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Using Diagnostic Tools on Devices

After Once you start the project in the Startup window, select one of the diagnostic tools. These are: PropertyWatch

• Property Watch (Watch)

• .
• Trace Window (Trace)

• .
• Module Information (Info). 

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You can also start the diagnostic tools on the Runtime → Diagnostics and Runtime → Startup pages by left-clicking the desired tool's icon. If menus are enabled for the display, you can also access the tools menu. Image Removed 

Module Information

The Module Information tool provides information about the operation of the modules. If you choose Choose the devices module and a specific channel, you . You will see information regarding the function of the communication channel.   The "Read Groups Information" is important 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. 

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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

1. to

1. identify the communication blocks quickly.

1. Suppose you have systematic errors in all of the 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

1. correct.
2. 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.
3. For some protocols, like OPC, the discarded items will show as

1. the wrong

1. address in the configuration.

Keep in mind that you can only READ from a field device when an Enterprise application is running in test mode. This makes it useful 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 applicationapplications, 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 name of the property in the Object column, and its value will be found in the Value column.Image Removed

For example, in the screen shown abovebelow, select Tag.Coils or  Device.Channel.modbus.Status . The and the value of these objects will be shown. To the right side, additional properties are displayed for the selected object. 

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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).

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For ControlLogix devices, it is very important to use this tool, as the system will present here the invalid addresses on the configuration. If you click the settings button in the configuration dialog, you can select which message types and modules to display. You can see the data in the data grid or save it to a file. It is also possible to configure a tag in ObjectName, and click the Add button to display a menu to select that object and include it in the monitoring.

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Error Codes

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

• On Module Information, refer to the LastErrorCode column.

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

See below the list of negative error codes:

The following table lists all Error codes with their descriptions:

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).

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When checking the devices CheckBox in the Settings, enable only the ERROR, INFO, and Warning information. Do not enable the Debug information, or you will create too much data. For ControlLogix devices, it is very important to use this tool, as the system will present here the invalid addresses on the configuration.

If you click the settings button in the configuration dialog, you can select which message types and modules to display. You can see the data in the data grid or save it to a file. It is also possible to configure a tag in ObjectName, and click the Add button to display a menu to select that object and include it in the monitoring.

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