Vision builder AI shared variable sudenly damaged

Dear Ni users.
Description of aplication.
We use NI vision builder AI together with siemens WINCC software. We use shared variables acros NI shared variable engine, so read and write some parameters over WiNCC.
The aplication witch was working for more then 1 year, and sudenly we have noticed that we cannot se NOT acces shared varables in WINCC.
After examine what can be wrong we faund that we cannot so no tags from NI shared variable engine, so we think that somehow something crashed?
Do you have any similar cases in future. We cannot acces into any shared variables accros NI distributed system manager?
SEE THE ATACHMENT
Under localhost the Vision Builder is mising, like in this white paper from Ni.
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-18647
Thank you for help
Attachments:
Zajeta slika.JPG ‏34 KB

Hi Bostjan_1234,
What is the hardware involved in this setup? Do you use smart cameras?
Have you tried the standard steps: restarting the system, defining a new tag/variable to see if you can see it in Distributed System Manager?
I am looking forward wih great interests in your reply.
Best regards,
IR

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Kind Regards, Christian
Message Edited by Christian_M on 01-05-2006 09:11 AM
Message Edited by Christian_M on 01-05-2006 09:11 AM

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Attachments:
1DImage.png ‏4 KB
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Attachments:
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I am developing an application in LabVIEW that uses network shared variables to transmit data between two PC's on the same subnet. The shared variables work fine when running the VI's in development mode, however, when i build the vi's into an executable I find that they no longer work. Here is what I have found so far:
I deploy the shared variable library on the publisher machine (also happens to be the development machine) through an invoke node in the executable. NI distributed system manager confirms that this does deploy and indeed updates as it should.
For the executable on the subscriber PC I created a second shared variable library (same project) with the same shared variables and bound them to the respective shared variables from the first library by selecting enable aliasing, then bind to PSP URL and browsing to the shared variable I wish to bind it to (e.g. \\hallnet-ellm2\shared variable library\serial Number). The machines listed under browse were listed by name so when I tried this initially and it did not work I manually changed the name of my machine in the URL box to the IP address of the publisher hoping that would fix it in case the subscriber could not resolve the publishers machine alias. So now my bind URL read \\192.168.0.1\shared variable library\serial Number.
As part of the executable on the subscriber I deploy this second shared variable library. NI distributed system manager confirms that this deploys but under quality for an individual variable it has a list of issues (see attached) and the bound variable is not updating. At this point the publisher shared variables are still functioning fine. By clicking on 'edit variable' I can see that the variable on the subscriber is still bound but the PSP URL is now \\localhost\shared variable library\serial number. Changing the PSP URL on the subscriber to \\192.168.0.1\shared variable library\serial number enables the variable to update as expected.However by this time my executable has already picked up the error and does not function.
I think that the issue lies with the bind URL used on the subscriber as for some reason it does not keep the binding configured in the project and instead changes to 'localhost'. Why is this? Should it not stay bound to the address specified in the project?
I have tried changing the IP addresses in the aliases file so that
[My Computer]
My Computer=localhost
becomes
[My Computer]
My Computer=ip of local machine
This did not help.
The shared variable libraries are included in the build spec to go into the support files directory and they are successfully deployed from there on both publisher and subscriber.
I am using LabVIEW 8.6 on Windows XP
Thanks for any help you may be able to offer,
Lee
Attachments:
distributed system manager.JPG ‏74 KB

Hi Lee,
I hope you are well. Thank you for your post. Your application sounds very interesting.
Looking at your issue I was wondering, have you tried lowering your firewalls, as this may be causing the problem.
Also, another option would be to setup a private network. Do you have access to any routers that you could use to link the two machines independent of your IT's infrastructure?
The other thing to try is two other computers entirely. Again, it would be ideal to take them off the network you are on, but it's something to try if my prior suggestion doesn't work. It should work on the original two machines though, and it's likely that different computers won't solve your problems because I suspect the network.
Remember that the client variables must know the location of the variables on the server, so you can't move the server exe around without changing this value.
Make sure to set the network location in the "Bind to Source" option for the client variables.
It is also possible to write a separate piece of code to install on every machine that is responsible for deploying the library and by doing so eliminate the need for programmatically deploying the variables in the original application. However, this won't really help you, because the variables you use in the application have to be the same as the ones deployed in the library, so if you change the library, they'll no longer be linked and they won't receive data. You'd have to create a separate exe for every binding source you wanted to link to, and then have a second, known library for the sake of communication locally on the computer between the ‘deployer’ and the actual application. The main application could then be assigned the responsibility of launching the correct ‘deployer’' if it sees it needs to switch to a different variable binding source. This method is not the most streamlined or effective, but it might work.
Just to let you know, you will need to use the DSC toolkit.
Please find below some knowledge base links that I think you will find helpful in your application.
Using Shared Variables in Executables
How do I Programmatically Change the Data Binding Source for Shared Variables?
I hope this information helps and if you can give these suggestions a go and let me know how you get on, that would be great.
Kind regards,
Prashant M
Applications Engineer
NI UK & Ireland

How can I use an Access front end and Access button to control a LabView Shared variable boolean?

My company has invested a lot of money on the office network to write many many access databases and front ends. I'm looking for a way to tie a button on an access front end to toggle a LabView boolean shared variable to notify me when they changed something on their side of the network. I'm not seeing anything that helps on a web or forum search. They don't like the idea of a separate labview control that they have to push a button on to let me know.
Thanks
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Patrick,
While this is not the intended purpose of Network-Published Shared Variables, you might be able to accomplish this by writing separate accessor VIs for reading from and writing to the variable, making sure to wire the inputs and outputs. Then, you could build a DLL, making sure that you include the accessor VIs as Exported VIs and include the DLL Library in the Always Included section of the DLL Build Specifications. During this process, you will define the function prototype, which will provide the function call, required parameters, and return values. Once the DLL is created, you can then call it and its functions from another programming language (C, C++, C#, VB, etc.). This may or may not work, but it is the only way that I can think of at this point. I have included some references that may help you in this process.
Building a Shared Library in LabVIEW (White Paper)
Calling LabVIEW VIs from Other Programming Languages (White Paper)
Calling LabVIEW DLL From C# (Forum with Examples)
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Mike Watts
Product Marketing - Modular Instruments

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