EasySoft 5.11 bugs?

[RogerP]

Does anyone have any comment on problems I have encountered?

I have a reasonably complex program consisting of - at present 4 - Easy 800 relays in a network. Whilst updating the program, I ran in to problems which I finally traced to function blocks retained in the function block editor view, which I had previously deleted from the ladded view. Once I deleted them from the function block view, the program worked as expected.

I have run the remove unused function blocks tool on several occasions, but it appears it does not work, or not at least as I expect it should.

Could anyone tell me if it does work properly, and that I am doing something wrong. or if it is a bug.

EastSoft 5.11, NOT Pro
Win XP Pro AND Win 98 SE

Many thanks, Roger.

[John_Ess]

I had the same problem with 5.10 Pro. Seems it was resolved in an update i.e. 5.11 PRO Build 1417. 

[PJE]

[RANT]
EASY-SOFT 5.11 [Pro] is the worst PLC programming software I've EVER used! 

This is the only software when corrupts your program as your editing it. If it wasn't for the price-performance of the Easy800 hardware I would have kicked the system into touch long ago!

[/RANT]

Sorry for that, I have three systems due out at the end of the week and the software has been corrupted - and I can't get it back...

PJE

UPDATE: I seem to have fixed it. Why does the software create phantom function blocks with the same name as previous ones.... I had to spend two hours going through my software line by line fixing the corrputions.

[RogerP]

Well, I must admit I have had some strange happenings. Some parameters for, say Weekly Timeswitches, have mysteriously changed. The software does definitely have some problesm which need ironing out.

But, as you say the harware is very good, and the networking has given me a reasonbly large factory space heating control system for relatively low cost.

The installed system, though quite new, is working very well, with no known problems to date. It is the EasySoft that is problematic.

I am waiting for the new EasySoft Pro v 6, with the OPC server, so I can log data and visualise the system on the PC and company network Hopefully this will have fewer bugs.

Roger.

[befu]

Hi RogerP, John_Ess and PJE,

Indeed the creation of unintended function blocks is a problem in EasySoft 5.xx which isn't solved completely yet.

First of all: Update to EasySoft 5.11 [pro], Build 1417, earlier versions may have a lot more problems with this topic. (The worst case was to create a full set of 32 function blocks of the same type by spinning the mouse wheel in the parameter dialogue, but as far as I know, this version never reached customers.)

How to avoid the creation of phantom function blocks:

Create function blocks in the function block diagram first and fill in their parameter dialogue before using their boolean operands in the circuit diagram. Otherwise every change of a function block number in the circuit diagram (i.e. T01 -> T04) creates the associated function block (T01, T04) in the function block diagram after clicking into the circuit diagram window.

If you already have been fallen into this trap, you can delete "phantom" function blocks by using the "remove unused function blocks tool":

Unused means: There is no reference in the circuit diagram (such references have to be deleted by hand before using this tool) and there are no parameters filled in for the unwanted function blocks. Otherwise the function blocks will stay in the program.

Deleting all references (boolean operands) to an existing function block in the circuit diagram doesn't delete the function block automatically. You can always delete unwanted function blocks in the funtion block diagram. If there are references to the deleted function block left in the circuit diagram, these references will remain too, but they will be shown with question marks (i.e. C32C_ -> C???).

Sorry for the inconvenience, the brand new EasySoft V6.10 Pro will neither have this error nor any other bugs! Promised!

Regards

Bernhard

[PJE]

Hi befu,

Thanks for the update...

I've calmed down again. The systems seem to be working again after I corected the program - I had multiple duplicate function blocks, which if you deleted the wrong one caused the reference in the ladder logic to enter ?? mode.

I also ran out of memory - even though the program had 500 bytes of free memory before the corruptions started.

I was resorting the function blocks by moving them into sequence (shouldn't that be an automatic option?) when the problems started.

Anyway, I'm taking a deep breath and open Easy-Soft for the next round of tweaks - hopefully they'll not cause any problems.

Regards,

PJE

[John_Ess]

Hi Bernhard,

[...you can delete "phantom" function blocks by using the "remove unused function blocks tool"]

I guess what you're saying was to use "Optimize Function Block Diagram" tool,  am I correct?
Well, I use 5.11 [PRO] Build:1417 and I might say that it _almost_ works Sometime it does - sometime it doesn't; go figure.  Including that infamous "optimize" tool  I have to double check my function block diagram and manually delete the ones that are left behind after "optimization".

Best regards

[RogerP]

From reading Bernhards message, the function blocks must not have any paramters filled in, else the tool will not work.

Thats probably why I couldn't delete them automatically, they were removed from the ladder, but still had paramters programmed in.

It's good to hear the next version - 6 - will be bug free!!

Roger.