Using a Twido in Lookout

Just wondering if anyone has found out how to use a Twido in Lookout using some other driver that support ethernet.
We are using TWDLCAE40DRF.. and we are just trying to find away to controll it trhough lookout not really wanting to have to
stick another plc in place. Any info appreciate thanks

i think if you are on ethernet you want to use modbus TCPIP and point to the TWIDO via the IP address you have on the TWIDO
if you want to use the primary serial port you need to use a RS-485 to RS-232 adapter and use the MODBUS RTU protocol and set the
TWIDO to have that protocol turned on for port # 1.
I know this works since I am using 6 twidos over RS485 into one HMI touchscreen on MODBUS SERIAL.

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IS it possible to use ni-visa with lookout to use an instrument driver

IS it possible to use ni-visa with lookout to use an instrument driver,, or just use the insturment driver...
Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark,
NI-VISA is a driver layer that is used to communicate to Serial, GPIB, VXI and PXI platform.
In reality the drivers that you use with Lookot do not make use of this driver layer called VISA (which is used for the most part in the instrument control area).
Normally the terminology (Instrument Driver) is not used in Lookout (or in any SCADA system). So the answer for your question is no, you cannot use NI-VISA with Lookout, with Lookout you either use the drivers object that comes with the package or you use an OPC server (normaly provided by the hardware manufacturer, this hardware is normally a PLC) to provide data to Lookout.
I hope it helps
Regards
Andre Oliveira
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

How to use Logger object in Lookout 5.0

I am now trying to log data using Logger object. I use Switch1 for activating LogContinuously mode and Switch2 for breaking logging process. If I turn off Switch1, the logging process stops, its ok. My problem is if Switch1 is still on and I turn off Switch2, the logging process is still running. I seems different from what I have read from Help file. Anyone has the solution for it?Please give me an advice! Thanks a lot. Its better if someone post an example about using Logger object here for reference.
Regards,

I think the behaviour you described is correct. If you turn on switch2, the logging process will stop, even when switch1 is on. If you turn off switch2, the process will be running.
Here is an example of logger object.
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/3816
you can change the "log break" button into a switch, which can better show you how it works.
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National Instruments

Using "Choose" Statment in Lookout

To simplify, I have 3 POTS. I want to select the value of (1) of the three pots in an expression (using a radio type switch). When I use the expression CHOOSE. The values do not show up.I have tried NCHOOSE and LCHOOSE also....

Max.... is right. And if you want to use the Radio Object, you would just use it in place of Pot4, like this: nchoose(Radio1,Pot1,Pot2,Pot3)
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Configuration mail para use de mailer en lookout

Por favor su ayuda de como configuro el mail para el uso de mailer object, ya configuro este pero no tengo resultado.

Pude encontrar este artículo, el cual podría ayudarle a resolver el problema.
Lamento no poder serle de más ayuda, pero desgraciadamente, no tengo ningún tipo de experiencia o entrenamiento en el producto que usted está utilizando. Por favor haga su consulta en este foro (en inglés). Lookout es un producto cuyo soporte lo brinda únicamente la oficina de National Instruments ubicada en Shanghai, China. El foro del enlace es directamente monitoreado por ellos, por lo que si usted realiza su consulta en el mismo, podrá recibir ayuda de personal de National Instruments familiarizado con el producto.

How to run excel macros using lookout

Hi,
I want use Excel macros for generating custom reports.Is it possible to run macros using run object in lookout
thanks

Hi,
I am pretty sure you can activate macros in Excel using the Run object in Lookout. I can think of two ways you can do this:
1. You can setup your Excel to run macros on startup using the Auto_Activate method. In this case, you will just launch excel with your workbook using the Run object and that should run the macros automatically. No brainer!
2. To better control as to when the macros are run we can assign in Excel some shortcut keys for their launching. We then would need to simulate these keystrokes to launch our macros. This can be done using the SendKeys method and some scripting, WHS Scripting for instance. See this pos
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You will launch the script from the Run object and this in turn launches Excel and then simulates the keys for luanching the appropriate macros. I admit this is kinda involved, but hey it works!
Hope this helps,
Khalid

Is it possible to do motion control using Lookout

Is it possible to use activeX controls in Lookout for controlling nuDrive motor drive?

