Labjack not found UE9

[patrickokeeffe]

I'm observing problems communicating with a Labjack UE9 using DAQFactory 19.1 b2366 on Windows 10 Enterprise x64. Specifically I get this message once per second (timing is 1):

D0050:02:1007 LabJack Device #2 error: LabJack not found

The LabJack is configured for DHCP and receives a static IP reservation from my router. The device Local ID was set to 2 using LJControlPanel and firmware is confirmed to be up-to-date.

DAQFactory has a firewall exception and is allowed to communicate with network devices. I added the LabJack using Quick - Device Configuration (choosing LabJackUD instead of LabJack since the latter is not a real option in DF19.1). I also assigned it to Device Number 2 to keep things simple (App Guide doesn't say anything disallows this, just that the Device Number not Local ID should be referenced in channel setup). 

I then created a test analog input channel as described in the LabJack App Guide (again using LabJackUD since LabJack is no longer a real option). 

There is some data in my test channel but it looks like random garbage, and the LabJack not found errors persist even after power cycling the LabJack and after restarting DAQFactory. 

Any ideas as to what's going on here? 

[EDIT]:

Yes I have other LabJack devices connected via USB - two U12 units and neither one is using device Local ID 2:

Edited May 19, 2022 by patrickokeeffe
add more info

[AzeoTech]

A few thoughts:

1) how are you powering the UE9?  Is it connected via USB?  Was it ever connected via USB while DAQFactory was running.

2) You don't want to use localID 0 for any LabJack.  That means "FirstFound" in DAQFactory.  They are U12's, so won't interfere with the UE9, but still...

3) can you post the raw settings for the device configuration?  Click on Quick - Device Configuration, select LabJack UD, then instead of clicking ok, click View Raw.  Copy and paste the contents here.

[patrickokeeffe]

22 hours ago, AzeoTech said:

1) how are you powering the UE9?  Is it connected via USB?  Was it ever connected via USB while DAQFactory was running.

Good question. It's powered with a separate DC transformer (I don't recall what voltage). The UE9 was setup as Ethernet originally and it's far enough away I don't think anyone plugged it in via USB. 

22 hours ago, AzeoTech said:

2) You don't want to use localID 0 for any LabJack.  That means "FirstFound" in DAQFactory.  They are U12's, so won't interfere with the UE9, but still...

Yes I realized that when I was verifying their addresses but since it's a live system I'll have to wait to fix it. 

22 hours ago, AzeoTech said:

3) can you post the raw settings for the device configuration?  Click on Quick - Device Configuration, select LabJack UD, then instead of clicking ok, click View Raw.  Copy and paste the contents here.

Here's the raw view text and a screenshot. I attached the .ctl file as well. 

2,UE9,Ethernet,192.168.3.13

PilotPLant_May2022.ctl

[AzeoTech]

There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the setup.  So:

1) reboot.  Maybe repower the UE9 as well.  Make sure you don't have any LabJack software running as the LabJack only supports one connection at a time on these devices.  
2) create a new document in DAQFactory before loading anything.  Create the UD ethernet connection like you did and add the single channel.  Then see if it communicates.  If it does, then try your original document, but we need to make sure you don't have any interference.
3) if it doesn't work, make sure you have the latest UD software and firmware

On a separate note on the U12's.  You really need to switch off of ID 0 as soon as possible. Right now it is working, but it is entirely possible that the next time you start, the system will decide that the first found device is ID 1.  This would almost certainly happen if you ever accidently unplugged either of those U12's.

 

[patrickokeeffe]

So good news and strange news. I disconnected the U12 LabJacks, setup a new document, and had no problems communicating with the UE9. I tested with an analog input and data looked great. Then I took the downtime opportunity to set a unique address on the U12 that had been using 0 and when I loaded my original document, the communication errors with the UE9 were no longer present. I'm not sure how to interpret the effect of fixing the U12 address on the UE9 but things are working again and I'll keep it in mind next time I see a Labjack without a unique ID.

[AzeoTech]

It is most likely that you changed two things in debugging and are attributing the solution to the wrong thing because the other thing you did was more minor.  There is, as far as I know, absolutely no connection between the U12 and UE9.  They use different drivers in DAQFactory and they use different drivers from Labjack, and since you were on Ethernet, they wouldn't even share a USB low level driver (which I doubt even if you were on USB for the UE9).  More likely, in the process of doing all this you cycled power on the UE9 which cleared out all the lost connections and opened it up to new connections, or some other little thing.  It goes back to that joke I posted on the forum a few days ago: 4 people get into a car and it won't start.  The electrician says, "It must be the battery", the engineer says "It must be the starter", the chemist says "It must be bad fuel", and the IT guy says "hey guys, why don't we all get out of the car and then get back in and try again!"  It is particularly funny because it is so true.  In computer systems, a reboot (of all systems) solves like 75% of problems. 

[patrickokeeffe]

I didn't reboot the computer or power cycle the UE9. I also didn't modify the old control document, just loaded the saved file. I did completely close DAQFactory when I changed the U12 addresses but in the past just restarting DAQFactory hadn't been enough to fix it. I also observed the 'control' LED on the UE9 began flashing after I disconnected the U12 units and that seemed like a new thing to be happening but, like you say, they don't use the same drivers and should be unrelated, so I brushed it off as coincidence.

Remember when GM snapped back at Bill Gates over his auto industry comparison? "If GM developed technology like Microsoft then occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the car windows, shut it off, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this, restart and drive on." There's a whole bunch more like that and they were all pretty funny.