Devices Monitor

Overview

This page introduces three essential diagnostic tools for device monitoring:

• Module Information: Provides insights into module operation.
• Property Watch: Allows access to Tags and internal properties.
• Trace Window: Displays vital system messages.

Runtime Diagnostic

The Runtime Diagnostic provides additional from the Module Information, Property Watch, and the Trace Window. To access the Diagnostic tolls, access Runtime → Runtime Diagnostics.

You can also access the mentioned feature after you start the solution. In this case, select the desired diagnostic feature in the Startup window.

Module Information

The Module Information tool provides information about the operation of the modules. Choose the devices module and a specific channel. You will see information regarding the function of the communication channel. The "Read Groups Information" is essential because it provides information about the virtual reading groups, the run time of each item, the quantity of the readings, and the readings that have failed. It also reports on the code and date/time of the last error. 

These are the typical steps to use the Module Information tool:

1. Go to Read Groups Information to look at the number of successful and failed communication events and quickly identify the communication blocks.
2. Suppose you have systematic errors in all blocks or status codes with negative values. In that case, it typically means you cannot access the remote device. Check if the node address is correct.
3. If you have specific blocks with systematic errors, verify the Tags and addresses that are connected to the blocks. Use the TraceWindow with the Device information to collect information about the communication errors.
4. For some protocols, like OPC, the discarded items will show as the wrong address in the configuration.

Remember that you can only READ from a field device when an Enterprise application is running in test mode. This makes it worthwhile to run the application with ONLINE CONFIGURATION enabled because you do not need to start and stop the driver when modifying the configuration. You can modify PLC addresses, AccessTypes, and most of the applications, and you can see the results in real-time on your running application. You can use the Startup window or the PropertyWatch tool to start and stop only one module instead of restarting the entire runtime system. 

Property Watch

Property Watch is a diagnostic tool used to access the Tags and internal properties of the system for reading or writing. Type the property's name in the Object column, and you will find its value in the Value column.

For example, the value becomes available in the screen shown below after selecting  Device.Channel. Other properties are also displayed for the selected object on the right side.

Trace Window

The Trace Window tool displays system messages in a data grid interface. If you enable the module devices in the settings, information will be available about the status of reads, writes, unsolicited input, TX frames (sent), and RX frames (received). For ControlLogix devices, it is essential to use this tool, as the system will present the invalid addresses on the configuration here. You can see the data in the data grid or save it to a file. It is also possible to configure a Tag in Object Name and click the Add button to display a menu to select that object and include it in the monitoring.

 If you click the Settings button in the configuration dialog, you can select which message types and modules to display. 

Error Codes

For the Module Information and Property Watch tools, there are negative error codes that represent specific messages that can help to find the root cause of the error.

• On Module Information, refer to the Last Error Code column.

• On Property Watch, refer to @Device.Channel.ChannelName.Status.

The following table lists all Error codes with their descriptions:

In this section: