IQAN Design 4.07 / MAC / Parallels Question

We have just been having really bad problems with communication to the system. Mac OS10.13.2//Parallels 13.3.2 Windows 7 (network configured as bridged ethernet). We have been unable to identify the reason for the communication issues but we have found that the only certain way to reset after the problem is to change the communication method from ethernet to something else, close down Iqan design, open it up again with the other communication method on, change it back to ethernet, close down again and then re-open with ethernet as the comms method, then the comms would immediately pick up the connection.

The comms problems were always present - whether it was getting sending or getting an app file, or measuring. We didn't really experience a problem when using Iqanrun but were never on the comms with it for long.

We have been using fiber optic for the connection between the screen (our access point) and the MC43's but in order to rule this out we hard wired them with twisted pair and still had the same problems.

IQANdesign and IQANrun only detects modules that are located on the same subnet. With a bridged Ethernet this should work unless there is a router in between or something is blocking UDP broadcast (firewall software etc). If you see the module among the detected modules you could try the procedure below.

Normally we use UDP protocol for communicating with the modules on the same network for best performance. But there is a way to make IQANdesign use TCP instead which could be worth a try since it is more reliable:

- If the module is detected in IQANdesign, note the IP address of the module shown in the Ethernet connection dialog.

- Disconnect/switch off the module.

- Add the IP address under the static modules tab in IQANdesign.

- Connect/switch on the module again. 

- Hopefully it should get the same IP address and show as online under the static modules tab.

- When selecting the module from the static modules tab, IQANdesign will use TCP protocol.

If this works it indicates that the Ethernet bridge reorders or drops UDP packets which would cause problems if it happens too often.

Nick, for the crash please submit a crash report and we can have a look what it is that causes the crash. Does it crash when you are using the latest IQANdesign 5 version or is it just 4.07?

Hi Anders , when the Iqan module was detected by Iqandesign we noted down the IP address. But when we attempted to put this in as a static IP - we received an error message to say that the IP address was not in a valid range so would not allow us to continue. As I said previously, the only way to be sure of getting a connection was to change the communication method away from ethernet, and then to change it back again. When we did this Iqandesign detected the modules immediately every time. We did regularly get drop outs when measuring - which was extremely frustrating!! - note that we also tried using a windows 7 laptop and were experiencing similar problems with dropping out whilst measuring. 

Ok, I guess you are connected directly to the module. In this case the IP address will be in the 169.254.x.x range which is not supported in the static address tab. Could it be that you have more than one network interface in Windows? If two network interfaces exists they may both have received an address in the same subnet (in this case 169.254.x.x). This causes windows to be unable to select the route for packages. Try to disable any other network interface in windows adapter settings. 

You can type "ipconfig" in a command window to check the current addresses of all network interfaces.

Ah Ok thank you we will try that. Unfortunately the machine has now been delievred but will try it again on the next build.

Turned out to be caused by a bug in IQANdesign 4 when dealing with recursive base pages. Fixed in IQANdesign 5.