BASEstartm Open DAS
for Allen-Bradley Data Highwaytm
on Tru64tm UNIX
Installation and User's Guide


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2.4 Tracing device communications

The DAS for Allen-Bradley Data Highway has built into it the capability to trace PLC communications and to send this output to either a file or to a user terminal. The purpose of this tracing is to allow the troubleshooting of PLC communications.

Tracing can be enabled for a device and/or a line. If tracing is enabled for a PLC, then only communications from/to that PLC are traced. If tracing is enabled for a line, then all communications from/to that line are traced. If both PLC and line tracing is enabled, then the trace will contain the output for both the PLC and the line, so the trace output will be duplicated.

To enable tracing do the following:

The trace output is flushed to the file after every 10 lines that are traced, so trace output may lag actual device I/O.

All trace output is in hexadecimal and shows both input to and output from the PLC.

When tracing data highway communications at the line level, DLE characters (hex 10) that are control codes are not included in the trace.

To turn tracing off, reverse the steps used to turn tracing on.

2.5 Failures During Product Use

If an error occurs while this product is in use and you believe the error is caused by a problem with the product, take one of the following actions:

When you submit an SPR, take the following steps:

  1. Describe as accurately as possible the circumstances and state of the system when the problem occurred. Include the description and version number of the product being used. Demonstrate the problem with specific examples.
  2. Reduce the problem to as small a size as possible.
  3. Remember to include listings of any command files, INCLUDE files, or relevant data files, and so forth.
  4. Report only one problem per SPR. This will facilitate a faster response.
  5. Mail the SPR package to Compaq.


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