AutomationDirect Logo C-more Frequently Asked Questions

 

Use "Ctrl-F" to search for specific words in this FAQ.

Question: General C-More email information; use with a GMail/Yahoo servers etc..
Answer: C-More cannot send e-mail through a GMail, Yahoo etc. server but it can send e-mail through another server to them.
Many E-Mail servers use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and other security features that C-More does not support.

There are e-mail forwarding/server programs that can run on a PC on the same local area network as the C-More.
There are also e-mail relay services that are accessable over the internet that may help.


One such program is hMail Server

One such service that techs here have tested is AuthSMTP.com
By using their service a C-More panel was able to send e-mail to a GMail account.

NOTE! AutomationDirect.com is no way affiliated with AuthSMTP.com or hMailServer, we offer their names as examples of a service/programs that were used for testing.
FAQ ID: 1062

Question: Can I use C-More with WinPLC for String data?
Answer: Yes, but only with strings tags no higher than S-192.
C-More uses Modbus for connection to the WinPLC and the highest String that has a modbus address equivalent is S-192.
FAQ ID: 1063

Question: Can this be used with a WinPLC
Answer: See the FAQs for the WinPLC
Can the WinPLC be used with an operator interface?
FAQ ID: 1065

Question: Can I send data from a C-More panel to a PC Server using FTP to an FTP Server?
Answer: Yes.
    you can send
  • Message Database Log Files
  • Event Manager Log Files
  • Line Trend Log Files
  • PID Face Plate Log Files
  • Screen Capture Files

You cannot send raw data, it must be stored as a file in the C-More panel. FTP is File Transfer Protocol
FAQ ID: 1069

Question: Problem: Help File Opens but there is no help, just the contents.
Answer: Cause: Windows Security Update: It seems there is something new in the Windows Security "features". Solution: Right click the file and select Properties. At the bottom of the General Tab you may see a Security Section. Select the UNBLOCK Button. If this does not correct the issue, please contact technical support.
FAQ ID: 1077

Question: Why can I 'Browse' and list my panel in the Online Link List, but I can not transfer a project to it. The Transfer Button is inactive.
Answer: Your PC network interface card (NIC) in your PC may have a different subnet than the panel.
    For example;
  • Your NIC may have an IP address of 198.162.5.6 and a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.
  • The panel may have an IP address of 10.1.33.6 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.
  • The NIC's Subnet is 192.168.0.0 and the panels subnet is 10.1.0.0.

These must match in order to transfer a project to the panel.
FAQ ID: 1079

Question: Can you change the font size of the alarm's shown in the Alarm History screen? I have a 6 inch panel and I can't see the entire alarm message.
Answer: No, the message length needs to be limited to 28 characters for 6 inch panels.
FAQ ID: 1080

Question: Do historical trends keep their data when power cycled?
Answer: Only if you use a CF or USB Flash and have datalogging turned on. Otherwise historical data is lost when power is cycled.
FAQ ID: 1082

Question: Does C-More (NOT C-More Micro) work with any USB memory device? Does it require a particular brand of USB drive?
Answer: The C-More panel (NOT C-MORE MICRO) will work with most brands of USB pen drives as long as they meet the following specs:
  • They must fully comply with USB standards.
    - Non-standard chips or files will not work.
  • They must be formatted in the FAT or FAT32 method
    - No other format method works, i.e. NTFS or WINFAT
  • They must not include extra partitions.
  • They must comply with the USB standards that allow recognition by USB 1.1 devices.
  • They must not include U3 systems designed to autoboot files on the drive.

In some cases, formatting the pen drive from your PC before use will allow it to work with the C-More, but if the device doesn't meet the above specs it won't work.
Even when these specifications are met, there is no guarantee that a device will work properly.
The device should always be tested.
If you need to remove the U3 system from a drive, check the drive. Most drives that use U3 have an uninstall utility on the drive. If not try the Sandisk uninstaller here;
http://u3uninstall.s3.amazonaws.com/U3Uninstall.exe
FAQ ID: 1085

Question: How many devices can a C-More panel connect to?
Answer: You can add up to 64 devices in the Panel Manager as devices. You may have issues before that number is reached depending on network traffic and response times. The panel has been tested with 64 devices connected on a properly functioning network.
FAQ ID: 1086

Question: How do I access the setup screen?
Answer: Touch and hold the upper left corner of the touch screen for more than 3 seconds.
FAQ ID: 1093

