Matrox Design Assistant X 1

Getting Started with Matrox Iris GTR and DA X

Troubleshooting
July 2, 2020
Copyright© 2007-2020 by Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents
Matrox Iris GTR Initial Bring up ..................................................................................................................... 1
Grabbing your first image ......................................................................................................................... 1
Network settings ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Running the Profiler tool and accessing the GTR’s Desktop ..................................................................... 2
PLC Communication .................................................................................................................................. 3
Connecting from the Design Assistant IDE ............................................................................................... 4
Remote Access to GTR .............................................................................................................................. 4
Matrox Iris GTR Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 4
GTR Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................... 4
Industrial Communication Verifications ................................................................................................... 8
Check if Protocol Enabled ..................................................................................................................... 8
Verify Data Tables ................................................................................................................................. 8
Check if Waiting on QuickComm handshake ........................................................................................ 8
Custom steps on the GTR.......................................................................................................................... 9

Matrox Iris GTR Initial Bring up

The following is the recommended smoothest path to get started with your Matrox Iris GTR (GTR).

If you have access to the internet, the Vision Academy has additional videos.

Grabbing your first image

a) Use the document “IrisGTR.pdf” Matrox Iris GTR with Design Assistant - Installation and Technical
Reference to prepare power supply, cabling and lensing for your GTR.
b) OPTION DIRECT. Connect a display monitor, USB keyboard and mouse to the GTR’s USB/VGA cable. The
desktop should display the Matrox Design Assistant portal page
c) Under the View tab is the View utility which lets you grab continuously or one image at a time and to save
files either sequence numbered or time-stamped.

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d) OPTION REMOTE. Configure the network settings as described below and launch the View Utility from
the Portal Pages viewed in a browser on another system on the network.

Network settings
a) the camera ships in DHCP mode – If you need to change to static IP, to allow using the camera plugged
directly into your laptop, or plugged into a vision network that uses static addressing, there are two
options:
a. Option 1: On the system where you installed DesignAssistant, click the MilControlCenter desktop
icon. Click Design Assistant X Tools. Run the MtxSysDiscovery tool. It will detect Matrox Iris GTR
cameras on the same subnet, and allow you to modify their communication settings. This utility
uses the MAC address of the camera which is found on a sticker on the camera body.

b. Option 2. Connect as described in Option DIRECT above. On the GTR’s desktop, top right corner
will display the current network address. Use the TCP/IP portal page accessible from the
Gear/Settings symbol. Restarting the camera after making the change is a good idea (Power
symbol)

Running the Profiler tool and accessing the GTR’s Desktop

To run the performance Profiler tool you must access the GTR’s desktop and run the MilConfig utility.

a) Access the desktop remotely using a VNC client (password Matrox) or directly by connecting a
keyboard, mouse and monitor to the GTR’s VGA/USB cable.
b) Click Activities to get the Milconfig icon,

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c) Navigate to the Communications pages and enable the required industrial protocol.

PLC Communication
d) If the GTR is going to be connected to a PLC using EtherNet/IP, PROFINET or MODBUS it is necessary to
enable an instance of the protocol. The Portal pages Administration Settings (Gear) button, go to the
Communication tab, and Enable the required protocol. (This is an important change from earlier versions
of Design Assistant, as it is no longer necessary to access Milconfig on the GTR’s desktop to configure
communications).

e) You must also set the size of the EtherNet/IP communication data blocks if the 64 byte default is not
suitable for your ladder logic. Similarly the Modbus master/slave, TCP/RTU modes are specified.

f) EtherNet/IP - the GTR expects the Assembly Ids to be 110 and 111

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PRODUCER = "110";

CONSUMER = "111";

Connecting from the Design Assistant IDE

a) Install the Matrox Design Assistant IDE software on your development laptop or PC, making sure to verify
the Minimum Requirements and other instructions in the Readme document.
b) Connecting from DA X – select Connect remote from the Platform or Actions menu – The platform name
can be in the form GTR320xxx or an IP address

c) If the version of Design Assistant on the IDE and runtime platform are not the same, the
connection will not be made. Refer to the IrisGTR Upgrade Procedures documentation for
further information about installing a different version of camera software and when necessary,
upgrading the camera’s BIOS.

Remote Access to GTR

The Portal Pages of the GTR are accessible using your computer’s browser, and the URL http://gtr320xxx or
http://IPAddressOfTheGTR. This allows you to grab images, start and stop deployed projects, view information
about the unit, enable and configure industrial communication protocols, acquire additional MIL runtime licenses,
etc.

The only regular administration activities you cannot do through the browser, and for which you must access the
MilConfig application on the desktop, is running the Matrox Profiler to get detailed timing analysis of your
application.

The GTR has a VNC server which allows a VNC client, such as UltraVNC, to access its desktop remotely. Connecting
from a VNC client– you will be prompted for a password, enter Matrox

Matrox Iris GTR Limitations

The principal limitations are listed in the Readme document.

