July 2006

Allen-Bradley Inview Notes

I recently hooked up an Allen-Bradley Inview to a PLC5/60 via remote I/O and need to remember a few things.

Inview: A-B #2706-P42R

Remote I/O Module: A-B #2706-PRIOM

Software: Inview Messaging Software 2.2

The Inview itself has a serial port that connects to the RIO communications module. The default parameters of the serial port are 9600, N, 8, 1. You can use a A-B #2706-PC CABLE1 (9-pin male to RJ-45) to talk to the Inview to set the serial port address. You can do this using the Inview software (Tools > Set Serial Address).

You must talk to the serial side of the remote I/O module at least once to configure the RIO parameters. The remote I/O module is the same module as used in PanelViews. So when you use RSLinx, that's what it shows up as when you do a RSLinx auto-configure and when you do a Who. The serial side parameters were 19.2, N, 1 and I used a 9-pin straight "female-female" cable (that seems to be an oxymoron). You configure the RIO parameters using the Network tab in the Inview software. After using the software to configure the network parameters, you will be given the option to save and/or download the parameters. Be sure to enable pass-thru as that lets you download messages from your computer, through the PLC5, into the display. After you get the Inview communicating with the PLC via RIO, you can do the rest of your work using pass-thru just like with a PanelView.

A couple of caveats:

1) The version of Inview Messaging Software that I was using was pretty dumb when it came to downloading. It reported that downloading was taking place (counting up to 100% done) even with the cable disconnected. Very confusing - I spent a lot of time thinking I had downloaded everything when in fact I hadn't even talked to it. When downloading, the Inview screen goes blank or shows some of the messages going by.

2) When you get the RIO module set up, it will show "no network activity" until you correctly hook up the blue-hose. Also, the PLC5 RIO auto-configure will recognize the Inview RIO module if you have everything set up right.

3) Remember that the Inview and the RIO module are two distinct devices. They are connected to each other serially. I thought it was strange that the Inview was configured as 9600 and the serial side of the RIO module was at 19,200, but they communicated OK.

4) The blue-hose connection to the RIO module was the opposite of what I thought it should be. Maybe PanelViews are that way too, I don't remember. Anyway, the connection detail are in the manual. Looking at the connector plugged into the module, the connections from top to bottom are: CLR, SHLD, BLU.

5) On newer Inviews, when an undefined message is triggered, "UNDEFINED MESSAGE #XX" is displayed on the Inview. On older Inviews, a blank message is triggered.

6) If everything downloads OK, but the messages don't display, check to make sure the Inview serial address matches the address in the "download Comms" configuration. If they're not the same, the messages won't be displayed.

Windows Speed-up Tips

Speed up file browsing.

When you open a folder or run Windows Explorer, Windows will automatically search your network for folders and printers. That takes time, and is especially annoying if you don’t need to access one at the time. So tell Windows not to search for them unless you ask:

* Open My Computer.

* Click the Tools menu.

* Choose Folder Options.

* Click the View tab.

* Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers.”

* Click OK.

Clean your disk.

* From My Computer, right-click on your hard drive.

* Choose Properties.

* Click “Disk Cleanup.”

Clean the Registry

Defrag

Get rid of unnecessary start-up programs in your Startup folder.

* Click Start, then choose All Programs or Programs (depending on your setup).

* Find the Startup folder on the list and hover your mouse over it.

* The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list, and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically--such as some Microsoft Office task--right-click it and choose Delete.

Use EasyCleaner

* Start the program and click the Startup button.

* You’ll see a list of all the programs that start automatically with Windows. Most of these should start: your anti-virus program, a Windows program called HDAShCut, maybe a driver or two. But some things just waste resources.

* Most notorious for loading themselves are media players such as Quicktime and RealPlayer. There’s no need for them to be loaded until you need them. If you see things like that which don’t belong, select them and click the Delete button. When you’re done, click Close and close EasyCleaner.

Deep cleaning

Windows also launches services, internal software that does important things, such as making your network run, managing users, and a host of other things. But there are some services you just don’t need; running them is a waste of resources.

* To get to the list of services, click Start, then Run.

* Enter services.msc in the box. The screen that pops up is a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. It lists every service on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or manually, among other things.

* Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will give you a description of each service.

* Now click on the words “Startup Type” at the top of that column, which will sort the services. The ones that say “Automatic” are--obviously--the ones that start when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.

The following lists services you can probably do without. Of course, if you recognize one that you use such as Windows Messenger or

Telnet, don’t turn it off.

