How to monitor and troubleshoot communication using Wonderware Client utility

SUMMARY

When troubleshooting communications between your HMI and data source it can be useful to utilize the Wonderware Client (WWClient) utility to verify connection status and read values. This document lists the procedures necessary to install and use the WWClient utility to help troubleshoot communications.

APPLIES TO

• All AVEVA software packages that utilize SuiteLink or DDE communication protocols
• Wonderware Client Utility (WWClient)

PROCEDURE

1. Install the WWClient utility. You can download and install the utility from the link provided below:
   wwclient.zip

2. Unzip the utility and run wwclient.exe

3. To begin, select “Connections” > Create

4. This will open the “Create Connection” window. You will notice that the configurations here are very similar to that of an Access Name for InTouch. Configure connection and select “Create” button.

Description for our example:

Node:…………. localhost (we will be connecting to a OI Server installed on the local machine)
Application:…..mbtcp (we will be connecting to the Wonderware MBTCP OI Server)
Topic:………….Topic1 (this is the default name used when defining a topic in the MBTCP OI Server)
Connection Type:…….(for the purpose of this document the “IOT” connection type was used)

Definitions are as follows:

• DDE:…………….Dynamic Data Exchange
• IOT:…….I/O Talk (this was the original name/acronym for the SuiteLink protocol)
• IOT – Thread:..This will start the protocol in a separate thread (this is not the advised protocol to use)

5. Once the connection is created you will see a line of text populated within the “Wonderware Client” window, which displays information about the protocol in use, the path to connect to the end device, and an indication of the connection status.

The main concern here is that the hexadecimal value does not read 0x00000000

6. From the “Wonderware Client” window menu select “Item“. This will open the “Item” window. Select the connection in question in the “Connections” section, enter a valid data point and select the appropriate type in the “Item” section. Proceed by selecting the “AdviseEx” button.

7. You will now see the advised item information displayed under the connection information. In between the item name and the timestamp is where you will see the actual value of the item advised. To the far right is another set of hexadecimal values representing a quality, where 0x00c0 represents a good connection to the data source.

NOTE: A legend of these hexadecimal (and their respective decimal) values is located below in the “OPC Quality Code Legend” section.

OPC Quality Code Legend