errors. After a connection is made, the connection to a PLC via the radio modem also drops out and the DAServer cannot come out of a Slow Poll mode without operator intervention. To resolve these problems and to have the Modbus Serial DAServer operate properly, perform the following:

- Adjust the radio antennas to have the gain level in the recommended range of 70-90 dBm (dB milliWatt).
- Set up the radio modems according to the manufacturer’s operating specifications.

### L00050207: The DAServer timer wraps around to zero if the server runs continuously for 49.7 days.

The problem with the system timer is fixed. The timer does not wrap around to zero after the server runs continuously for 49.7 days.

### L00050295: The DAServer does not reconnect to the modem after the serial cable between the PC and the modem is disconnected.

After the serial cable between the PC and the modem is disconnected, perform the following steps to reconnect the DAServer to the modem:

- Connect the serial cable.
- Power the modem down and up.
- Configure the DAServer and the ELPRO U905 D radio modem to support DTR (Data Terminal Ready).

- On the RadioMODEM_000_Parameters configuration view of the DAServer hierarchy, select the Enable DSR/DTR support check box.
- On the 905U-D Configuration dialog box, select the Command Mode, Disconnect option in the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) Control group box to configure the ELPRO U905 D radio modem serial connection.

### L00051572: Modulo-10000 functionality is not working.

When you use Modulo-10000, the results are the same as when reading a long integer.

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# Known Issues – MBSerial DAServer 2.0 Patch 01

The following are known issues in this patch.

## Wonderware DAServer Compatibility with Other FactorySuite Products on the Same Computer

At the time of this release, InTouch software version 8.0, 9.0, or 9.5 and Wonderware FactorySuite 2000 I/O Servers previously released with support for Windows 2000 or later are the supported Wonderware product combinations on the same computer with the DAServers. Check the FactorySuite Product version-compatibility matrix at www.wonderware.com/support/mmi to determine if the product-version combination associated with this install is supported.

## Non-Wonderware Product Issues

### L00021068: If the communications from a remote OPC client is interrupted, the server freezes up for a while and the server node needs to be restarted or to wait for the server to time out.

Wonderware DAServers can communicate with multiple client protocols at the same time. There are advantages and disadvantages to using any particular protocol. For example, the OPC Data Access protocol is based on Microsoft COM/DCOM technology. The DCOM technology has an inherent pinging mechanism that requires six (6) minutes before a DCOM connection is declared as timed-out. As a result, when the DAServer is connected remotely with an OPC client and the network is interrupted, you can see a delay of six (6) minutes in the OPC client program before the connection to the DAServer is declared a failure.

The DAServer remains active and continues to provide data connectivity to other clients that have good network connections. More information on the DCOM pinging mechanism can be found in Sections 2.5 and 2.5.1 of the specifications Distributed Component Object Model Protocol ... DCOM/1.0 from Microsoft.

## Installation

### Long Computer Name:

If you install a DAServer on a computer with a computer name longer than 16 characters, you may encounter problems.

### WWLogger:

After installing this DAServer, any existing WWLogger™ output is redirected to the new Log Viewer.

### First Activation:

The first time the DAServer is activated on a Windows 2000 operating system, a "server busy" message may appear. Subsequent activation of the DAServer does not produce this message.

## Uninstall

### L00009971: With two servers on the same node, canceling uninstall causes the server to be set to "Not a Service."

Canceling an uninstallation process can cause the DAServer to be set to "Not a Service" mode if two DAServers are present on the same node.

## Configuration

The ModbusSerial DAServer can be configured to connect a large network of Modbus PLCs across different serial ports. System resources such as CPU cycles, physical memory, and system threads are consumed with each PLC that is configured into the DAServer.

Configuring a high number of PLCs to a serial port can potentially reduce the performance of this DAServer.

## The DAServer Manager

CPU Utilization:

If the CPU utilization reaches and remains at 100%, the DAServer may become unresponsive.

### Keyboard Navigation:

If you use the keyboard for navigation after starting the DAServer Manager, you cannot get to the dialog boxes and other items on the configuration view. Also, in the dialog boxes, using the mouse, you can only move in the downward direction using the TAB key. Pressing the SHIFT+TAB keys to go back does not work.

Keyboard interfaces on all configuration views may not work in accordance with Microsoft conventions. Using the mouse or other pointer device to navigate in the DAServer Manager is recommended.

### Hot Configuration:

Modifying the Default Update Interval while the DAServer is communicating with a PLC does not take effect until the current update interval is complete.

### Watchdog Item:

The historically reserved item "Watchdog" can be added, but logs the following two messages:

- Unable to add item '<PORTName>.<PLCName>.Watchdog' with access path 'xyz'
- ProtCreatePoint::AddItems() method failed (hr=0x1) for item name='watchdog'

You can safely ignore these messages.

### Device Groups:

Device Group names are case insensitive. For example, Group-name is the same as group-name.

### L00003667: System items do not show in the DAServer Manager Diagnostics unless they are subscribed to by a client.

System items do not show in the DAServer Manager Diagnostics unless they are subscribed to by a client.

