|
<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> FAQ - Instrument |
  
|
|
<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> FAQ - Instrument |
|
Why am I seeing: 'N/R' or 'NPV' or 'NCA' or 'N/C' or 'T/O' or 'W/O' on the screen where the instrument's values should be?
- For 'N/R' this is correct operation while offline in Edit Mode. However, if this occurs while in Runtime Mode then please read Troubleshooting Instrument Communications for the steps to take.
- For the others, they explained in Values on the GDW.
On my generic Modbus instrument how do I access higher registers?
- Use an offset on the address specification by adding a semicolon followed by the offset, for example 1,0J;256
Why are the instrument values shown 10 or 100 times too big (or too small) or without the decimal point positioned correctly?
- Check the address specification to see if the number of decimal places is correct.
Why are the wrong values being returned from the instrument?
- Check the instrument's manual, as some instruments return raw data (for example, Chessell & ABB Chart Recorders), which needs to be scaled.
- This can be done from the Properties button on the Variables List.
How do I use a BarCode Scanner with SpecView?
- This is detailed under Using a BarCode Scanner with SpecView.
How can I avoid affecting communications throughput if some instrument(s) need to be turned off or disconnected for a reason?
There are 2 answers to this depending on whether the dongle has the Multiport option enabled:
- If the Dongle has the Multiport option enabled then:
Set the 'COM port' of the missing controllers to something else, like 'COM2'. That way all the failed reads & timeouts won't affect the communication stream coming in from the other COM port.
- If the Dongle hasn't got the Multiport option enabled then:
Go to File->Preferences & on the Runtime tab set 'Comms Back Off Multiplier' to a larger number.
It is a trade-off as to how high to set it because if it is very high, then when the instruments are subsequently reconnected on it will take SpecView that long to 'notice'. Be aware that it'll also affect the 'retry' timeout on the live instruments too, so it is important to put the variables:
SpecView.CommsErrors
SpecView.GoodComms
SpecView.CommsErrorCode
SpecView.CommsErrorItem
SpecView.CommsErrorDescription
on a screen somewhere & when all the instruments are connected check that CommsErrors stays at zero - if there is a weakness in instrument communication then increasing the Comms Back Off Multiplier would not be a good idea.