NI2000 Duet Upgrade
George Krietsepis
Posts: 284
Hi all,
I have a big problem with a duet module application. We have a project with 9 NI2000 controllers in M2M connection. We didn't need to have a duet firmware in the controllers until now as we had not had any devices controlled with a duet module. Today, the customer changed all his A/V receivers (Marantz SR9600). There is the proper duet module on the AMX site.
Now we upgraded all the controllers ffrst from 2.32.148 to 3.00.316 and then to the last 3.21.343 duet firmware for supporting the SR9600 receiver module.
Before go on site, we checked all this on our office with an NI700 (duet firmware - I can not remember which version was it), and the receiver worked fine.
For some reasons, we can not do the same thing with the on site NI2000s. We noticed that when we made a controller 'online tree' refresh, the duet virtual devices (41001,41002.....,41006), were not presented. We sent many commands (ex INPUT-DVD,1), but there was not any response from the NI RS232 port. We have checked the device definitions on the main program many times and they are correct.
What we have done finally, was to upgarde the frame firmware from 1.00.118 to 1.12.140 and curiously enough the module worked fine in this controller. We changed the firmware on an other NI2000 too, but unfortunately the module did not work on this controller.
Obviously, something is going wrong here. Is there anything that we have to know about the duet upgrades? Maybe the duet memory or something else ( we changed it from 2M to 6M or 8M).
Have you had such a same situation before?
Thanks
George
I have a big problem with a duet module application. We have a project with 9 NI2000 controllers in M2M connection. We didn't need to have a duet firmware in the controllers until now as we had not had any devices controlled with a duet module. Today, the customer changed all his A/V receivers (Marantz SR9600). There is the proper duet module on the AMX site.
Now we upgraded all the controllers ffrst from 2.32.148 to 3.00.316 and then to the last 3.21.343 duet firmware for supporting the SR9600 receiver module.
Before go on site, we checked all this on our office with an NI700 (duet firmware - I can not remember which version was it), and the receiver worked fine.
For some reasons, we can not do the same thing with the on site NI2000s. We noticed that when we made a controller 'online tree' refresh, the duet virtual devices (41001,41002.....,41006), were not presented. We sent many commands (ex INPUT-DVD,1), but there was not any response from the NI RS232 port. We have checked the device definitions on the main program many times and they are correct.
What we have done finally, was to upgarde the frame firmware from 1.00.118 to 1.12.140 and curiously enough the module worked fine in this controller. We changed the firmware on an other NI2000 too, but unfortunately the module did not work on this controller.
Obviously, something is going wrong here. Is there anything that we have to know about the duet upgrades? Maybe the duet memory or something else ( we changed it from 2M to 6M or 8M).
Have you had such a same situation before?
Thanks
George
0
Comments
Also upgrade to 3.21.348ipstartupHFix on the master (it's available through tech support)
I've found that 6MB to 8MB is nice. 7MB seems to be a good sweet spot for most installs.
If it still doesn't work it would probably help to have someone look at the telnet logs. Possibly tech support.
See Technote 825: http://www.amx.com/techsupport/techNote.asp?id=825
If you are not working with the same PC/Laptop in office and on site, you may check the version of the Duet Runtime Environment.
Launch NetLinx Studio, menu HELP -> ABOUT NETLINX STUDIO and have a look to the Duet Version. Latest is 1.8.190
I work with tha same laptop on my office and on site too. Also, the cafe duet version on my Netlinx Studio is the 1.8.190 indeed. I have already downloaded the Queue_to_Threshold.axi. Must I include this file on my code?
George
I would recommend to include it, ie. between your last Call/Function and DEFINE_START espcially with the NI-x000 series, the Queues and Thresholds sometimes are defined too small by default to work properly with Duet.
In which setting must I "Change to desired setting:"? DEFAULT_SETTINGS or ENHANCED_SETTINGS ?
George
I was told by tech support to NOT use the Queue_and Threshold_Sizes.axi file when using a Duet master. I was having all kinds of master lockups and whatnot at one point. I was on tech support line and they telnet-ed in. the thing was being pounded by errors and barely functioning. We poked around the code for a while and he determined that the conflicts were coming from the Queue_and_Threshold routines. We took out that file, redid the Duet Memory buffers and the problem was solved.
As I understand, the new Duet firmware does a lot of the same functions all by itself. The Queue_and_Threshold file just fights with it.
See tech note 825 from a month ago which possibly postdates the advice you were given and is very thorough on this topic.
George