Question

WonderWare/DDE clients can't communicate to KepDirect Ver 5.x. How do I correct this?

Answer

Version 5.x does not run in the "Interactive mode" that previous versions did, it now runs as a Service. To change so that Wonderware or DDE clients can connect, do the following:


If customer didn't enable it at first install ( most miss this), start the KEP installation again:

1. Select "Modify"
   
   
2. Expand the "Communications Server" to show "Native Client Interfaces"
   
   
3. Expand "Native Client Interfaces", then select "Dynamic Data Exchange" ( for DDE/spreadsheet) or "Wonderware SuiteLink" and select "Will be installed on local hard drive".
   
4. Click Next, and finish the installation. It may be necessary to reboot.
   
   
5. Go to Taskbar icon, right-click, select Settings, then click "Runtime Process" tab, set "Selected Mode" to "Interactive", then apply and reboot
   
   
6. Open Configuration with working project, go to File>Project Properties, select DDE or FASTDDE tabs as required, enable both, and note the Appliation Name or Service Name, change as necessary.
   
   
   
   If users are doing DDE, the proper formula format is "=(Application Name)|(Topic)!(Item)".
   
   
   
   =kepdirectdde|_ddedata!channel1.device1.V7766 ( note the underscore "_ddedata"….). Using the Excel Formula DEC2HEX converts the value into seconds,
   
   
   
   Application Name: By default, this is set to "Kepdirectdde".
   
   
   Topic: The global topic is "_DDEData". ( note the underscore "_ddedata"….)
   
   
   Item: When using the global topic, this is the same as an OPC item name. It will be "channel.device.tag".
   
   
   

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   FAQ Subcategory: None

   This item was last updated on 2018-09-04
   Document ID: 1531

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