Starting the development environment and the runtime environment

This tutorial informs you how to start the →integrated development environment Neuron Power Engineer and the →runtime environment.

Starting Neuron Power Engineer

Condition for an extended version of Neuron Power Engineer: You have already installed the required license.

  1. Go to the folder where you installed Neuron Power Engineer.

  2. Locate the file NeuronPowerEngineer.exe to start Neuron Power Engineer and double-click it.

  3. If you have installed one version of Neuron Power Engineer only on your system, select the default workspace and click OK in the dialog.
    (warning) Mind the following guidelines/recommendations for a workspace and for the projects that you are going to create in Neuron Power Engineer.

    • Do store your workspaces outside the installation directory of Neuron Power Engineer. This makes it easier to upgrade to a newer version.

    • Create your workspaces on a local drive. A workspace on a network drive might impair the performance of Neuron Power Engineer.

    • Do not copy or move a workspace directory because it may contain metadata with absolute file system paths. Those will be invalid if the workspace is copied/moved. It is better to switch the workspace inside Neuron Power Engineer (transferring the current setting).

    • Do not pass a workspace on (e.g. to team members). If the workspace is re-used on different workstations, problems might occur when projects are created or edited there. See "Block or library is not available in projects" for details.

    • Make sure that the workspace does not contain any special characters (such as umlauts, e.g. ä, ö, ü). If anyway, Neuron Power Engineer will not be able to load the application onto the PLC.
      For the workspace, letters A – Z or a – z, numbers 0 – 9, dots (character .), underlines (character _), dashes (character -) and blanks are allowed.

    By default, it is not possible to use different instances of Neuron Power Engineer at the same time on the same system. It does not matter whether these instances are started for the same version or for different versions. An appropriate message informs you if an instance of Neuron Power Engineer is already running and you try to start another instance. If it should be possible to start multiple instances of Neuron Power Engineer, contact your administrator and ask to change the default configuration and to make sure that the appropriate conditions regarding the start of multiple instances are met.
    See "Are my projects upwards and downwards compatible?", if you have already installed previous versions of Neuron Power Engineer on your system and you want to continue using the projects created in a previous version.

    Do not create projects in the workspace

    Do not create the project in the workspace of Neuron Power Engineer (in folder workspace of the installation folder of Neuron Power Engineer). Uncheck Use default location and enter another location.
    This ensures that projects will not be deleted by mistake – if you have to delete the workspace e.g. due to troubleshooting instructions.

    Do not create projects in the installation folder

    Do not create the project in the installation folder of Neuron Power Engineer.
    This ensures that projects will not be deleted by mistake – if you delete the installation folder.

    Moreover when creating an application and/or libraries for them, the location of a project in the installation folder might lead to problems when testing the application.

    No blanks or special characters in project name and installation path

    Make sure that there are no blanks or special characters (such as umlauts, e.g. ä, ö, ü) in a project path/name and in the installation path. If anyway, Neuron Power Engineer will not be able to load the application onto the PLC.
    For the paths and project names, letters A – Z or a – z, numbers 0 – 9, dots (character .), underlines (character _) and dashes (character -) are allowed. Examples for allowed project names: my.project, my-project, my_Project_01

    See "Special characters in path prevent loading of application" for a workaround.

  1. Only required at the first start of Neuron Power Engineer:

    • Accept the conditions of the license agreement.

    • If Windows security alerts The Windows Firewall has blocked some features of this program appear, click Allow access. Alternative: Contact your system administrator and ask him to define rules for the Windows firewall.

If you want to start Neuron Power Engineer in another language, see "How do I change the language for the user interface?"

Starting the runtime system

The start procedure for the →runtime system depends on the used →PLC.

Starting the runtime system on the local Windows-PC

The runtime system for Windows is built-in into Neuron Power Engineer and is automatically started when Neuron Power Engineer is started. However, you can stop and start this built-PLC from within Neuron Power Engineer at any time.

Starting the runtime system on any Windows-PC

This procedure applies, if you have installed the runtime system by using the installation package on any Windows-PC.

  1. Only necessary, if you want to have the traces of the runtime system displayed in the PLC Logging view of Neuron Power Engineer without a connection to the Windows-PC: 

    Define the environment variable RTS_LOG_UDP.
    You are able to define environment variables by using the command set in a Windows command prompt. If in doubt, ask an administrator for support.
    Example for defining the environment variable:

    set RTS_LOG_UDP=192.168.1.239:7777

    As value, first define the IP-address of the computer where Neuron Power Engineer is used, then add : and conclude with the port 7777. Hence, the value for a computer with IP-address 192.168.1.239 is: 192.168.1.239:7777
    If you do not know the IP-address, ask your administrator for this piece of information. 

  1. Go to the folder where you installed the runtime system.

  2. Go to the sub-folder bin, locate the batch file startPLC.bat and double-click it.

  3. If you want to check whether the runtime system has been started in demo mode: Move the scrollbar of the the runtime system window to the top. Check the displayed messages.

    Displayed messages

    Meaning

    HTTPD: License not found
    HTTPD: Demo mode enabled, system will run for xh

    The runtime system has been started in demo mode – it is operated as a full version for 3 hours after starting the runtime system.
    Recommended: Install a license for the runtime system. 

    LICENSE: RTS/httpd
    LICENSE: licensed to xxxx
    LICENSE: operating system Windows NT/X86
    LICENSE: date issued YY-MM-DD
    LICENSE: activated feature RTS... 

    The runtime system has been started as full version. There is already a licence for the runtime system.

Starting the runtime system on Controllino or Arduino Nano

If you are using a Controllino or an Arduino Nano as target system, there is no need to start the runtime system on it. However, reproduce the tutorial "Putting Controllino or Arduino Nano into operation".

Starting the runtime system on other target systems

If you are using a different target system, best practice is to reproduce the corresponding tutorial. It also includes instructions how to start the runtime system on this target system. Otherwise you will find appropriate contact information.

Target system

Tutorial

phyBOARD-Regor, phyBOARD-Wega

Putting phyBOARD-Regor or phyBOARD-Wega into operation

Raspberry Pi

Putting Raspberry Pi into operation

Linux computer

no appropriate tutorial provided; But proceed as described starting with "Starting the runtime system on Raspberry Pi".

Revolution Pi

Putting Revolution Pi into operation