Having trouble? (Tutorial)

You've created I/O tags, assigned the addresses and drawn the tags on a page. But, nothing is happening! Let's try to figure out why...

 

Are the widgets linked to tags?

If this symbol is blinking at the top of your page, then no. At least one widget on the page is not linked to a tag and that's why you don't see the correct value. Use the Tag Links Panel to find out which and then link it to a tag.

 

Check the communication chain, one link at a time...

A broken link in the communication chain is usually the source of the problem. Check all of the following in order:

Can your computer reach the equipment?

Can you do a ping or use any other method to verify that there is in fact a connection?
In this example, check that the simulator application is running and (if it is running on another workstation) that your computer can see that workstation.

 Check the properties of your port tag.

Does it have the correct address?

Does it have the correct port number for the equipment? TCP/IP Port Number

Does it have a value, indicating an error code? TCP/IP Error Codes

Check the properties of your driver tag.

Is it linked to your port tag?

Is it the correct choice of driver for the equipment?

Check the driver tag's value in the Tag Browser. If no value at all, look to your I/O tags. If a value other than zero, look up the code in the VTScada documentation.

Check the properties of each I/O tag.

Is it linked to your driver?

Does it have the correct address?

I see a value, but it's wrong.

Perhaps this equipment needs a different suffix on the address to set the value type. Data Suffixes for Tag I/O Addressing

Again, that doesn't apply to the simulator (so far) but it's worth checking.

Assuming that we're talking about analog I/O tags, check the scaling. I/O and Calculations tag: Scaling tab

While you're there, check the deadband value on the I/O tab.

 

I have values on the page, but nothing in the Historical Data Viewer or Reports page

Has the application been running for longer than a few seconds?

 

It seems to be hung. It's running, but doesn't respond to me.

Odds are that you have a modal window open, taking all your clicks and keystrokes. Minimizing the Tag Browser window, especially while configuring tag properties, is a typical cause.