### L00004239: The DAServer Manager does not automatically refresh when the DAServer on a remote node is uninstalled or has gone off-line/online.

The DAServer Manager does not automatically refresh when the DAServer on a remote node is uninstalled or has gone off-line/online.

## DAServer-Generic

### L00010798: There is some message about loss of data sent to the logger by the DAS Engine.

The Warning message in Log Viewer to indicate clamping of values because of a type conversion is sometimes incorrect. The text for "...from x to y failed..." may have illegible characters for "x."

### L00012809: $SYS$WriteComplete system tag does not display the correct value after InTouch software reinitializes I/O during a recipe download.

Following an InTouch I/O reinitialize during a recipe download, the $SYS$WriteComplete system tag does not show the correct value.

### L00020512: Transaction status (completed/error) is not passed on to the OPC Plug-in during a node tear-down and rebuilt, resulting in the OPC Plug-in timing out 10 minutes later.

Transaction status (completed/error) is not passed on to the OPC Plug-in during a node tear-down and rebuilt, resulting in the OPC Plug-in timing out 10 minutes later. After the node is rebuilt, a Read transaction is completed successfully with 0 (zero) items according to the server diagnostics. However, the OPC client does not get an acknowledgment until 10 minutes later when the OPC Plug-in times out.

## MBSerial-DAServer-Specific

If you generated a configuration from the previous version of MBSerial DAServer, when you upgrade to version 2.0, confirm the setting for "Swap 16-bit registers (Longs)" and "Swap 16-bit registers (Reals)."

- The "Swap 16-bit registers (Longs)" was labeled as "Use Concept data structures (Longs)" in version 1.0.
- The "Swap 16-bit registers (Reals)" was labeled as "Use Concept data structures (Reals)" in version 1.0.

If the "Swap 16-bit registers (Longs)" and "Swap 16-bit registers (Reals)" check boxes are selected, MBSerial DAServer version 2.0 returns the data exactly to what is shown in the Schneider’s Concept programming software. If the "Swap 16-bit registers (Longs)" and "Swap 16-bit registers (Reals)" check boxes are cleared, MBSerial DAServer returns the data with the register values reversed.

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# Known Issues – MBSerial DAServer Documentation

### Item

### Location of Change

### Existing Documentation

### Change

1 | DASMBSerial.pdf: "Item Names Using the Modicon PLCRegister Addresses" section, page 70. DASMBSerial.chm: "Item Names Using the Modicon PLCRegister Addresses" topic | In the table: "When a space and the letter "I" follow the register number, the register contents are treated as a 32-bit unsigned quantity." | "When a space and the letter "I" follow the register number, the register contents are treated as a 32-bit signed quantity."

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# MBSerial DAServer Documentation

The MBSerial DAServer documentation set includes the following guides:

1. DAServer Installation Guide
   This online Help describes installing the DAServer, including options for installing all components of the system or just individual components. These include the DAServer Manager, including configuration components of the DAServer, the DAServer, including OPC protocol capabilities, and the DDE/SuiteLink Plug-In, for communicating with the legacy Wonderware products. This Help file can be opened from CD-DASMBSerial as Install-MBSerial.chm.
2. Change Network Account Online Help
   This online Help describes the tool you can use to manage credentials for node-to-node communications between ArchestrA® components. This documentation can be opened from the application's Help.
3. Protocols Guide
   This PDF guide provides background information on the main protocols used between components of the Wonderware products. A protocol is the set of rules and standards for enabling computers to connect and exchange data over the network. This guide also includes information on setting up and using some of these protocols.
4. ModbusSerial DAServer User's Guide
   This PDF guide describes using the Wonderware MBSerial DAServer.
5. DAServer Manager User's Guide
   This PDF documentation describes the runtime Configuration, Diagnostics, and Activation/Deactivation aspects of a DAServer. These aspects of any DAServer are maintained through the generic component called the DAServer Manager.
6. License Utility Guide
   This PDF guide describes the FactorySuite 2000 (version 7.1) licensing strategy. It explains using the License Utility to install license files and browse valid license files on the network.
7. LogFlag Editor User's Guide
   This PDF documentation describes the user interface and functions of the LogFlag Editor utility. This utility can be opened only from the Log Viewer, a part of the System Management Console suite of utilities.
8. Log Viewer User's Guide
   This PDF guide provides information about the Logger™ and the Log Viewer snap-in to the System Management Console.

Documents numbers 3 through 8 are PDF files and can be printed. They are available in the CD-ROM directory\UserDocs\English. Also, information included in these guides is provided as online Help, which can be opened from the MBSerial DAServer's Help.

## Viewing PDF Documentation

The documentation describing how to use this product is included on the CD in PDF format. Viewing these guides requires installing Adobe Acrobat Reader. This program is not included on this CD. You can download it for free from the Adobe Web site at the following Web address:

www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

After downloading the file from Adobe, run the executable to install it on your computer. After installation, you can open the Acrobat Reader and select a user's guide from the File menu, or double-click a user's guide on the CD in Windows Explorer.

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© 2006 Invensys Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.