Problems using FP Advise Timestamp

[Niel Craig]

I'm having problems using the timestamp from the FP Advise vi - dates/times way out from current date/time. I am using FP1600 and have FW 3.00.

I've seen some comments re time sync of the FP Server but not sure what this relates to.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Niel.

[Aaron_G]

Niel,

For an understanding of how timestamps are generated by an FP-1600, please look at KnowledgeBase Article#261DJ83E, linked below:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/81585d2a54d1c070862569e70071639a?OpenDocument

For an understanding of how the FieldPoint Server generates timestamps from the system clock, please look at the answer to theDeveloper Exchange question "Where does the timestamp information of the FP-1000 module come from?":

http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RPAGEID=135&HOID=506500000008000000F2220000&UCATEGORY_0=_18_%24_17_&UCATEGORY_S=0

If there is no Time Server available, the data/times returned from the FP-1600 are going to be in March 1998 and will be relative to what time of the day the
module was powered up.

Regards,
Aaron

[Niel Craig]

Thanks for the response Aaron. I'd seen both these posts and others before but still couldn't figure out how to get the time stamp working. The date time info I'm getting is Mar 98 as you said. How do you set up the time server? Is this the same the fieldpoint server? (Not sure how to get that running either as can't find any docs relating to that).

I've also seen the post
http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RPAGEID=135&HOID=50650000000800000046150000&UCATEGORY_0=_18_%24_17_&UCATEGORY_S=0

which states that the time server's IP address should be a computer with FP Explorer installed and with the FP time sync running. Can't find any ref to FP time sync!

Help! I'm probably being a bit dense it being a Monday morning.

Thanks
in advance,

Niel.

[Aaron_G]

Niel,

Sorry for the confusion. The Time Service that the FP-1600 uses is the Lookout Time Synchronization Services. The Lookout Time Syncrhonization services debuted with Lookout 4.0 and shortly thereafter in FieldPoint Explorer 2.0. They are also distributed with later versions of those two products and now with LabVIEW-Data Logging and Supervisory Control module. The set-up of the Time Server is as simple as installing any of the above products. The Time Synchronization Server is installed as a Service and should always be available to any computer or device that is trying to synchronize to it.

A Time Server is a computer that is running the Lookout Time Synchronization Service as installed by any of the above mentioned products. The primary m
ethod of configuring a FP-1600 to use the Time Server is the Time Server IP Address assignment box which is located in the window where all of the FP-1600's ethernet parameters is located. It is strongly recommended that the Time Server be assigned a static IP address as the FP-1600 modules do not support DHCP. If you assign a FP-1600 to look at a particular IP address as it's Time Server, and due to DHCP it's changed it's address, then the FP-1600 is unable to synchronize it's clock. An important note is that even when a FP-1600 fails to synchronize it's clock, the delta's on the time-stamps will still be accurate even though the absolute date/time is incorrect.

Regards,
Aaron