^PPN Working Inconsistently
Zachj
Posts: 12
Hello, I have been tasked with swapping out an old G4 panel for a G5 (MXD-1001) and have experienced some weird issues regarding popups even after converting all of the G4 popup commands to the G5 syntax. On shutdown, I am attempting to show a popup like so:
SEND_COMMAND dvTP,"'^PPN-Cool Down'";
however sometimes right after a reboot it will show up but after that it will never popup again on shutdown. I have tried using the optional parameter of ^PPN to make it draw on a specified page and Ive also tried to use PPON and I still get the same results.
What am I missing here?
0
Comments
How is the popup suppose to detach from the page once the shutdown is complete? does it time out, do you issue a ^PPK, ^PPF, ^PPX, ^PPA or something, or is it part of a (mutually exclusive) popup group?
I assume that 'shutdown' doesn't power off the panel, or does it?
After the projector is finished cooling down, ^PPX is being used to close all popups. The original programmer used event actions in the UI to drive page flips but Im using Netlinx to drive popups so 'shutdown' flips to the splash page, turns off displays etc. There are no popup groups in the project.
Does the ^PPX always work? and why is the TP 'rebooted', is that just as a test? If you use 'control a device' to show the popup, does that work?
From what I can observe, ^PPX seems to work. Typically Im rebooting the touchpanel when I update the netlinx code from trying different ways to open the popup like using PPON instead of ^PPN. I havent tried to use 'control a device', I forgot about that feature, Ill try that next thanks.
Ok, so after a panel reboot the 'shutdown' popup sometimes appears on whatever page is shown at that moment.
I have seen some unexpected behaviour from G5 panels myself, but seeing how basic a ^PPN command is, are you sure this isn't caused by the NetLinx program, like forgetting to properly reset some condition on shutdown? If this is timing dependent, it could explain why you only see this sometimes. Really just guessing here. Maybe in the online event for the panel there's code to set it to the correct page, that's based on the wrong condition. You said you aren't the original programmer and I have myself tripped over a few 'clever' code constructions done by others in the past...
Remember that some of the G5 panels do not trigger offline/Online events in the controller if they are not hard power cycle rebooted. Not sure if that's causing any of your observed symptoms or not.
The MXT-1001, the OP is using, does and the MT-702 doesn't work correctly with offline/online events.
It might be something Im overlooking in Netlinx, basically on a startup/shutdown sequence, the cool-down or warming-up popup page is supposed to popup, then a 60 second wait is started and when the time runs out, it should close the popup. Ill comb through the program again and see if I can find anything
I'd check the code and monitor Diagnostics for spurious ^PPX commands being sent to the the panel - btw a directive almost as evil as cancel_all_wait in my humble opinion.
Really, why? ^PPX (and i guess cancel_all_wait) are perfectly fine for a startup and/or shutdown routine, just don't use 'm everywhere.
Depending on how the touchpanel has been constructed ^PPX (and cancel_all_wait) is just a way too indiscriminate and could lead to unintended consequences - especially in an collaborative environment or if that nasty line of code is buried deep in some old or borrowed file.
^PPK- is a more discriminating option that has the additional benefit of acting like "hide popup group" so absolute situational awareness is not required with respect to page tracking.
Just curious - since this is a fixed time event, why not just set the pop to have a timeout and leave the Netlinx to more interesting tasks?