Also refer to the troubleshooting table below.

GTR Troubleshooting

The table contains some situations that might arise. There are more detailed descriptions of the
recommended actions below. If you need to contact technical support, please generate the necessary

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log file, sysinfo.txt, and include it in the support request. When working with an Iris GTR camera, access
the Portal pages as described above. Use Settings button, Troubleshooting tab, and Generate a
troubleshooting log.

Alternately, on the computer you have Design Assistant installed on, run Milconfig Troubleshooting,
Generate log, and it will pull the necessary logs from the GTR if it is accessible on the network and the
DA Agent is running on the camera..

Message Condition Action

Problem connecting Problem connecting to the Use the MtxSysDiscovery
DA to GTR runtime platform 'gtr3200e2'. (previously called
The platform 'gtr3200e2' is not IrisGTRDiscovery) tool or

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reachable on the network (ping check top right corner of

fails). This can sometimes be GTR desktop to verify
caused by incorrect network network name and IP
settings. You can try modifying address
these settings and reconnecting. If desktop is not available,
use MIOS command line
ifconfig

Are the PC and the GTR in

the same subnet, verify
masks are the same.

If using static addressing, is

there a conflict of two
devices with the same
address

Problem connecting No connection could be made Ping is successful Generate Logs (is daagent
DA to GTR because the target machine running?)
actively refused it
192.168.52.172:51013
Problem connecting to the Ping is successful Generate Logs (is daagent
runtime platform ‘gtr...’ running?)
Operator view Insufficient websockets Internet Explorer 11 Accept to modify the registry
entry that extends the limit
on the number of
websockets
Operator View No acknowledge Internet Explorer 11 Verify that your Internet
Explorer meets minimum
requirements as described in
the Readme
Windows 10 - Edge browser is opened instead of Internet Explorer 11 is
Operator View Internet Explorer “hidden” –open the menu in
Edge, click on the ellipses ( ...
) in the top right corner and
select Open in Internet
Explorer.

OperatorView Waiting to connect may take Project uses Check in Portal Pages or
empty minutes industrial Milconfig whether the
communication protocol is Enabled – and the
protocols (with or Instance specified in the
without project’s Platform
QuickComm) Configuration is Ready. If
not, the project will fail at
initialization
Deploy Too long stopping Redeploy
currently running
project
NetworkConnection TCP connect cannot be established Listening on a non- May need to change firewall
step default port settings

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Cannot establish DHCP addressing Correct, case sensitive

connection from password:Matrox
VNC client to GTR
Less likely, command line
verify if the vnc server is
running (if no gateway
specified vnc server may not
start)
Files not found on Image sets, The Matrox Imaging OS on
GTR LoadImageStep, the IrisGTR is case sensitive,
Load calibration unlike Microsoft Windows
from file systems. If you have
difficulty with a project
accessing certain files,
carefully verify the case
Image files not “Could not access Using Recipes or Verify if the Image set
found '/home/mtxuser/Documents/Matrox using a DA setting “Append recipe
Design Assistant/Images/B' “ Template Project subfolder” is checked – in
that case images belonging
to different recipes must be
in separate folders.

Check that all subfolders

have their images – if you
selected “Copy images to
runtime platform” option
when deploying only the
images of the current recipe
are copied.

The others must be copied

using file explorer. If
copying from PC to Iris GTR –
instead of
“/home/mtxuser/”
substitute
\\GTR320xxx\mtxuser

Note that mtxuser and

userdisk folders map to the
same place, userdisk being
provided for backward
compatibility with Iris GT
projects.
Bead Analysis step Images don’t zoom using mouse This is a limitation of this
scroll wheel step, only toolbar zoom
buttons are used
Design Assistant Unexpected exception at design Generate troubleshooting
crashed time or hang at runtime log as described earlier.

Send the resulting sysinfo.txt

file with your request for

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technical support.

Industrial Communication Verifications

Check if Protocol Enabled
In Design Time the information is available in the Communication Menu. It is good to be in the habit of checking
here before deploying.

At runtime, you may see a message like “An error occurred when trying to allocate EtherNet/IP protocol. : EtherNet/IP is not
enabled in MILConfig.”, otherwise you need to verify in the platform’s MILConfig or Portal Administration
Communication pages to see if the protocol instance is enabled and is running.

Verify Data Tables

Use the appropriate Portal Page to monitor the communication tables.

Check if Waiting on QuickComm handshake

In DesignTime there will be a blinking symbol, and you can skip out of the wait

In Runtime – there will be a blinking notification bar at the top of the operator view page.

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Prevention- if you know the PLC may not be present, set communication to “Offline” – either in design time in the
menu shown above, or via buttons added to the Operator View that use the Communication Settings actions.

Custom steps on the GTR

Refer to the Introduction to Matrox Design Assistant Custom Steps pdf accessible from the Quick Start

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