Question: What do I need to do to replace/upgrade my old EZ Touch panel to a CMore panel?
Answer: The EZ Touch panels and EZ Touch Editor software that we used to sell are obsolete. We replaced these panels with our CMore product line. The CMore requires its own software, CMore Programming Software, which does not communicate with the EZ Touch panels. The EZ Touch software does not communicate with the CMore panels. They are manufactured and developed by two different companies. We do, however, offer an upgrade path so that you can open the EZ Touch project files and they can be converted to CMore. The CMore software can open the EZ Touch files created with EZ Touch Editor version 3.1A, which is the last version of that software we sold. The CMore software will convert the project and you can then save it as a CMore project, which you can load into a CMore panel. If you don't have the EZ Touch Editor software version 3.1A, but you do have an earlier version, you can download the free upgrade to version 3.1A from our website at: http://support.automationdirect.com/products/eztouch.html Once downloaded and installed, this will upgrade your older EZ Touch Editor software to version 3.1A. You can then open your projects and resave them and they will now be version 3.1A. You can open this version with the CMore software and convert it to a CMore version. If you don't want to upgrade your EZ Touch Editor software, you can contact us in Technical Support and we'll be glad to convert your older EZ Touch project files to EZ Touch 3.1A versions and email them back to you. If you don't have the EZ Touch Editor software, we have a procedure that allows a customer to send us their EZ Touch panel. We will attempt to extract the project from the panel and then send the panel and the project files back. There are some dangers with this option, since the project is only saved in the panel with a battery when power is off. We strongly recommend that you replace this battery before removing power and shipping the panel. The battery is a 3.6V lithium 1/2 AA battery and can be purchased from most battery vendors. Before changing the battery, make sure the panel is powered with 24VDC since either power or the battery must be present in order for the project to be retained in the panel. You should call into the Technical Support Department and ask to speak to a tech about sending in your EZ Touch panel to have the project extracted. The EZ Touch Editor software we sold creates seven files for each EZ Touch project. The file extensions are: .ALR, .ANO, .ATR, .EZT, .MAP, .MSD, and .OPT. Each of these files share the same project name. The CMore software needs all seven of these files in order to import and convert the project, even if some of them are zero length files. Finally, the manufacturer of our old EZ Touch panels continues to make a version of the software that is newer than the version we sold, so their versions will be higher than 3.1A. If you use their newer software it creates a single file for the project, where the version we sold creates seven files. We can not import or convert projects created with their newer software. The CMore panels are designed as drop-in replacements for the EZ Touch panels. The only exception to this is the older EZ Touch panels whose part numbers don't end in an S, for slim bezels. The old EZ Touch panels that didn't have the slim bezels require an adaptor to allow the CMore panels to fit in the larger holes the older EZ Touch panels used. This only applies to the 6" versions. The adaptor allows the CMore 6" panels to fit those larger holes. You can review the document linked below to see which CMore panels replace which EZ Touch panels and which require an adaptor: http://www.automationdirect.com/static/specs/cmoreezxref.pdf You can see an overview of the CMore panels from the CMore website at: http://c-more.automationdirect.com/
FAQ ID: 1100

Question: How can I make the PLC change screens on the C-more panel?
Answer: There is an application note that describes how to do this for both the C-more and C-more Micro panel: http://support.automationdirect.com/docs/an-ea-005.pdf There is also an example program with a PDF printout of the ladder logic code: http://support.automationdirect.com/examples/ep-ea-001.zip
FAQ ID: 1110

Question: How can I find the MAC address of a C-More panel?
Answer:
    If you are at the panel;
  • Goto setup screen (touch and hold upper left corner for 3 seconds)
  • Select Information
  • Select Ports
  • Look under Ethernet MAC address

    If know the IP address of the panel and have an Ethernet connection;
  • Open a Windows DOS Prompt (Start->Run->CMD)and enter the following;
    • PING (ip address of the panel> (press enter)
    • ARP -a (press enter)
  • If have the C-More Programming Software open have an Ethernet project transfer link created;
  • Select Send project to Panel
  • Select Ethernet
  • Select Browse
  • The link will show the IP address and the MAC address
FAQ ID: 1114

Question: Does Cmore remote access on a EA7-S6M grayscale screen display as grayscale or color when viewing on a remote pc screen?
Answer: grayscale
FAQ ID: 1180

Question: Can the cmore HMI read Rslogix 5000 / Contrologix alarm instruction blocks?
Answer: Alarm is a A-B datatype, you can enable the importing of this type by editting the "L5KPreDefine.txt" file in the Cmore install folder. There's an app note that covers this; AN-EA-001
FAQ ID: 1188