Hi,
This doesn't directly answer your question.. but will hopefully give you some ideas to explore. It's more of me thinking aloud..
Are you familiar with NI's Datalogging and Supervisory Control (DSC) module for LabVIEW? This is an excellent solution for projects involving both, a high number of IO points in an industrial setting and for high-speed measurement and acquisition. You have the benefits of LabVIEW, like DAQ, Motion and Vision, and at the same time have the Supervisory Control features like alarms, historical logging, security, networking, etc., that you want from Lookout. You can get more info' on DSC from:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=10418〈=US
I strongly recommend you take a look into this as a solution if your project i
nvolves Motion along with high number of IO points.
However, if you HAVE TO use Lookout, another approach would be to use DSC in combination with Lookout. Let the DSC module address Motion issues, and it (DSC) being an OPC Server, can be in turn communicated with Lookout (as an OPC Client).
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Khalid

How to implement Modbus Ethernet communication in Lookout, if we want to simulate the PC as PLC ?

Problem Description :
Dear Sir,
We are doing a project where we are using Lookout with
Front end Modicon PLC. The communication is by
Ethernet, using Modbus.
Since the installation is at a distant place, we wanted
to use another PC (running Lookout) to simulate the
PLC. For this, we tried to communicate
a: the server Lookout PC running Modbus Ethernet mode of
Modbus object as Master
b: with another PC (for simulating the PLC) running
Modbus Slave
We did not get any communication. (we have given the
details of what we have done, at the end of this email)
We also tried connecting the above 2 PC's as
a: the server Lookout PC running Modbus Serial mode of
Modbus object as Master
b: with another PC (for simulating the PLC) running
Modbus Slave object
Again we did not get any communication.
If instead of PC (b) we connect the Modbus simulator to
PC (a), there is no problem in communicating
Please let us know how to go about establishing the
communication between 2 PC's using Modbus serial,
and Modbus Ethernet. A detailed step by step procedure
would help us a lot.
Thanking you
Warm Regards
Raja Mahbubani
Procedure of our trial with ethernet.
This is what we have done in detail.
On PC A:
We created an object (Pot) and connected it to
the modbus data member of the modbus object say 40001. In the
properties of the modbus object we selected modbus ethernet mode
of communication and in the IP address field we wrote the IP
address of the machine B to which we are trying to communicate
i.e. 152.63.50.2.
On PC B: we tried the following two methods
Trial 1 : We created a modbus slave object and
inserted an expression for the same data memeber to which the
object was connected hoping to get the value of the pot of machine
A on machine B.
Trial 2 : We created a modbus object on machine B and we wrote
the IP address of machine A and inserted an expression for the
same datamemeber to which the object was connected hoping to get
the value of the pot of machine A on machine B.
NI Software : Lookout
Version : 4.0.1 or 4.5
OS : Windows 98
NI Hardware : N/A
Drivers : N/A
Other Hardware/Instruments : N/A
CPU : Pentium
RAM : 64
Vendor : S-Tech
Customer Information :
Raja Mahbubani
Theta Controls
IN
[email protected]
Ph: (+91) 20 4222556/7

The ModbusSlave which comes with Lookout currently supports only Serial communication. So, you cannot use Ethernet between your two PCs. At least not with Modbus Master-Slave setup (if you must speak Ethernet between the two PCs, IPASCII object lets you do that, but then you'll need to implement your own protocol).
Since all you want to do is simulate a Modbus PLC on a PC, you can use the Serial mode of communication for now. And later on just modify the Object in your Server Lookout to use the Ethernet mode.
For setting up a Serial Modbus Slave, use a null-modem cable between the two PCs (lines 2 and 3 are swapped). On your PC 'B,' create the Modbus Slave object with the right COM port for that PC. And on your PC 'A' create the regular Modbus Object as if you w
ere connecting to the Modbus Simulator box. The only difference here is the cable. The simulator box uses a straight-through cable whereas the Slave needs a null-modem cable.
Hope this helps.
Rgds,
Khalid

