Tip of the Day 155: Plant-Wide eDART Software Updates

We have heard that some of our customers are not updating to the latest eDART™ software because it takes to long to update every one in the plant. This causes them pain when they come up against the need for a feature or a bug fix that has already been released but that they did not use. This is to let you know that you do not need update each eDART one at a time but can update them in a batch.

From a computer that can “see” all of the eDARTs (or from the EDM) start the eDART installer. Then use the following steps:

…

It will take some time to complete all of the eDARTS in the network. Once they are completed the text “Success” will show like this:

The eDART upgrades are not auto-installers. Some customers have resisted upgrading because they think they need to go from machine to machine and stop the job and restart the eDART. Actually, since release 8.2 you can just leave the install downloaded to the eDART until the next time the operator stops a job. Once the job is stopped he will get this message:

Be sure to tell your operators that it is ok to click on the “Yes” selection. When they do the eDARTs will restart themselves and install the software.

The only reason to skip the install would be if there is a great hurry such as a color change and you do not want to wait for the eDART to restart and install. If he skips the install the same message will pop up at the next job stop.

Notes and Variations

• Remember that if you have a “7” release (prior to 8.0) you must first install release 8.0 and restart the eDART. The pop-up message will not be there so you need to remember to restart the eDART manually (QNX menu) after the 8.0 download and then again after the latest release.

• Some eDARTS may not need the install; e.g. they already have the latest version. After selecting all eDARTS (step 3) you can hold the “Control” (Ctl) key and click those rows that do not need the install to un-highlight them.

• Note that all of our optional software tools (here) automatically install themselves. You do not need to restart the eDART to install them. After the “Completed” appears on the installer the software is ready to use. Most software patches work this way as well.

Tip of the Day 154: How to Send Small Bites of Data

We often get requests to help customers with some curious data: strange sequence inputs or anomalous pressure. What if you could quickly e-mail the interesting patch of data without having to upload monstrous files to the FTP site? The Analyzer has a simple tool that you can use for this purpose.

Here are the steps in graphical form.

This will place 3 or 4 files that begin with the name “export” in your mold / material / cavitation folder along with the others. You can then copy and paste just these files into an e-mail to send to us or to your customer. In this example they total about 6 MB (smaller when zipped). This is easily in the range of acceptable e-mail attachment sizes.

Warning: After sending you should delete the “export” files because they contain data that duplicates the data in the original files. This confuses the Analyzer.

Variations

1. There is a button on the file saver that lets you create a folder somewhere else on your computer. You can use this to keep your exported data separate from the original to avoid confusion or long file searches.
   
   
   
    


2. You don’t have to use the name “export”. You can give it a descriptive name like “Mold 474 Integral Drop-Out”. Just remember to send all files by that name together.
   
    


3. If you export another section of ph2 data to the same file name the exporter will append the new data to the original file. Thus you can take several pieces of data and build a data file that tells a story.
   
    


4. If you have run an experiment and want to export just the data for which you entered part measurements (with the “Measurement Editor”) you can click the “Export only those shots with part measurement entries”. This lets you create a smaller, contained file with only the experimental data without the startups and other unnecessary information.
   
    

Tip of the Day 128: Cross-Copy Does More…

More than what? Well, more than just copy mold configurations between eDART™s so that they can run on different machines. The name „Cross-Copy“ denotes this one function but it was designed and built to do much more (note: This applies to EDM users and those with cross-copy installed on test Insight Servers.). Some customers have thought that since their molds are dedicated to one machine only they don’t need the „cross-copy“ function.

Here is a short list of functions that you can do to enhance your network experience:

• 
  Pre-create molds, materials or cavity setups in the „eDART Configurations\…“ folder on the EDM and have them ready to go on the eDARTs when a new job starts.


• 
  Copy a mold folder from an EDM in a plant or tryout shop and drop it into a folder on the EDM at your plant to get the whole configuration: sensor locations, pin sizes, templates, alarms, controls (valve gate and other), graph setups etc.


• 
  To set up a new job on a mold with a new material, copy and paste a current material into the mold folder. All of your current settings will then be ready to run as a close starting point if you start the job with the new material. Any adjustments you save will not affect the process setup for the previous material.


