G4 Button properties

George Krietsepis

Hi everybody,
I remember that on G3 panles, we could change a button properties from panel setup/editor. Can we do that on G4 panels too? For example, we need to change the address port of some buttons but we don't have any access to the panel through the G4 Design application at that time

George

cbaram

G4 Button Properties

NO there is no editor built in like G3 panels. Here is an excerpt from a G4 TP manual. These items cannot be changed without TPDesign4, other things such as color, border style, text, etc.... could be changed programmatically those commands can be found in the manual of the TP you are working with.

Button Assignments

? Button Channel Range: 1 - 4000 Button push and Feedback (per address port)
? Button Variable Text range: 1 - 4000 (per address port)
? Button States Range: 1 - 256 (General Button; 1 = OFF State, 2 = ON State)
? Level Range: 1 - 600 (Default level value 0-255, can be set up to 0-65535)
? Address port Range: 1 - 100

NOTE:
Button assignments can only be adjusted in TPD4, not on the panels themselves.

PS - I wish G4 had an editor built in!

Chris

joeyjoejo1200

The part that everyone forgets is the fact that now the only "perfect" panel file is on the panel itself, if you lose that file then you must redo work to get it working again. You could argue that you could upload the changed file from the panel to a PC, but then why not just make the changes on the PC and download it to the panel?

cbaram

G4 Button Properties

Just for conversation...joeyjoejo12300

Granted it could cause an issue down the road if you don't know or realize that someone has changed something directly on the panel but having an editor came in handy when there was no remote access and a minor change was needed. Like a text change on a button that did not have a variable text value and the field tech had no clue how to change the TP file nor wanted to. At least you could walk them through the editor to change it. You could argue that all buttons be assigned variable text values but in the case where you might be hiding a button or group of buttons based on a system mode or current source the buttons would be assigned the same variable text value. Obviously there are many ways to accomplish showing and hiding buttons on a G4 panel but this was just an example.

Ultimately I agree with you.

Chris

DHawthorne

I'm quite sure that it boils down to the complexity of editing the G4 panels. There are far, far more properties and values to set. The memory footprint of a built-in editor was probably prohibitive, and they decided not to do a partial effort. I think I would have made the same decision, if only for support reasons.

toddt

cbaram wrote:

Just for conversation...joeyjoejo12300

Granted it could cause an issue down the road if you don't know or realize that someone has changed something directly on the panel but having an editor came in handy when there was no remote access and a minor change was needed. Like a text change on a button that did not have a variable text value and the field tech had no clue how to change the TP file nor wanted to. At least you could walk them through the editor to change it. You could argue that all buttons be assigned variable text values but in the case where you might be hiding a button or group of buttons based on a system mode or current source the buttons would be assigned the same variable text value. Obviously there are many ways to accomplish showing and hiding buttons on a G4 panel but this was just an example.

Ultimately I agree with you.

Chris

I have found the file transfer program works well with customers. Anytime a customer needs to update a file, a simple laptop and nework cable does the trick. I can walk them thru the phone in about 5 or 10 mins and the file is updated and working great.