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Trouble adding a Touch Panel HMI to my PAC

I am trying to follow the directions contained in this link: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/2698#toc3
Unfortunately, the file referenced in step 2 is not on the web page, and NI staff was unable to locate for me.  So I built the project from scratch.  However, I can't get my TPC-2006 to communicate with my PAC (a cFP-2100).  The VIs run smoothly, they just don't pass data.  Can anyone take a look at my project and tell me if they see any errors?  I've attached the Generator and the HMI VIs.

Thanks,
Eric

Message Edited by Johnnymysto on 06-18-2007 02:21 PM

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Eric,

A couple of things to check. 

1 - Make sure that the Network Variable Engine is loaded on the cFP.  You can use MAX to verify what software/revision is loaded on cFP.

2 - Make sure that versions of software on cFP match versions on your development machine.

3 - Make sure that you have deployed the library of shared variables to the cFP.  You can use the Variable Manager to verify if variables are deployed by selecting Tools » Shared Variable » Variable Manager.

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centerbolt has great suggestions. Let me add a few as well.

1. Make sure shared variable support is installed on the Touch Panel.  This can be installed by right-clicking on the Touch Panel target in the project and selecting Install » Support for Shared Variables (ARM) from the shortcut menu.

2. Make sure your TPC-2006 has been assigned an IP address that is on the same subnet as your cFP-2100. If you are having trouble saving the static IP address of the TPC-2006, please see the following KnowledgeBase entry:

Saving a Static IP Address on the TPC-2006

Let us know how things go!
Doug M
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
For those unfamiliar with NBC's The Office, my icon is NOT a picture of me 🙂
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Thanks for the advice.  However, I've followed all your suggestions and I still can't get the waveforms to show up on the TPC.  The variables on the CFP seem to be doing what they're supposed to do (looking at the Variable Manager).  So it's as if the TPC is the culprit, and that it's not connecting to the CFP.  It is on the same subnet as the CFP, and it can access the internet.  Any other suggestions on how to remedy this?

Thanks,
Eric
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Eric,

What I'd probably try at this point, with all your targets on the network with known IP addresses ( the cFP and the TPC), would be to create a new, very simple project, and simply try to pass data from a numeric indicator to the TPC and to the host PC. There are a couple things that may be going wrong that I can think of:

1) You are using the LabVIEW PDA module rather Touch Panel Module, and the shared variable support you installed is lost upon reboot, even though you wouldn't know this because the registry of the TPC still thinks it has the support installed. In this case simply reinstall support as described in my last post. See the following KB:

Shared Variable and/or PNG Support Is Not Active After Rebooting the TPC-2006

2) The IP address of the cFP has changed (perhaps via DHCP after a reboot) since you created the project, in which case the shared variable reference nodes (which have the IP address where the shared variable should be located hard coded) will not find the shared variables where it thinks they are.

If neither of these ideas are the problem, I would continue creating a very simple new project and would do the following:

1) Add the cFP and TPC as targets to the new project.
2) Create a shared variable of type double or integer, and host it under the cFP target.
3) Create a VI under the cFP target that does nothing but run a loop that writes the value of the loop iteration terminal to a shared variable reference node for the variable created in 2).
4) Create a host VI under the My Computer Target that either uses front panel binding (by clicking and dragging the shared variable from the project to the front panel of the VI) to the shared varible created in 2) or polls in a loop on the block diagram from a shared variable reference node from the variable created in 2) and writes to an indicator.  In either case you'll need a loop with a wait inside.
5) Make sure that after deploying and running the VI created in 3) that the host VI created in 4) successfully reads from the shared variable hosted on the cFP.  This will eliminate the cFP as part of the problem.
6) Once this is working, create a VI under the TPC target and create a TPC VI, then click and drag the shared variable from 2) to the block diagram of the new TP VI (front panel binding is not supported at this time on TPC/PDA targets).  Create a while loop and wait and read from this shared variable reference node to an indicator. Wire an indicator from the error out terminal of the shared variable reference node and make its default text size big so you can read the error info if there is any. Build and deploy the TPC exe and see if you get a good reading from the shared variable reference node, otherwise post the error number you are seeing.

Hopefully we'll get closer after these steps.

Message Edited by Doug M on 06-20-2007 10:25 AM

Doug M
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
For those unfamiliar with NBC's The Office, my icon is NOT a picture of me 🙂
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SUCCESS!!!  The VI on the TPC is tracking the loop iterations of the CFP VI just like the VI on my computer.  I think the problem was that I thought I had the Shared Variables Support installed on the TPC because I saw it in the \HardDisk\Cabinet folder.  However, I decided to just try reinstalling it, and that's when the \HardDisk\\wince\config folder was created.  So I resinstalled Shared Variables Support and PNG support.

Thank you VERY much for your help.  I was starting to think I'd have to bring a specialist into the office!  I just have one more question: sometimes when I'm making VIs in these projects, a dialog box pops up asking if I want to save the changes to "Resolve Machine Aliases."  I have been clicking "Save All".  Is that the right thing to do?  How are these changes getting made without me knowing it?

Thanks again,
Eric
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Eric,

I'm glad to know you got things working!  As far as the machine alias message -- I haven't seen that message before but I would feel safe always selecting Save All.
Doug M
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
For those unfamiliar with NBC's The Office, my icon is NOT a picture of me 🙂
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