Lookout 6.1 build 27 OPCClient does not launch the Opto 22 OPC SEVER

In the same computer, with the same Lookout 6.1 a few weeks ago, I had communication between Opto 22 OPC Server and Lookout using the OPCClient in Lookout. Settings in OPCClient were for a really fast scanning rate (50 milliseconds) and de deadband was set to zero in order to see all the inputs changes with the best resolution. These I/O units are Opto PAC EB2 brains, and the OPC Server belongs to the suite of PAC 8.0 (I tried also 8.1) of Opto 22. The I/O Configuration and the OPC configuration was done with the same OPTO22 software version.This was a test done in order to see if I can get 20 samples per second from all the I/O's. It did go well, even a little faster than required. It was informed to my bosses, then I had the 'go' for the project I'm working on. That was the main concern of everyone here; the fast communication between Lookout an the Hardware.
The computer runs windows XP SP2, has two ethernet ports; one with dynamic IP address on motherboard (for the company network), and a PCI ethernet cad with a fixed IP address in the range of the IP addresses of the Opto 22 brains dedicated to talk to these I/O units.
I called first to the tech support of OPTO 22. They shown me how to double check and to launch manually the OPC Server, there is a tester software for it. The OPC Server was launched and I saw it in the task manager under processes tab.
When I create the object in Lookout, it does not see the server, neither launches the server. I can see the data members of the OPCClient, but I can not see the variables or tags from the server.
Again, it did work a few weeks before in the same PC, with the same Lookout and the same Opto 22 as a test. Now I need to add the OPCClient to my application and make the corresponding connections, but I can't.
This is becoming a kind of hurry, time is running and the application can not get to work.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

When the OPC Client object is created, I can select the OPTO22OPCSever.2 in the dropdown list of servers. It is there, and the object can be configured normally. I must see in the object explorer (expanding the OPCClient object) the tags configured in OPTO 22 Server,but they are not there. The Client object only shows its data members. Once Lookout is open with the OPCClient, the task manager/services does not show Opto22OPCSever.exe running, that tells me that Lookout's client does not launch the server and that's why it does not show the tags configured in the server.
I have uninstalled Opto 22 software and re-installed, I called Opto 22 tech support and they shown me a way to launch manually the server, even how to monitor some of the values of its tags. I saw the Opto22OPCServer.exe in the processes list of the task manager, I read values of some tags with the OPC tester, To me, the server side is working fine.
Then, I installed Lookout .During this process there was an error 1922 and a message saying that files mssgl.mdf, mssgl.mdl, and mssgl.ldl are not found, These files must be located in C:\ Program Files\ National Instruments\Lookout 6.1\ Database. During the first installation of Lookout 6.1, I followed the instructions in the README file, where some specific commands must be typed in the run windows and executed to create the database properly. It was done, no errors were displayed during the first installation.
The thing is that this OPCClient/OPCServer DID WORK before. For some reason it does not work NOW.
this computer didn't have any previous version of Lookout installed, there is no possible old database messing here.
Again; the computer runs windows XP SP2, it has a dual core processor.

How do you count I/O points in Lookout?

I'm fully aware of how to count points in a SCADA system when the system is straight forward. But I'm a bit confused when it comes to using ASCII Text object to bring in a string of data that contains ALL info at a particular station. Or using DDE to connect Lookout to MS Access to bring data in.
My main concern is to purchase the correct number of I/O for a particular system.

If you connect to Lookout OPC Server, and read it's pot, switch or non-driver object, it doesn't count the IO. But if other application read the Lookout driver object's datamember through Lookout OPC Server, it will be counted.
If you use OPClient object to connect other OPC Server, the connection will be counted. The OPClient object is considered as the driver object.
Ryan Shi
National Instruments

How know 1 of 18 process in lookout is run or not?

How know 1 of 18 process in lookout is run or not?
I've use monitor object, but some times work some times not. I try with absolute adress, relatif adress,
computer adress...
tanks for your help

You can use the built in Lookout functions qgood and qbad such as:
EXP_Process_Running= new DelayOn (qgood(\\ComputerName\ProcessName\FolderInProcess\Object), 00:30);
EXP_Process_Stopped= new DelayOff (qbad(\\ComputerName\ProcessName\FolderInProcess\Object), 00:30);
or you can use a monitor object:
MonitorProcess = new Monitor (\\ComputerName\ProcessName\FolderInProcess\Object);
Monitor1.Delay= 30;
The delays in the above examples filter out bogus signal fluctuations to insure the process file being checked is actually running or not. Since it would be of little value to place the function or monitor object inside the process file to be checked, you will have to use absolute or computer relative path to another process file. The difference betwee
n them is this. If the process file is on a different computer, the DNS computer name or IP address must be used following the double backslashes (\\ComputerName\ProcessName\FolderInProcess\Object). If the process file is on the same computer, this can be simplified by using a dot following the double backslashes (\\.\ProcessName\FolderInProcess\Object). Hope this helps!