Question: Why is it that only 7 digits can be entered in the "Numeric Entry Object "when using Floating point numbers as the data format?
Answer: 32-bit Floating point (single precision floating point) only has a decimal precision of 7 significant digits. The significand of the 32 bit Floating point format is only 24 bits. Which seems to like it should be 8-digits, but you can not get up to 99999999, you can only get to 16777215. that is why it is â??aboutâ?? 7 decimals. Itâ??s overall max precision is 3.403 x 1038, but that is represented exponentially. 64-bit (or Double Precision) Floating point has a decimal precision of 16 significant digits
FAQ ID: 1190

Question: Can I change the backup battery with power applied to my C-more HMI?
Answer: Yes. Access the rear of the HMI, open the battery door located under the power connector and replace the battery.
FAQ ID: 1205

Question: Why do I get unusual characters in C-More generated E-Mails?
Answer: C-More's E-Mail is sent in UTF-8 format.
If your E-Mail client does not use UTF-8 it will appear garbled. Check your E-Mail client's configuration to see if it allows UTF-8 formatting. More information on UTF-8 is available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
FAQ ID: 1222

Question: Where can I find the C-More USB drivers? How can I manually install the drivers?
Answer: The drivers were installed on your local drive when the software installed.
They are located here;
C:\Program Files\AutomationDirect\C-More USB Driver\

To manually install the drivers;
NOTE: You must have administrative rights on the PC to install drivers. You should also disable any AntiVirus Software and shut down any running applications.

1. Unplug the usb cable to the C-More panel
2. Explore your computer's C:\ drive and find the directory listed above.
3. Right click on the kyceusb.inf file and select install.
4. After that finishes plug the C-More panel's USB cable back into your PC.
FAQ ID: 1224

Question: How can I see the size or position in pixels of an object?
Answer:
  • Highlight the object
  • Press the [F4} key on your keyboard
  • Look under 'position' for the position and dimensions of the object
FAQ ID: 1225

Question: Can the C-More act as a Data Server?
Answer: No, the C-more cannot act as a server.
It can log data files on a USB or Compact Flash that you can access using FTP (if the FTP Server is enabled) or it can FTP the log files to an FTP Server.
For a data server you would use KepDirect.
FAQ ID: 1231

Question: Can the C-More panels display bitmap files (JPG, BMP etc..)from a USB or Compact Flash Drive. (Dynamic loading of the bitmap files)
Answer: No, you cannot do that.
The software embeds bitmaps at compile time into the project only if used by a bitmap object.
FAQ ID: 1232

Question: Can you change the position of the alarm message banner?
Answer: Not currently, as of version 2.51 it will be at the bottom of the screen.
Alarms are unique in that they display on any displayed screen.

If you need customized alarm messages (position etc), you could make a background screen with a lookup text object or add the object to all screens that would need this.
You would need to address multiple alarms with PLC logic to select the messages one at a time etc. The Alarms in the panel handle this sequencing for you.
FAQ ID: 1234

Question: What is the maximum memory size Compact flash I can put into the Cmore panel?
Answer: Maximum = 137GB
FAQ ID: 1242

Question: What is the maximum memory size USB pen drive I can place into a Cmore?
Answer: Maximum = 2TB (Cmore software 2.51 or higher required)
FAQ ID: 1243

Question: Can the C-More be used with a TWIDO PLC?
Answer: Yes, you use the Modicon Modbus drivers;

    Modbus Addressing
  • 00001 - 09999 Discrete Coils / Outputs (% Qy.z)
  • 10001 - 19999 Discrete Inputs, Read Only (% Iy.z)
  • 30001 - 39999 Input Registers, Read Only
  • 40001 - 40256 Holding / Output Registers (% MWO - %MW255)

You select the memory type then the address when creating the tags.
FAQ ID: 1288

Question: Can I send a text message to my cell phone from C-More?
Answer: You MAY be able to do that but it depends on the Cell Provider and your E-mail Server.
You will still need an e-mail server that works with C-More to send the E-mail through.
Normally the address is something like the following (for T-Mobile);
12345678@tmomail.net

There are lists of cell provider SMS E-mail addresses on the Internet or your provider should be able to tell you if that service is available.
FAQ ID: 1289