• 
  Drop photos and setup notes into EDM folders and have them ready to read on the eDARTs when the job starts (see tips # 71 and 72 )


• 
  If an eDART is damaged and must be replaced, all the configurations exist on the EDM for both mold and machine (e.g.s sequence setup, injection pressure scaling etc.) and are therefore not lost. The new eDART will accept the configurations when it is installed, identify the machine from the Sequence Module and set itself up as it was before.


• 
  Install an eDART on a new machine and have mold configurations ready to go to run one of your existing molds on the new machine.


• Even if molds do not move between machines the cross-copy system copies the security settings across the plant. Thus you only need to set security on one eDART to get it set up on the rest.


• The above is also true of views and default settings for Cycle Graph colors etc.


• If a mold, material or cavitation is named improperly you can re-name it on the EDM. This will change the name across the plant.


• If molds are retired or were junk (e.g. the „test“ mold that no one knows what it is) you can delete them from all of the eDARTs by deleting the mold name on the EDM.

With all of the above available with cross-copy I recommend that you leave it operating.

This sheet contains some of the basic concepts and how-to instructions.

Concerns:

Even with all of the above advantages some customers have expressed concerns.

1. Someone can rename or delete a mold on the EDM and wipe out its settings across the plant. Here are some ideas for mitigating that risk.

• Have the IT people set up domain security for the eDART Configurations folder.


• Always copy (or cut) and paste mold folders to an „obsolete“ area, never delete them.


• If enough people ask we could add a switch to the configuration to prevent any deleting and re-naming plant wide. If you actually did delete a mold on the EDM the eDARTs would copy it back up again.

2. Some valve gate controls need to be different for the same mold run on a different machine. We don’t have a „clean“ solution for this yet. But here is one idea.

• Use the „Cavities“ level to specify the machine. The valve gate control strategy is saved under the lowest level used. Then teach the technicians to select the machine from the list under „Cavities“.
  
  
  This is not automated but would work for now.

Tip of the Day 120: How to Handle All That Data

As many of you know the eDART saves the detailed cycle curve data as well as the summary values for each shot. The cycle curve data takes up a lot of room on the eDART’s and eDART Data Manager’s (EDM’s) disks relative to the summary data. With many eDARTs attached to an EDM (or server) all copying their data up daily this can create a huge pile.

As long as the eDART or EDM’s hard drives do not fill up all the data is saved. However you can loose old data from either when the hard drive gets close to full. Both the eDART and EDM have a rollover mechanism that uses a high-water mark on cycle and summary data as a percentage of the disk. This system attempts to preserve summary data as long as possible by removing cycle data first.

Nevertheless, eventually the old summary data will be removed to make room for the new. When that happens all record of the parts is lost. If you are serious about saving data for tracking purposes here are a few techniques from which to choose to ensure it never is lost.

• • Use commercial archiving programs to burn DVD’s of the oldest data (cycle and summary) on a regular basis (before the rollover removes it).

     

• • Periodically remove old cycle data from the EDM in favor of keeping the summary data. This can be done by using the Windows „Search“ feature on the EDM’s „ftp“ directory. In the search box put “  *.cycle.ph2 “ to search for all cycle data files. Then click the „Modified“ heading (once or twice) to sort by date. Select the oldest cycle files and delete them.

     

    You may have specific molds for which you want to keep cycle data. In that case, sort by the „In Folder“ column and, by holding the CTL key, un-select files for those molds before deleting.

     

• • Set up the eDART to copy only cycle data to the EDM that has notes associated with it. Thus if something odd was going on and someone left a note there would always be cycle data there to go with it.

     

• • Set up the eDART to send only summary data to the EDM or server. This is obviously the most severe method and the analyzer will never be able to show cycle data this way. But summary data contains most of the information required for analysis of long term trends and is therefore still useful.

     

RJG Customer Support can help you set up the switches for the last two methods above.

Tip of the Day 93: Uploads

Tip #92 explained how to download files from RJG’s FTP site. Here is the basic scheme to send data or other files to RJG using windows file explorer.