Alerter

Clipbook

Computer Browser

Distributed Link Tracking Client

Error Reporting Service (if you don’t want to be asked to send error reports to Microsoft anymore)

Fast User Switching

Human Interface Access Devices

IPSEC Services

Messenger

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

Portable Media Serial Number

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

Remote Procedure Call Locator

Remote Registry

Routing & Remote Access

Secondary Logon

Server

SSDP Discovery Service

Telnet

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

Upload Manager

Universal Plug and Play Device Host

Workstation

Pick one from the list and double-click it. You’ll see a drop-down menu next to “Startup type” that is currently set to Automatic. Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s needed, not all the time.

Special services

Two services deserve special mention: the indexing service and Windows themes. The indexing service’s job is to keep track of every file on your computer, so if you use Windows’ search function you’ll be able to find things faster. But if you don’t use search that often, the indexing service is a waste of resources and will slow you down. That’s why disabling the indexing service is high on the list of many speed tweakers. To do that, go back to your list of services (Start, Run, enter services.msc -- see above), scroll down to Indexing Service, and set the Startup type to “Disabled.” Finally, if you’re using the Windows Classic theme, you can free up some memory. Scroll down the list of services to Themes and set it to “Disabled.”

Tweak the Registry

You get into the Registry by clicking Start, choosing Run, and entering regedit in the box that appears. Then welcome to the Registry, perhaps the most intimidating part of Windows. Here you can make all sorts of internal changes to the way Windows operates. Before you do anything else, set up a System Restore Point. That tells Windows to save everything about your current configuration, so if something goes awry you can tell it to revert back to that point—kind of like a big “undo” button.

The first things you’ll see are the five main sections of the Registry’s entries. They have cryptic names: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and so on.

Next to each of those five sections is a small plus sign. Click that to view that section’s subsections. Note that you can end up going several levels deep before getting to the key you want to change. The standard way to point to a key is to list the various levels separated by slashes. For example, if you see:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop

it means you should click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then the plus sign next to Control Panel, then look for Desktop.

Make your menus load faster

For your first trip to the Registry, we’ll do something simple: Make your menus work faster.

* Start regedit (see above).

* Navigate to the following key by clicking the plus signs next to the name of each level:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel

* Click “Desktop.” A list of entries will appear on the right side.

* Double-click “MenuShowDelay” and change the Value data to 0.

* Click OK.

Free up memory from closed programs. When you shut down a program, Windows will often keep part of it in memory even if it’s not being used. Called dynamic link

libraries (DLLs), they take up memory and sometimes cause other problems. You can change a Registry key to prevent Windows from doing this.

* Start regedit, following the instructions in this lesson.

* Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion

* Under CurrentVersion, right-click on Explorer, then choose New->Key.

* In the box that appears (”New Key #1″), change the name to AlwaysUnloadDLL.

* Hit Enter. On the right side, double-click the word (Default).

* For the value data, enter 1.

* Click OK.

* Close regedit (unless you want to tweak some more).

Speed program startup

Windows can be set to load information about some applications to make them start up faster by changing how much work a program called the Prefetcher does.

* Using regedit (instructions above), navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters

* When you click PrefetchParameters, the right side of the editor will display a list of entries.

* Double-click “Enable Prefetcher” and change the value data to 5 (in decimal, not hexadecimal).

* Click OK.

* Close regedit.

Reduce Windows’ workload

If you have many folders and subfolders, every time you access one, Windows will spend a lot of time updating the “last accessed” time for that folder and all its sub-folders. Stopping that process will buy you some time.

* Using regedit (see instructions above), navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control

* Under Control, right-click on FileSystem, then choose New, then DWORD Value.

* Replace “New Value #1″ with NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and hit Enter.

* Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the Value data to 1.

* Click OK.

Improve Swapfile performance

Many programs use a lot of memory, and if you run more than one or two at once, Windows might run out of RAM. In that case, it will

start using a section of your hard disk called the “swapfile” to store information. It’s a lot slower than RAM, but it beats not

being able to run a program.

But sometimes Windows uses the swapfile before it has to. This tweak will tell it to wait ‘till the last moment before doing that.

* Click Start, then Run.

* Enter msconfig in the box.

* Click on the System.ini tab.

* Click the plus sign next to 386enh.

* Click New, then type “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″ in the box that appears.

* Click OK.

Stop QoS

Get rid of a system that’s supposed to make sure your network is working, but in reality isn’t helpful and can eat up to 20 percent of your bandwidth. It’s called QoS, for Quality of Service, and here’s how you stop it.

If you have Windows XP Professional, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start, then Run.

* Enter gpedit.msc in the box.

* Under “Local Computer Policy,” click the plus sign next to “Computer Configuration,” then the one next to “Administrative Templates.”

* Click the plus sign next to “Network” and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.”

* In the right-hand box, double-click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.”

* On the Settings tab, choose Enabled.

* In the “Bandwidth Limit %” box, set it to 0%. (Do not leave it blank.)

* Click OK.

If you have Windows Home Edition, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start and then the “Settings” option.

* Select the Control Panel, and open up “Network Connections”

* Right-click “Local Area Connection”and choose Properties.

* On the General tab, uncheck QoS.

Network settings

Out of the box, Windows networking comes configured for a generic user with a generic connection. It has no idea what kind of

Internet connection you have--whether you’re using dialup or DSL or a cable modem. Because of that, its network settings are also generic.

It’s helpful to tailor these settings to your connection. The easiest way to do this is to use Stop QoS

First, let’s get rid of a system that’s supposed to make sure your network is working, but in reality isn’t helpful and can eat up

to 20 percent of your bandwidth. It’s called QoS, for Quality of Service, and here’s how you stop it.

If you have Windows XP Professional, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start, then Run.

* Enter gpedit.msc in the box.

* Under “Local Computer Policy,” click the plus sign next to “Computer Configuration,” then the one next to “Administrative

Templates.”

* Click the plus sign next to “Network” and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.”

* In the right-hand box, double-click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.”

* On the Settings tab, choose Enabled.

* In the “Bandwidth Limit %” box, set it to 0%. (Do not leave it blank.)

* Click OK.

If you have Windows Home Edition, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start and then the “Settings” option.

* Select the Control Panel, and open up “Network Connections”

* Right-click “Local Area Connection”and choose Properties.

* On the General tab, uncheck QoS.

Network settings

Now let’s change some other networking settings.

Out of the box, Windows networking comes configured for a generic user with a generic connection. It has no idea what kind of

Internet connection you have--whether you’re using dialup or DSL or a cable modem. Because of that, its network settings are

also generic.

It’s helpful to tailor these settings to your connection. The easiest way to do this is to use a (free) software program that will

do it for you.Stop QoS

First, let’s get rid of a system that’s supposed to make sure your network is working, but in reality isn’t helpful and can eat up

to 20 percent of your bandwidth. It’s called QoS, for Quality of Service, and here’s how you stop it.

If you have Windows XP Professional, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start, then Run.

* Enter gpedit.msc in the box.

* Under “Local Computer Policy,” click the plus sign next to “Computer Configuration,” then the one next to “Administrative

Templates.”

* Click the plus sign next to “Network” and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.”

* In the right-hand box, double-click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.”

* On the Settings tab, choose Enabled.

* In the “Bandwidth Limit %” box, set it to 0%. (Do not leave it blank.)

* Click OK.

If you have Windows Home Edition, follow these instructions to disable QoS:

* Click Start and then the “Settings” option.

* Select the Control Panel, and open up “Network Connections”

* Right-click “Local Area Connection”and choose Properties.

* On the General tab, uncheck QoS.

Network settings

Use TCP Optimizer to tweak your network settings.

Bangkok Markets

Here's some interesting markets to try on next trip to Bangkok:

Ratchada Plaza - second hand market with antiques, collectibles, and auto supplies

Where: Ratchadapisek-Lat Phrao intersection, opposite the MRTA park and ride lot at Lat Phrao subway station

When: Saturday and Sunday nights

Wat Suan Kaew - refurbished goods and salvage from demolished buildings

Where: 55/1 Bang Lane, Nonthaburi

When: 10 am - 4 pm daily, except Wednesdays;

Amulet Market

Where: located behind Tha Phra Chan Market between Tha Phra Chan and Tha Chang piers

When: 6 am - 8 pm daily except Mondays

Nakhorn Kasem - second hand market

Where: Sampeng Lane, Soi Wanit 1, between Yaowaret and Charoen Roads, near Wat Po

When: 10 am - 7 pm daily

Stamp Market

Where: in front of the General Post Office, New Road, Charoen Krung

When: Sundays

Watch Market

Where: about 1 block from the China Princess Hotel, Yaowarat

When: 5 pm - 9 pm daily