Question: Can the remote access feature be used on my (iPhone, Mac, Linux etc..) device ?
Answer: No
The remote access feature requires you to run an application in your PC that you download from the panel. The application requires a full version of Windows Xp or Vista to run.
It will not work with Windows CE or other Operating Systems.
You MAY be able to run the application inside a Virtual Machine in Linux or Mac etc but this is not tested or supported at this time.
FAQ ID: 1291

Question: Are there any limtations of the number and type of events in the event manager events?
Answer:
    You can have a combination of 16 allowable Actions per Event. However, for each type of Action, the limitations per Event are:
  • Alarm Action = 1 per Event
  • Tag Action = 16 per Event
  • Tag Copy Action = 16 per Event
  • Sound Action = 1 per Event
  • Screen Capture Action = 1 per Event
  • Mail Action = 1 per Event (Requires Panel Manager Email setup)
  • FTP Action = 1 per Event (Requires Panel Manager FTP setup)
  • Backlight Action = 1 per Event
  • Screen Change Action = 1 per Event
  • Message Box Action = 16 per Event
FAQ ID: 1292

Question: What are the viewable angles for the C-More panels (applies to LCD displays in general)
Answer:
    Viewable angle depends on the LCD type used.
  • STN = about 15 degrees max
  • TFT = 30 to 70 degrees
FAQ ID: 1293

Question: In the C-More PLC Enquiry Test menu, Ping passes but protocol fails.
Answer: Test from the panel.
    Use the panel's onboard diagnostics.
  1. Touch the upper left corner of the panel for more than 3 seconds.
  2. When "System Screen Called" is displayed select [OK]"
  3. Select "Test Menu"
  4. Select "Test Comm. Port"
  5. Select "Ethernet" tab
  6. Select the PLC to test.
  7. Select "PLC Enquiry Test"
    The panel will;
  • "Ping" test. The panel pings the IP address of the device(s) you have programmed for a response. This may or may not be your PLC(s), It merely asks for a response
  • "Protocol" test will try to exchange some data with the device. This will use the protocol you have programmed to see if the device is really your PLC.

If the ping passes but protocol fails check the IP address of the panel (left side) and the IP address of the PLC(s) (right side). They must be different. If they are the same, the panel will be pinging itself so that will pass. It will then try to exchange data and that will fail.
FAQ ID: 1297

Question: My C-more is not displaying the same floating point number as my (PLC, Spreadsheet, or other platform). Why is this?
Answer: This is usually due to truncation or rounding of the floating point value due to the number of decimal places that are displayed.

All of our products follow IEEE-754 floating point specification.

The following example uses this IEEE-754 calculator to show how rounding can affect floating point numbers.

Enter 13.609 and choose the â??not roundedâ?? calculation, notice that it generates a hexadecimal value of 0x4159BE76.

Switch to "convert Hexadecimal value to decimal value" (at the bottom of the page) and enter in 0x4159BE76, you will get a result of 13.608999252319336.

Enter 13.609 again and choose the â??roundedâ?? calculation, notice that it generates a hexadecimal value of 0x4159BE77.

Now switch to "convert Hex value to decimal" and enter in 0x4159BE77. You will get a result of 13.609000205993652.

This shows that 13.609 is not a pure number but has been either truncated or rounded since the binary pattern of 0x4159BE77 is being used.
FAQ ID: 1302

Question: FTP issues, I try to read my log files with Internet or Windows Explorer and FTP but they appear to be older copies or not present.
Answer: This happens if you use Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer and have caching enabled. Caching of the data is enabled by default and the cached data will be used until you clear your cache or change the settings.
    Open Internet Explorer
  • Select Tools->Internet Options
  • Select Browsing History->Settings
  • Select Every Time I visit the webpage

This will make the client (Explorer) request a fresh listing and not use cached data.
FAQ ID: 1311

Question: Can a 90/30 CPU (IC693CPU311) be used with a C-more or C-more Micro Panel ?
Answer: It depends on the firmware in the CPU 311. CPU 311 firmware before 4.40 did not support SNP-X.
SNP (Series Ninety Protocol) is not the same as SNP-X and will not work with the C-more
FAQ ID: 1328

Question: I cannot connect to a C-more for programming, my ping times are very long. Can you change the timeouts?
Answer: Possibly
You will have to edit EA_.INI with Windows Notepad
It is located in the directory you installed the C-More software
Once you open the file, go to the [App] section of the file and add this at the bottom:
PING=1
PINGTIMEOUT=xxxx
PanelTimeout=xxxx

PING 1 enables. 0 disables PING
Times are in milliSeconds You need to re-start the software anytime you change the values above.
FAQ ID: 1329