Dynamic Images, Absolute Positioning, and Refresh

Reese Jacobs

I am using some dynamic images on various G4 panels where the image is selected as the bitmap for a button and I have specified absolute positioning of the image. The image in this case is a weather radar image and I used absolute positioning to trim off the top portion of the image (using a -20 y offset). When the image is first displayed, it is positioned correctly in the TP button at the specified offset. However, anytime a G4 panel ^RFR dynamic image refresh command is sent to the panel for this image, the absolute positioning is lost and the image is from that point always positioned at (x,y) of (0,0) although the characteristics of the button/image have not changed.

Refreshing the image within TPD4 always displays the image at the correct y offset. The problem only seems to exist within the panel's handling of the image.

Has anyone else observed this behavior or seen similar problems? I have not spoken with Tech Support yet and I thought I would find out if anyone had similar experiences using dynamic images. I am still using TPD4 2.3.1. Build 353 and Modero firmware 2.46.xx. Thanks,

Reese

Chip Moody

Do you have to issue the refresh from the Netlinx code? Having the panel do it automatically doesn't work?

- Chip

DHawthorne

Admitedly, I haven't used a lot of dynamic images, but when I have I didn't have to refresh it in code at all, just the settings in TPD4 itself. I'll second the motin - are you sure you need the ^RFR command at all?

Reese Jacobs

Dynamic Images, Absolute Positioning, and Refresh

Chip/Dave,

You can certainly set the refresh the rate for the dynamic image to something other than 0 and let the panel handle it for you. I am not sure in this case if that makes a difference with regard to the positioning problem but I will experiment to see if it does. In this case, I have an image that is only updated once per hour or less frequently and I refresh the image as part of a timeline that also gets weather forecast information on a periodic basis. The refresh can also occur as the result of a button press. In this case, I just decided to control the refresh programmatically for efficiency purposes.

I will however try letting the panel do the refresh to see if it makes a difference with respect to the positioning issue and let you know.

Reese

Reese Jacobs

Dynamic Images, Absolute Positioning, and Refresh

Hey Guys,

I modified the refresh rate on the dynamic image in question from 0 to 60 letting the touchpanel do the image refresh automatically. The result is the same, using Absolute Positioning in this case with a Negative Y Offset only works the first time the image is loaded. Any subsequent refresh, whether done by the touchpanel or through a ^RFR send command causes the image position to revert back to a Y position of 0.

Reese

[Deleted User]

I have a similar setup for displaying weather maps in a test panel I have here. The difference is that, instead of using absolute positioning, I set the bitmap justification to bottom-middle and sized the button such that the top of the image was cropped off. I've never had any problems with the image refresh throwing off its position in this case. You might want to give it a try in case there is, in fact, a firmware bug causing this.

Reese Jacobs

Dynamic Images, Absolute Positioning, and Refresh

Hey Rob,

Thanks for the info. In this case, I am trying to crop off the top and the bottom of the image so positoning at the top, middle, or bottom of the button gets me part of the way there but not quite perfect. This is why I switched over to absolute positioning since it allows me to specifically control the amount of cropping that takes place at the top and the bottom of the image. I guess I will talk to Tech Support about reporting the issue. It seems to be panel firmware related although I have only tried it on a TPI/4 so far. I will be trying it on the MVP-8400 later this week to see if the problem occurs on that panel also.

Reese