The Nrio Device Manager has a button that may be useful if engineering cannot wait until you are online with the actual IO. Figure 8 shows the resulting dialog, in which you are prompted for name and device type. Note you must be online with the station to access this feature.
The “Device Type” selection in the Add Offline Hardware dialog defaults to “Nrio16Module”; currently, this is the only valid selection.
Any NrioModule added offline will have value of zero (0) for both Address and Uid (Unique ID), along with a fault status. Its Fault Cause property will read “Invalid UID: Do Discover and Match.”, which summarizes how to clear the fault (once online with the IO).
Following adding an NrioModule using the method, note you can still use “Learn” mode from the component’s Points extension’s Nrio Point Manager view to “Discover” and Add Nrio proxy points (all will have a fault status). And as needed, add other extension types (e.g. history) and link into control logic, etc.However, such an NrioModule
will not be operational until the JACE is online with the IO device, and only then after you do an online Discover and Match
from the Nrio Device Manager. In the case of multiple NrioModules on the NrioNetwork, you typically “wink” discovered IO devices
before making each match. For related details, see About Nrio Wink and About Nrio Device Match.
Discovered Nrio devices have an available right-click Wink action, as shown in Figure 9.
By default, the Wink command causes the selected I/O device to cycle its first digital output (relay output) On and Off for a period of 10 seconds. This can be used to confirm the device before matching it to a specific NrioModule component in the station database (typically, added using “Add Offline Hardware”).
Along with other actions, each NrioModule component in the station also has the equivalent “Wink Device” action. In addition,
each NrioModule component has two related properties: Wink Output and Wink Duration (allowing adjustment from first output (1) with a duration of 10 seconds). However, wink is typically used less after an NrioModule is added. In fact, immediately following successful configuration of an NrioModule (including its points) you
may wish to hide this action on the NrioModule, to prevent future inadvertent cycling of the designated output. Do this from the slot sheet of any NrioModule, by setting the Hidden config flag on its “winkDevice” slot.
Following a device Wink to confirm the location of a device, typically you perform a match. See About Nrio Device Match.
Match is a feature of Learn mode in the Nrio Device Manager, and is similar to device match available in the device manager view of some other drivers. For general information, refer to the “Match (Device)” section in the Drivers Guide.
Figure 10 shows a match about to be initiated between a discovered Nrio16Module and an offline-created Nrio16Module.
Following the match, the NrioModule uses the Uid and automatically-assigned Address of the selected discovered device, and its fault status is cleared. In the Discovered pane, the associated device becomes unavailable for selection (dimmed).