PAC8000 Release Notes

Version 8.4.0

Issue 1.01
September 2010

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc.

2500 Austin Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22911
www.ge-ip.com/
 Revisions
Revision Date Description
1.00 September 20, 2010 Initial release
1.01 September 22, 2010 Included several additional Known Issues

The information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
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© Copyright 2010 by GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc.

All rights reserved. All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
SA06-120-8.4.0
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Contents

Enhancements...............................................................................................................4
Workbench ............................................................................................................................................4
IO Configurator ....................................................................................................................................4
AXECommStats.....................................................................................................................................4
Reports..................................................................................................................................................4

Bug Fixes .......................................................................................................................5

Workbench ............................................................................................................................................5
AXECommStats.....................................................................................................................................5
SBEvents.dll (Process Logic Drawing Engine).....................................................................................5
DataImport ...........................................................................................................................................6

Known Issues ................................................................................................................7

IO Configurator ....................................................................................................................................7

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. September 2010

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Enhancements

Enhancements
Workbench

• Added support for PAC8000 RTU with DNP3 over Ethernet. Supports configuration and
download.
• Added support for arrays.
• Added support to allow user to change default gateway in a controller.
• Added warning message if user is attempting to download Discrete Control logic and no
points are mapped in the Import or Export table.
• Added logic to set the Clear Symmetry Bit in 8811 modules.
• Added logic to display register number of assigned IO points on Project Tag Index.
• Added logic to check status of Discrete Control Mapping table prior to download and
show Discrete Control logic as “not current” if table has changed.
• Added functionality to display health of controllers by entering Ctrl-h when controller is
selected in the main tree view.
• Added logic to allow user to select the desired HMI (iFIX, Cimplicity, InTouch) for each
project. This will cause the compiler to generate the proper CSV file.
• Set IO compile needed flag when an IO module is added, deleted, or moved to a different
slot.
• Added logic to retry (up to four times) if an error occurs when retrieving redundancy state.
• Set IO compile needed flag and drawing compile needed flag, where applicable, if any of
the engineering minimum, engineering maximum, signal minimum, or signal maximum
are changed from the Tag Checkout form.
IO Configurator

• Added support for PAC8000 RTU with DNP3 over Ethernet. Supports configuration and
download.
• Added logic to set the Clear Symmetry Bit in 8811 modules
• For the 8101, 8201, 8301, and 8119 modules, the alarm deadband and dead zone now
default to 1% and the filter defaults to 200 ms.
• For the 8132 module, the alarm deadband and dead zone now default to 1% for the 200
ms filter time for the current and voltage input types. .
AXECommStats

• Added functionality to display overhead statistic in graphical form by entering Ctrl-o when
the Firmware icon is selected on the Controller Details tab.
Reports

• Enhanced Troubleshooting report to detect inconsistencies in the external mapping table.

• Added new controller report (HMI Tags) to display the tags that are available to the HMI.

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. September 2010

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BUG Fixes

Bug Fixes
Workbench

• Fixed big that would not allow Security Level 3 users to assign tags and modules.
• Fixed bug that was not setting Compile-Required flag following a controller rename.
• Fixed bug that was incorrectly displaying menu items and other controls on the download
form that are only pertinent to particular types of controllers.
• Fixed bug that was allowing the user to change the function (type) of HMI tags that were
mapped as remote Modbus points.
• Fixed bug that was causing the Workbench to ask for download of configuration
regardless of need.
• Fixed bug that was not handling signal types for the 8132 modules correctly.
• Fixed bug that was not allowing the user to select “All registers” when not downloading a
Discrete Control strategy.
• Fixed bug that was incorrectly displaying a safe or unsafe indicator in the Discrete Control
mapping table when all points were mapped as default for standard controllers.
• Fixed bug in Peer-to-Peer mapping table that was not properly assigning addresses for
DOS (Safety Points) point types.
• Fixed bug in pop up messages that was causing the message to move each time it was
displayed.
• Fixed bug that was not properly updating the IO Configurator database when the user
clicked the “Save” icon from the IO Point Assignment form.
• Added logic to remove frqspare tags from available KeySwitch tags.
• Fixed bug that was not correctly displaying IP addresses in reports when the first octet of
the IP address was greater than 128.
• Fixed bug that was not properly updating names into the Discrete Control database. This
was only a problem on tagnames with underscores.

AXECommStats

• Fixed logic to obtain Module IDs from serial numbers and properly convert module
firmware in the Hardware Report.

SBEvents.dll (Process Logic Drawing Engine)

• Fixed bug that caused a crash when modifying tag names following creating a drawing
from a template. (This only occurred on an SAIF or SAI block.)
• Fixed bug that was not recognizing embedded graphic in drawings. This could cause
false error messages.
• Added logic in the Compute block equation to display error message if ^ is used
incorrectly. User should replace ^ characters with ** characters.
• Fixed bug that was causing duplicate register addresses if the first logic variable was
deleted.

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. September 2010

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BUG Fixes

DataImport

• Fixed logic to test for improper fields when importing HART tags.

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. September 2010

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Known Issues

Known Issues

Workbench

• When IO Modules are removed from a controller, a recompile of the IO for the controller is
indicated, but not all affected Process drawings may be indicated as requiring a
recompilation. The workaround, when deleting IO modules, is to Compile IO followed by
a recompilation of all drawings.
• After changing the password in the workbench, the creation or modification of a user
account will fail. The workaround is to close and restart the workbench using the new
password.

IO Configurator

• When configuring DNP Parameters, the following parameters are shown on the DNP
Attributes 2 tab as configurable, but the firmware does not currently support changing
these values:
• Binary Output Cmd: Object 13
• Frozen Counter Events: Object 23
• Analog Output Event: Object 42
• Analog Output Cmd: Object 43
• On DNP Attributes 2 tab, the IO Configurator correctly limits the variations but the on line
help lists more variations for several parameters than are actually configurable.

GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. September 2010