1. Select and copy the files or folder that you want to send from your computer (or eDART™ Data Manager)


2. Open RJG’s ftp site with Explorer by typing in ftp.rjginc.com


3. From Explorer’s menu bar under „File“ log in using the user name (usually „rjg_data“) and password that RJG support gives you.


4. If RJG people have prepared a folder for you on FTP site double click to open it.


5. Right click and paste the data to the FTP site.

Details:


First find the data you wish to send. Here you see the way the EDM data looks on your network. When you select the mold folder (mold #100 in this case) you can see all of the process data files on the right. These end in „.ph2“ (more to come in a later tip). Select any files you wish to send using shift or control keys and the left mouse. These files are named base name for the date and time at which they started. Then click the right mouse over them and select „Copy“

Next type in ftp.rjginc.com in the address line (followed by [Enter]). As in tip #92 this takes you to RJG’s anonymous ftp site. In order to put data on the ftp site you need to log in by selecting „File“ on the menu bar and the „Login As…“

After you enter the user name and password from RJG you will see our data upload site. Usually the customer support person will have provided a folder for you into which the put the data („Customer X data“ in this example). If there is no folder you may paste the files directly in to the data site.

When you click „Paste“ the files begin copying and then appear in the folder on the FTP site. When they are finished you may close Explorer and inform RJG that the files are there.

Tip of the Day 92: Downloads

For transferring large files to and from RJG we have distributed an FTP^† program named „Filezilla“. This was free software and not a little confusing to learn, not to mention its other quirks. Here is a simpler method for those who would like to try a simpler method and are familiar with the windows file explorer. You can also use your web browser (Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) but I prefer the file explorer because it has information about dates and times etc.

The simple story:

1. RJG support people place a file that you need on our „anonymous“ FTP site (no log-in required).


2. You open RJG’s ftp site with Explorer by typing in ftp.rjginc.com
   


3. Copy the file or folder you want and paste it to a folder on your computer.

That’s it.

Next tip: Uploading data (which requires a log in)

^†FTP: /F-T-P/, 1. [techspeak] n. The File Transfer Protocol (set of codes and commands) for transmitting files between systems on the Internet. 2. vt. To beam a file using the File Transfer Protocol.

The eDART™ also uses the FTP method to send its data files to the eDART Data Manager

For those who would like a more detailed explanation…

Open Explorer from the „Start“ button on the windows toolbar:

In the address bar of the explorer type in our ftp site address: ftp.rjginc.com and then hit [Enter]

This will open up the anonymous RJG web site. This data area contains a mixture of things that change from time to time that are set up by RJG support for download to specific customers.

Today among the various items „eDART Data Extractor_2.3.exe“. This is the installer for Data Extractor. For example you might want to download this file to your computer and run it to install Data Extractor. Right click the mouse over the file and select „Copy“. Then open the folder on your computer in which you wish to put it. Over the right pane click the right mouse and select „Paste“.

Tip of the Day 73: Stabilization with Cycle Values Template

Since we are on the topic of stabilization here is another tool that can help in addition to the Setup Notes tool.

One of the common problems in a plant is not only that the cavity pressures are not correct (not to template) but that the reason is often someone did not put the same process setup parameters into the machine. Or, in some cases, they did put the right parameters into a machine but the machine refuses to go to the same speeds or pressures that it should.

When you make a template the Cycle Values tool saves all summary values currently being computed as “Template Values”. You can then refer to these as a sort of process setup sheet. These parameters are “normalized” to volume and plastic pressure ^†. Here is an example of a cycle values window with its template values beside it. These are shown in the order in which you would probably set up the process (You can click and hold on a cycle value row and drag it up or down while it is colored light blue).

Notes:

Next Tip: Setting up default cycle values for all molds.

Here is a graphic showing where these values come from on the cycle graph for a decoupled 3 process. You may wish to substitute Sequence Time / Mold Clamped for Sequence Time / Plastic Cooling because relates more closely to the machine setup. But the cooling of the plastic actually begins at the end of fill so it more closely relates the plastic variable “Cooling Time” than does the mold clamped time.

In a D2 process the Average Value / Pack Flow Rate will not be computed because the process goes from fill to hold.

Tip of the Day 72: Photos and HTML

Tip of the Day 71: Simple Text