Communication problem

abshhkc

Hope someone can suggest if there's much more diagnostics I need to do, and the best course of action I should take.

We have a Modero and NI3100 in New Jersey. One day, it stopped communicating with our projectors. I'm trying to diagnose everything remotely, so that makes it difficult.

It transpired that in the protected setup of the AMX touch panel, the device number is 10001. However, when they loaded the config manager on the NetLinx, the touch panel device number was listed as 31001.

The customer changed the touch panel number to 310001, and the connection lights goes to green. Hurray.

BUT...

The modero is still not communicating with the projector, even though there's communication being detected.

The customer alos noticed there are 4 devices shown in the configuration manager of device tree (NI-Master, NI-3100and NX-CV7, Virtual), two of which (NI-Master and NX-CV&) have IP information. The other two (NI3100 and Virtual) have erros getting the IP address.

Woudl anyone be able to shed a light? It's been suggested thast something internal has been corrupted. If so, I'm concerned a repair won't fix this. The people who wrote the original program has gone bust.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

DHawthorne

31001 is a virtual device number. If a physical device was combined with the virtual, it's going to show up in the online tree as the virtual device, but that doesn't mean changing the actual device number is the right thing to do. It may cause other issues you can't foresee ... most notably screwing up any ports that aren't combined to the virtual in the program.

Virtual devices are not supposed to have an IP, they "slave" off the master and share that ... I would say the problem is the master (NI-3100) not having an IP is the issue. It could be as simple as their was a static IP added, and a manual DNS server entry, but the ISP changed their DNS server address. I get around this by using the router address as a DNS entry (or you could use a public one, like Google's DNS server at 8.8.8.8).

In short, double check the network info on the master. The fact that you can talk to it shows it's not completely broken, but if the network settings aren't right, it may not be able to find all the other devices on your network.

Auser

abshhkc wrote: »

The customer changed the touch panel number to 310001, and the connection lights goes to green. Hurray.

Actually, the device number 31001 (not 310001) is in the region for ICSNet, DMS and IMS panels per the TN at http://www.amx.com/techsupport/techNote.asp?id=310.

Would that number have been 33001 by any chance? Making this change isn't likely to have helped resolve the issue - it's more likely a reboot when the device number was changed that made it look as though this change was effective in restoring communications between the panel and master.

I would highly recommend changing it back before trying any further troubleshooting.

abshhkc wrote: »

The modero is still not communicating with the projector, even though there's communication being detected.

It is important to note that the Modero TP DOES NOT communicate with the projector, it simple sends button presses to the NetLinx control system (master) which in turn communicates with the projector based on what it is programmed to do.

In order to help further we need additional information:

- Has the customer tried rebooting (disconnecting and reconnecting the power to) the master?

- Is the control system controlling the projector via a direct wired serial connection, Ethernet network connection or (heaven forbid) IR?

- If the projector is being controlled serially, are the corresponding serial port TX and RX lights on the control system's front panel flashing when it should be controlling the projector?

abshhkc

Communication problem

Thanks guys for the reponses.

So am I right that the devicvse numbers dno't have to match? I'll ask the customer to set the devices numbers back to what they were.

The touch panel have been rebooted.

Sorry and yes, the modero is not connected directly tot he projectors. The projectors are connectoed to the NI3100 via RS232 ports. When we try to send a command to the projector nothing happens. The TX and TR lights associated to the port on the NI3100 don't light up.

We do suspect it is a network issue, as the NI3100 and MOdero are connected to the customer's network. But we found no obvious network conflicts or errors.

Thanks

DHawthorne

abshhkc wrote: »

Thanks guys for the reponses.

So am I right that the devicvse numbers dno't have to match? I'll ask the customer to set the devices numbers back to what they were.

The device number has to be the same number used in the program, period. A device not defined in the program can still connect to the master (ie., green light), it just won't do anything. Put it back to 10001, that is almost certainly how it is programmed. The online tree is supposed to reflect what is actually assigned, not what should be assigned. If your online tree showed one number, and the panel wasn't set to the same number, something is either very, very wrong, or you aren't really seeing the panel as that device.

Auser is correct ... I had my number range wrong (I really should refrain from posting when half asleep), and 31001 is not a virtual device number, but it isn't in the auto-assign range either, unless that is what is used for ICSNet devices auto-assign. But that would suggest the panel isn't using the network to connect, but an ICS port ... which I don't think is possible with a CV-7 (could be, but I don't remember it having that port). So the whole 31001 thing is a red herring. Make the panel device match what is in the program.

For what it's worth, I have, very rarely, seen device numbers change spontaneously. Every time I've seen it, it was connected to a power failure where the power restoration was sloppy ... part on, off again, then on ... things like that, or a brownout in between, causing the device to partially boot then reset again. They simply don't always recover if the boot process is interrupted at a critical point, but it is really difficult for that to happen randomly. I've never seen it happen twice in the same job, though I imagine if there is something very wrong with the panel, it's possible.

Hedberg

In order to try to figure out what's going on, you should first try to see if you can get your hands on the code for the master. It may be stored on the master and accessible through Netlinx Studio or maybe you can track down whoever programmed it. It's very likely that the master is programmed for TP as physical device 10001 and very unlikely that it's 31001, so if you can't get the code, that's your best bet to try. If you get the TP communicating as 10001 (as you should be able to if you can get a green light indication with 31001) and it still doesn't work, you can try using either Netlinx Studio diagnostics or telnet or another telnet program and try to send appropriate strings to the projector through the port it's connected to -- watch the strings to and fro with diagnostic notifications. If you can manipulate the projector by sending strings through the port but the TP isn't causing the program to do it, you're probably out of luck unless you can get the code. The program on the master may be corrupted or there may be a hardware problem, but it's going to be hard to troubleshoot unless you have the source code.

Auser

Auser wrote: »

- Has the customer tried rebooting (disconnecting and reconnecting the power to) the master?

OK, you've told us that the touch panel has been rebooted, but how about the master (ie. the NI3100 control system).

Try that once the touch panel has been set back to device 10001 and let us know how you get on.