ViewMarq - How To... Helpful Hints from AutomationDirect

Whatever you type in this box will show up as the ViewMarq display name on the power up screen and also in the Ethernet browse box. That can make it real handy to ID a particular display. Let's type in "Shop Floor?, and write the configuration out to the ViewMarq. When that?s done, the display will reset and you get a new power up message that shows you the new display name. This diagnostic LED option is great. When you enable that and write it out to the ViewMarq, and write that out to the ViewMarq, an LED in the lower left corner of the display will light up. Then, any time you send a message, the color of the LED changes. So if I send this message several times, you can see it changes from green, to red, to amber, back to green. That tells me a message was sent to the ViewMarq. That can be real handy when you are trying to debug things. Speaking of blinking LEDs, You can test all the LEDs at once by clicking on this button. It lights every LED on the ViewMarq all at the same time a couple times. Note that since the amber color is really just the red and the green being on at the same time, you can also tell if the RED or GREEN side of the LED is bad. If you click the heart beat option ? lets set that to 5 seconds for this example ? and write it out to the ViewMarq, then if the ViewMarq doesn?t receive a message within 5 seconds, it will display this error message. Let?s go ahead and send a message, and you can see we are back to normal. I?ll keep sending a message once every couple seconds ? as you can see by the diagnostic LED down at the bottom ? but if I stop sending message for 2 one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand ? then we get our error message. The ASCII Reply option tells the ViewMarq to send an ASCII reply each time it receives a message. You can then look for that when you send an ASCII message from your PLC to tell if the message got there ok. There?s a really good example of how to use this in the DoMore videos that focus on the ViewMarq. Byte Swap and word swap allow you to match the configuration of your Controller. Note that if you change either of these, you want to make sure you change them back here when you setup your communications link also. Displaying Syntax errors is a great way to debug problems. When this is enabled in the ViewMarq, and the ViewMarq gets a string with a Syntax error, it displays a message telling you exactly where the issue is. For example, I intentionally deleted a little bracket. Because I enabled that Syntax error option, when I send that bad message, look, the ViewMarq tells me exactly where the issue is in the string. The ViewMarq normally automatically inverts the message is if the display is turned upside down. You can turn that off by selecting this option and you can pick the orientation of that message. You can easily import and export display configurations. This allows you to bring in a display configuration that you like without having to re-do all the options all over again. This is especially helpful if you are setting up a bunch of similar displays. You can quickly blink an LED display by pressing this button right here. You can Reboot the display right here, reset the display to factory defaults and update the Firmware. This dialog tells you what the current firmware is, and allows me to go grab a firmware that I can update it with. Remember ? ViewMarq software and firmware updates are always free. You can get the latest from the Automation Direct Website here under downloads. Here?s yet another way to Blink the LED display and finally, by selecting this, you can run a test the will turn on every individual LED and LED Color? you just hit start, and the test starts running. When you are done, just hit stop. One final note ? When you do establish a link to your ViewMarq, you can give that link a name and that will appear in this list over here. That allows you to click on that link and bring it up quickly later, but there is an even quicker way to switch between links. This drop down over here on the far right, allows you to select any of the links from that window and quickly switch back and forth between them. Suppose you have one ViewMarq hooked up to your Ethernet port and another one hooked up to your serial port. Well, you can switch back and forth between those very quickly, by using this drop down and not having to go into that menu. Well, that ought to be enough to get you going. Please let us know if you need any help. Automation Directs Tech Support is always free and only an e-mail or phone call away. ViewMarq: Cost Effect, Industrial Messaging made simple. From Automation Direct.