Point of View Do-more Part 3: Caveats from AutomationDirect

In this video we’ll use the tag integration method to bring Do-more tags into a point of view project so we can control and monitor the Do-more based system. Let’s start a new project. Point of View button, New. I have a folder on My C drive I’m using for these demo projects – but you can put yours anywhere you want. Looks like I have two licenses available, we’ll use the 1000 tag license for this project. We’re going to use a small screen so it is easy for us to see in this video. You would want to choose the screen size that works best for you. Now beware, you need to pick this wisely – it is NOT easy to change later … Great we have a new empty project that we can use to talk to a Do-more series controller. Let’s flip over to a Do-more project. Here’s a simple little project that will allow Point of View to control this output coil by writing to this Motor_Enable tag, display the status of that motor coil with an indicator, set a numeric value to drive this coil, and display the scaled version of an analog input. All of the basic kinds of operations you would normally want to do. All we do is export those tags to a file. When talking to Point of View, make sure you select the C-more version of the CSV file. You can put it where ever you want, but you will save yourself some major headaches if you put it in your Point of View project folder. That’s because every time you start the development software, Point of View re-loads the tags from this file. If you develop the app on your computer and let’s say you put the tag file in your documents folder. Then you send the app to someone else to work on. Well, Point of View won’t be able to find the tags on his PC because it will be trying to find YOUR documents folder on your PC. And when it doesn’t find the tags, it DELETES THEM and now you have to start over. In the previous video we saw that Tag Integration is easy, you just export a csv file from the Do-more Designer Project and then tell Point of View where to find that file, which you would normally put in your Point of View project folder. In this video we’ll take a look at a couple things you need to be aware of before using Tag integration with a Do-more controller, and we’ll also cover a few general items that apply to all controllers. One of the cool things about the Do-more is you can add as many structured heap items as you want – things like Timers, Counters, Strings, PID loops, anything that uses the DOT notation to select member elements. You’re not stuck with a fixed memory plan like you are in other controllers, you can add as many timers or PID loops as you want. The good news is Point of View gives you access to those heap items you created so you can use them in Point of View just like you would in the Do-more. That’s awesome, BUT … There are a couple things you need to be acutely aware of before using Tag Integration with the Do-more … First, each time you modify any portion of memory – add a tag, delete a tag, create a new memory element, create or delete a program or task, add a heap item – anything that modifies memory - the Do-more uses that as an opportunity to optimize memory usage. Which means it moves everything around to best fit memory every time you make a change. So anytime you make a change – whether point of view is going to use it or not - make sure you re-export the csv file, or Point of view may not be able find what it is looking for because there is no guarantee that the memory element will be at the same address as it was before. The second Do-more specific caveat is if you use any member of a Do-more structured heap item in Point of View – like this Timer done bit – then Point of View will deduct the total member element count from your tag license. In this timer example, if we use this one timer done element in Point of View, Point of View will reduce the tag license count by five because there are 5 elements total in this heap item. If you use a single PID element, like the set point, Point of view will deduct 19 tags from your license and if you use a single Program element, like the Program Done bit, you will lose something like 147 tags off your license because that how many member elements there are in that structure. If that’s a problem for your project, then take a look at the next video on the Main Driver Sheet – The main Driver Sheet gives you a way to use one element at a time without the entire structure element count going against your tag license. That’s all the Do-more specific caveats. Let’s look at a few general items that apply to all controllers. You can’t edit a tag that was imported using the Tag Integration method. What you import is what you get. If you need to change the tag, then you have to do it on the controller end and then export the tags again and then tell Point of View to use that new file. If you think you will need to change tags manually in point of view, then check out the next video on the Main Driver Sheet, it will show you how to do that. You can’t automatically scale a tag in Point of View that was brought in via Tag Integration. Again, use the Main Driver Sheet for any tags you want to scale automatically as the come into Point of View. If you accidentally delete or move the csv file so Point of View can’t find it, Point of View will DELETE all of the tags if you VERIFY the project or you select “Remove all unused tags” when you start the development software. In either case, all the integrated tags will be lost and you will have to start over. So make sure you keep track of where that CSV file is. One way to help avoid this is to get in the habit of storing the CSV file in your project folder. In the global view – you have the project specific tags – which we haven’t created any yet in this project – the built in system tags and the shared tags where you will find the tags the project is sharing with the Do-more controller. This project is using these 4 Do-more tags. If you want to see ALL of the controller’s tags that are available to the project, then click on the object finder button which is under the home tab, over here. Black tags are being used by the project and count against the tag license. Gray tags are available to the project but they aren’t currently used anywhere in the project so they don’t count against your tag license. If you need any help, please call AutomationDirect’s Free, Award winning tech support during regular business hours – they will be happy to help. And don’t forget the forums – there are lots of folks there that love to share their years of experience. Just don’t post any questions directed at AutomationDirect’s support team there, they don’t monitor the forums on a regular basis.