FTAlarm monitors alarm conditions specified by the user across multiple devices. Alarms are entered in a spreadsheet format with up to 3150 Alarms per Alarm sheet. Triggered alarms can be logged, printed, audible wave and/or flashed to the screen. Configuring FTAlarm Communications.
New Features in FTAlarm, v1.20
Added support for complex expressions.
Added email response.
Added support for cut, copy, and paste of alarms in the alarm sheet.
Added support for importing and exporting alarms.
Added print of alarm configuration.
Added alarm status and alarm sheet sorting. Alarm status messages can be sorted online and offline by alarm tag, condition, severity or timestamp by clicking on the header control or selecting the appropriate menu item. Alarms in the alarm sheet can be sorted offline only by tag or severity when clicking on the header control or by selecting the appropriate menu item.
Added prevention of using a '.' character in the device name because this is now used as a delimeter when entering a complex alarm equation.
Added prevention of using a double quote character in a user name because this is now used as a delimeter when importing and exporting alarms.
Added "Acknowledge All" button to the prompt acknowledge modeless dialog.
Changed Simple equation to match Complex equation by adding spaces and double equal (==) vs. single equal (=).
By request, changed the default colors for the alarm status messages.
When an alarm file is loaded, it will hold the path and file names for the config file (.CFG) and database file(s) (.MDB). If these files have been moved from their original location, a warning comes up allowing the user to browse for the files. We now perform a second search on the file(s) in the same directory as the file that was loaded before displaying the warning.
The command line option "/online" was added to be used in conjunction with a .ALM file name so that demo files can be automatically loaded in online mode.
The default medium low alarm color was hard to see and was therefore changed to light blue. The default communication error color (BLUE) was changed to brown so that it doesn't match the low alarm default color.
Solutions in FTAlarm, v1.20
Corrected problem where loading a file while online with another file can cause an overwrite, especially if the file being loaded has more alarms than the file we are online with.
Corrected problem where Prev/Next Alarm was inaccessible via keyboard when Next/Prev is grayed but highlighted.
Corrected problem where pasting past the last row in the alarm sheet can potentially cause an exception.
Corrected problem where scrolling to cut by dragging mouse beyond window boundary did not work.
Corrected problem getting a lockup when trying to delete a device that's being used in an alarm.
Corrected problem where errors returned from our server that are > 100 chars can cause an exception.
Corrected problem where doing apply after changing an alarm's simple expression, disables keyboard usage in the Edit of alarm dialog.
Corrected problem where if we load a file into FTAlarm upon startup via the command line or double clicking in Windows Explorer, we cannot save to this file and the .cfg filename is incorrect.
Corrected possible overwrite when adding alarm status messages to the lower pane.
Corrected problem where it's possible to get deadlock and potential database errors when going online and compacting a database while clearing out old database messages.
Corrected problem where alarm database warning that database already exists doesn't display correctly in certain display modes including 800 x 600.
Corrected problem where F1 key does not bring up help.
Corrected problem where the calendar controls within the alarm status (lower pane) tab under setup options can disappear shortly after selecting them when a "flash window" response is being executed.
Corrected problem where if the current order or number of registered servers does not match a file that has been loaded, there could be a problem reading alarm values. i.e. the user could go online but it would appear that they are still in offline mode.
Corrected problem where when modifying a simple alarm operand via the edit operand dialog, the selected server in the combo box may not represent the configured server.
Corrected problem where if we load a file that has a server that is no longer registered, we receive an error even if no devices need to communicate to the server and we are unable to use the file.
Corrected problem where when the system display is set to use large fonts, the red values within the alarm equation in the upper pane can get cut off.
Corrected problem where using non-standard window font sizes can cause the alarm sheet rows to become crowded and possibly overlap text.
General Features and Overview for FTBatch
FTBatch is a stand-alone component of ControlShop. It allows multiple numeric values (called batches or recipes) to be written to one or more devices (PLCs) at a time. These values are displayed in the row and column spread sheet-like cells. Each Batch Sheet can have up to 255 rows and 255 columns. Each row of a Batch Sheet represents one batch. Each column represents one address in one device. All the values in a batch (row) are downloaded at one time. Although each can write to multiple addresses in multiple devices, each column refers to only one address in one device. These values can be entered manually or read from the numeric fields of external user-defined Access database files. The external Access files are named externalfile.MDB.
A Batch Sheet can communicate with multiple servers. Each server may include multiple devices. Multiple devices can be written to as long as the device belongs to a server to which the Batch Sheet window is communicating. One or more devices must be added to a server before any addresses can be added to a Batch Sheet window.
New Features in FTBatch, v1.02
When a batch file is loaded, it will hold the path and file names for the config file (.CFG) and doc. Database file(s) (.MDB). If these files have been moved from their original location, a warning comes up allowing the user to browse for the files. We now perform a second search on the file(s) in the same directory as the file that was loaded before displaying the warning.
