36 wsn-3202

[kolan]

Hello Zach,

1. No errors in freezer.exe does not arise, but will no longer update shared variables, related to the voltages on the module's sensors.

2. Yes! I've just restarted the gateway. I have not restarted freezer.exe! And the program continued to work in a familiar vein.

3. [I've made an error. We have only 34 nodes.] We shut down all 34 nodes but not the gateway. The gateway is powered by Siemens UPS and works all the time.

    When the power was restored in our two short tests(after several tens of minutes of gateway's work at 2.5 minutes shut down nodes) they able to start collection data again! But after a month or three in such a situation, data collection is not renewed!

Many thanks for your reply, Zach!

[Corby_B]

Hello Kolan,

Thanks for your post. 

I want to let you know that we are dedicated to solving this problem. I have a few more questions for you:

1. Have you upgraded the 9791 firmware to 1.2? Make sure you choose the right version for the version of LabVIEW that you are using.

Multiple Firmware Versions for the WSN-9791 Ethernet Gateway When Upgrading to NI-WSN 1.2 or Later

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/8F422E58C9292F0E8625778A007C7E19

2. Are the nodes actually connected to the gateway when you notice data not updateing in freezer.exe? Can you press the signal quality button on the nodes during this time? What do the LED's on the nodes do when you press the button?

3. When you say "no longer update shared variables", do the values stay the same every time you read the shared variables and the time stamp does not update?

4. Can you see the data updating in the NI Distributed Systems Manager (DSM)? You can use the DSM from any computer that is on the same network as your gateway. 

Start >> All Programs >> National Instruments >> Distributed Systems Manager 

5. Are the nodes battery powered and if so what is the volage when this happens?

I have 3x36 node networks that have been running for literally years and have not seen anything like what you are describing. Any more information you can tell us would be great. 

Thanks Kolan and I look forward to your response. 

Corby 

National Instruments
WSN/Network DAQ Product Support Engineer

[kolan]

Hello Corby!

Many thanks for your answer!

1. We've upgraded the 9791 firmware and all modules firmware to 1.2 version at 2 November 2010.
    We are using activated LabVIEW-8.6.1 on windows XP sp3 but with WSN 1.1 (WSN 1.2 can not be installed on AMD Geode GX 533 (400 MHz) CPU because the Silverlight doesn't support it and MAX doesn't work).

2. If my memory serves me, the first time this has happened, when we click on modules, the latter could not connect to the gateway and the green lights on them signaled search network state.
    The second time we just restarted the access point, and work immediately resumed. Thus, we believe that the modules themselves are working correctly.

3. Our program reads the time stamp and the values ​​and the right in its web interface, we see that the timestamps are not updated and the values ​​remain constant and do not correspond to reality.

4. Um ... We did not face the idea of ​​running DSM. I can only do so next time when/if the situation again.

5. No, each node is powered by its adapter. Set of adapters is divided into subsets of 3 nodes, each of which is connected to it's self 220V shield.

    Inside the modules there is no battery. In both situations, when the stolen supply voltage, all modules have been disconnected from power for about 2.5 minutes.

Thank you for your interest in our problem, Corby!

Kolan

[Corby_B]

Hello Kolan,

Thanks for your reponse! 

Looks like your embedded XP PC is very similar in spec to our 9792 RT WSN Gateway. We always like to recommend that you use the latest version if you can. What does Microsoft Silverlight tell you when you try to install it to this PC? Is it possible to use a PC where you can upgrade your driver to 1.2? Just to let you know, you only need silverlight for IP and name configuration. You can access the node tab in MAX even if you can't configure the IP address.You could use another computer on the same network to configure the network settings if needed. 

It does seem that the nodes seem to be Ok. We have seen something like what you are describing in the past but never in a customer situation. We are currently working on a new version of NI-WSN 1.3 that will address some of the issues we have seen with the radio on the gateway. Again this is very rare and we have never seen it with customers. We should be releasing 1.3 here in a few months, would you be willing to upgrade to this driver in the near future?

IN the mean time you can always reboot the gateway from MAX if you run into this issue again. If you have the LabVIEW Real Time Module 2009 or greater you can also call the following VI to reboot the gateway pragmatically. 

RT Restart Target.vi

These are of course only some work around for the issue you are seeing. 

If/When this happens again can you call into NI support via phone? This way we can provide you with more in depth troubleshooting abilities to narrow down the issue further. I saw that your application is monitoring freezers so I would imagine that any down time is costly to you or could your system be down for a while to do some troubleshooting?  

Thanks for working with us. I want you to know we are committed to helping you through this. 

Thanks for your time.

Corby 

National Instruments
WSN/Network DAQ Product Support Engineer

[kolan]

An interesting note. We use an x86 based UNO-1150E PC with a SOC processor. The Silverlight tells that current processor is not supported and no more info. Probably because it is a 5 family of x86 processors. It is not possible to use a PC where we can upgrade driver to 1.2, because contract is concluded, the equipment purchased and the customer is not particularly welcomes any experiments in the operation of the equipment. Yes, I know that the Silverlight is necessary only for configuring but still, it was decided to leave the version where the customer can change the settings because the equipped area is far away from the location where it is monitored, the customer not happy with having to install any software on client computers and pulling cable in the event of a failure as seen impractical. And yet, we have assumed that the previous version of wsn driver is not a problem in the PC. In other words, I would and could take advantage of this method, more precisely, does so, but the customer it's not very much, indeed, they were not very happy about that fact that the runtime engine must be installed for remote panels, so I had to do extra Web-based interface. Another reason not to do so is that the PC itself serves as a gateway to the wsn-gateway, so that it updates the time by ntp.

Each exit into the city to the customer takes time and most likely I will be there as soon happen to be any problem. That is, I can not pinpoint the time of departure to the territory of the customer, although I more want to see everything just works =)

Hm... I have not LabVIEW Real Time Module 2009 on the UNO-1150E PC, another problem is that it is not possible to install LabVIEW 2009 because it is a 5 family pc... ;( Only LabVIEW 8.6.1 can be installed.

Yes, customers are a bit worried on this score,  but overall the situation is calm . In this situation, also sent a text message and the customer receives information about suply and calls back to the object, there to look - what's wrong. Another thing is that each time had to go there because administrators did not allow port forwarding for vnc does because security =)

Thank you very much for your support!

With best regards,
Kolan

[Corby_B]

Hello Kolan,

Thanks for your detailed response.

I see your point on not wanting to "experiment" with the system once it is up and running. Especially in a manufacturing evironment because such places like things to not change. 

I now see your reason for not being able to upgrade your driver. If it is at all possible to upgrade in the future that would be most recomended because we have been makeing some significan't improvements to the driver software especially in reliability. NI-WSN 1.3 should release later this year with support for new node types. As mentioned before, we have never expereinced what you are seeing so a driver upgrade in the future would be telling. Please contact NI support department if this situation does happen agian in the future. 

Have a great day Kolan, and let us know if there is anything else we can do. 

Cheers

Corby