Options to edit historical data in Citadel database (Lookout 6.0)

We are running a new installation of Lookout 6.0
I am looking for ways to edit the historical data that is found in the Citadel database. For example, if an alarm clears before I can enter comments, I would like to go to the database after the fact and enter comments regarding the alarm.
We are running this on XP pro operating system.
Thanks,
Alan

Hi Alan,
I am afraid this will be difficult, if at all possible. Citadel data, by design, can be written to (and edited?) only by the product using it, i.e., Lookout, LabVIEW-DSC, etc. Outside of these products we can only retrieve the data -- not edit or add to it. As you are probably aware, some of the options for writing user data (as opposed to IO/system data) from within these products is to use the Logger Object in Lookout and the VI-Server approach in DSC (http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/5a921a403438390f86256b9700809a53).
So, I guess one option is to "annotate" / write additional data separately using the Logger Object, referencing the Alarms somehow.
Having said that, I believe Lookout 6.x (Citadel5) uses MSDE for storing Alarm data (other data is still stored in the native Citadel database). You could explore this -- try opening the MSDE database from Query Analyzer, from instance, and see if it can be edited. I haven't tried this.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
-Khalid

How do you install Spreadsheet object in lookout?

I was wondering if anyone can help me, i am very new to Lookout. I want to use spreadsheet objects in Lookout. I have been given some examples to show how to use it, but i am unsure where these files should be stored. i have stored them in the lookout directory, but nothing happened, do i need to compile the files?
any help or direction would be much appreciated.

Please don't edit the codes in .lks file. Everything is done in Lookout software, not the notepad!
The attached pdf is a good manual to learn some basic programming.
If you want to create a new pot, goto menu bar, Object->Create... select Pot, and then do the configuration.
If you want to add or change the data field of the spreadsheet object, follow the attached instructions. Select (new field), right click on the yellow bar, choose the pot or object you want to log, then click Save.
Ryan Shi
National Instruments
Attachments:
350379e.pdf ‏570 KB
untitled1.JPG ‏109 KB
untitled2.JPG ‏48 KB

How To Stop Lookout Web Client Crashing IE Web Browser

Hi,
I am using Web Client with Lookout. My problem is I can only load a panel within Internet Explorer once. If I reload the URL within the same session then Internet Explorer crashes.
Can anyone offer me advice to fix this problem please?
Software is as follows:
- Lookout V 6.0 (build 5)
- Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0.28
- Web Server: Tomcat 5.5.7
The steps I took are as follows:
1. Created Process
2. Set up File-> Web Server Options->Export Directory to:
c:\telemetrysms\webapps\root\user\fishfarmlive\
(where “c:\telemetrysms\webapps” is Tomcat webapps folder)
Set up server URL to:
http://HOSTNAME/user/fishfarmlive/
(where “HOSTNAME” is the server name)
3. Export Web Server Files
4. Start IE and open web page. My panel displays correctly (with live data), although the only alarm Lookout displays is “The remote position source is not writable”.
5. HOWEVER, when I reload the page in IE the browser will always go blank for several seconds and then crash (with no error message).
Furthermore…
As a test I created a simple test process with nothing but one panel containing a single line of static text. This simple project also crashes.
This computer also has Lookout 5.1 installed. And projects created in 5.1 only crash the browser very occasionally.
Any suggestions (about the crashes or the missing alarms) would be greatly appreciated?
Thanks.
Regards Brett Sheeran

Brett,
I have some info for you regarding the web client. I am including links to two documents that have information that will help you with your problem. The first document is good info about developing a web client application and the second has information directly pertaining to the IE crash that is occurring. It also has other troubleshooting information. I would also recommend checking the firewall on the computer. It windows security settings also have to be set to low in order for web client to communicate correctly.
Deploying a Lookout Application
Lookout Web Client Troubleshooting
Regards,
Danny G
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

How do I clear a TextEntry control programatically with Lookout 4.0.1?

I am trying to put together an entry form using TextEntry objects in Lookout 4.0.1 build 51. I want to clear out the previous text from the TextEntry controls when the panel activates. This was an easy thing to do in Lookout 3.8 but the nature of the Remote field has changed and I don't think I understand how it works. Thanks...

You can clear the TextEntry box with the 'reset' datamember. Connect to it either Panel1.active or Panel1.visible depending on your specifc needs (and where Panel1 is your panel).
E.g.,
TextEntry1.reset = Panel1.visible
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Rgds,
Khalid

Using a Twido in Lookout

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