Solutions in FTBatch, v1.02
Corrected problem where if we load a file into FTBatch upon startup via the command line or double clicking in Windows Explorer, the .cfg filename is incorrect.
Corrected problem where F1 key does not bring up help.
Corrected problem where errors returned from our server that are > 100 chars can cause an exception.
Corrected problem where if we load a file that has a server that is no longer registered, we receive an error even if no devices need to communicate to the server and we are unable to use the file.
New Features in FTLogger, v1.42
We now prevent the user from using a '.' character in the device name because this is now used as a delimeter when entering a complex event.
Added support for complex expressions.
Added support for printing logged database files.
Added ability to allow user to limit number of status messages reported in the log status window.
When a logger file is loaded, it will hold the path and file names for the config file (.CFG), doc. Database file(s) (.MDB) and any log database files (.MDB). If these files have been moved from their original location, a warning comes up allowing the user to browse for the files. We now perform a second search on the file(s) in the same directory as the file that was loaded before displaying the warning.
Solutions in FTLogger, v1.42
Corrected problem where A stack overwrite existed regarding a message posting. This message is posted to the log status window to add a log message to the window during a logging session.
Corrected problem where being online in FTLogger with 505 server logbyrow.mdb. This database had three tables: device1, Remote-545, and Serial-545. Tried to create a ModServer window and connect to logbyrow. Got a warning that logbyrow was already in use. Hit No and changed to log.mdb which only had table "device1.mdb". Tried to compact log.mdb and got a database error that said it couldn't find "Remote-545" table.
Corrected problem where the popup window (via right mouse button) while in the log status window shows "options" menu but clicking on it fails to display the dialog.
Corrected problem where log successes are defaulted to on.
Corrected problem where creating a new log sheet including logging by column with a few addresses, going online to log, closing this program, and then starting a new log sheet offline using the same column database and putting in the same addresses, saving the program, then reloading the saved program and going online, the column database reports values of addresses in the event column.
Corrected problem where pasting past the last row in the log sheet can potentially cause an exception.
Corrected problem where scrolling to cut by dragging mouse beyond window boundary does not work.
Removed "Demo" from menu list under "Mode", and removed "Demo" from the "Mode" combo box in new log window dialog now that we have a demo server.
Corrected problem where errors returned from our server that are > 100 chars can cause an exception.
Corrected problem where column database values were incorrect or duplicated if log was run through daylight savings time.
Corrected problem where text color for the second to last log status message is blue after we receive 2 more status messages than the configured max.
Corrected problem where if we load a file that has a server that is no longer registered, we receive an error even if no devices need to communicate to the server and we are unable to use the file.
Corrected problem where if we load a file into FTLogger upon startup via the command line or double clicking in Windows Explorer, we cannot save to this file and the .cfg filename is incorrect.
Corrected problem where using non-standard window font sizes can cause the logger sheet rows to become crowded and possibly overlap text.
Corrected problem where F1 key does not bring up help.
Solutions in FTTrend, v1.25
Corrected problem so we only display point count of active window.
Corrected problem to display a Y-Axis range of -1 to 1 correctly.
Corrected problem when two graph windows are open with the same device(s) used in each window and the windows are online, that did not allow the second window to display values correctly.
Corrected problem where graph font size was not being set when loading from a file.
Corrected problem where F1 key does not bring up help.
Corrected problem where a pen displayed with a device did not fit on the screen.
Corrected problem when adding a device online and adding a point using that device to an online graph, the point did not update correctly.
New Features in FTDataWin, v1.22
We now prevent the user from using a '.' character in the device name because this is now used as a delimeter when entering a complex event.
Added support for complex expressions.
When a data window file is loaded, it will hold the path and file names for the config file (.CFG) and doc. Database files (.MDB). If these files have been moved from their original location, a warning comes up allowing the user to browse for the files. We now perform a second search on the file(s) in the same directory as the file that was loaded before displaying the warning.
Solutions in FTDataWin, v1.22
Corrected problem of memory leaks when creating or opening registry keys.
Corrected problem where attempting to add a device or verify an address belonging to a Server that was unable to be loaded can give an exception.
Corrected problem where pasting past the last row in the data sheet can potentially cause an exception.
Corrected problem where scrolling to cut by dragging mouse beyond window boundary does not work.
Corrected problem where errors returned from our server that are > 100 chars can cause an exception.
Corrected problem where if we load a file that has a server that is no longer registered, we receive an error even if no devices need to communicate to the server and we are unable to use the file.
Corrected problem where if we load a file into FTDataWin upon startup via the command line or double clicking in Windows Explorer, we cannot save to this file and the .cfg filename is incorrect.
Corrected problem where using non-standard window font sizes can cause the data sheet rows to become crowded and possibly overlap text.
Corrected problem where F1 key does not bring up help.
