FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Here you will find help with problems and answers to frequently asked questions.

Please inform us if you think there is a solution to a problem that should be presented here on our FAQ page. Your suggestions are very much appreciated.

Here you will find help with problems and answers to frequently asked questions.

Please inform us if you think there is a solution to a problem that should be presented here on our FAQ page. Your suggestions are very much appreciated.

Maintenance of standard software products

With product life cycles becoming increasingly short, it is crucial to keep your work equipment up-to-date. And this holds especially true for the technology development sector.

We therefore consistently update and improve our software programs. Our software is fully upward compatible and meanwhile reaches a life cycle of more than 15 years, our test rig software even more than 20 years.

Due to permanent maintenance errors in our programs are reduced and our programs are among the most stable software programs in the market. This is important for our clients, in particular in the test rig area, where our products are operated on a 24/7 basis.

Apart from functionality considerations, clients may also decide on installing new software versions when they change other, general conditions. This applies primarily if a new operating system, a new computer platform, or new measurement and control hardware is employed.
Customer-specific extensions can only be implemented in the current major release.

How do I get a new software version?

You may download a new installation of your major program version from our update server within one year after purchasing the software license.

This is also possible at a later time. After this one year, however, you will not be able to select and view new functionalities. New major versions are also excluded.

If you require new functions then, there are three solutions on offer:

You may purchase an update for the current program stage;
you may purchase a subscription key for the duration of one year, i.e. the possibility for updating during that period of time;
or you may agree to a maintenance contract.

Comparison of maintenance options


Service	Warranty	Without main- tenance	One-time update	Sub- scription	Contract
Bug fixing, also after warranty for the originally purchased major release has expired	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Download of debugged versions within the purchased major release	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Update to current version including major release			yes	yes	yes
Download of versions with new functions without major releases	yes			yes	yes
Download of versions with new functions with new major releases				yes	yes
New version on a data medium twice a year, together with the relevant information, for clients in the EU					yes
Product maintenance up to 1 year after purchasing the successor product				yes	yes
Telephone support on weekdays, Mondays to Fridays (except holidays) from 9 am to 4 pm CET	yes			yes	yes
Telephone support on weekdays, Mondays to Fridays (except holidays) from 7:30 am to 7 pm CET					yes
Optional: Access to deposited program code (software escrow) if software updates are discontinued					yes

A contract for subscription or maintenance is only possible within one year of purchasing the software license.

If the purchase was made more than one year ago, you will need to purchase an update for the license.

Overview

Sample calculation for an update with major version update

Note: The prices listed are for illustrative purposes only. You can obtain the actual prices from us.

The software was purchased 7 years ago
Maintenance subscription rate = 410 € / year
Price per major version update = 410 €

In order to conclude the subscription contract, the update to the current version needs to be purchased first. The purchase price is calculated as follows:

7 years (license time elapsed) – 1 year (warranty) = 6 years
This is capped to five years.
Price for update: 5 years * 410 € / year + major version update price 410 = 2460 €

Definition of terminology

Major version update: version update of a program
Example: from m.Lab V3 (sd.Solutions 2017) to m.Lab V4 (sd.Solutions 2020)

Update: The updated version of a program.
Example: Update from m.Lab Build 802 to m.Lab Build 853

Upgrade: The change from one program to another program with extended features.
Example: Upgrade from p.Lab Desktop to m.Lab Desktop or from m.Lab to x.Lab

Subscription: Update subscription, i.e. the eligibility for updating is purchased in advance. This implies the purchase of an update key for a program license, normally for a duration of one year.

Web server set up

FAQ – General

How do I display the data in my Internet browser in the course of a measuring process?

First create an HTML page to be displayed during the measuring process:

<<html>
<head>
<title>Webserver Test</title>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT=1>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Webserver Test</h1>
<TABLE border=”1″>
<TR>
<TD><b>Label</b></TD>
<TD style=”WIDTH: 114px”><b>Wert</b></TD>
<TD><b>Unit</b></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>[#L:x_ad1#]</TD>
<TD>[#D:x_ad1#]</TD>
<TD>[#U:x_ad1#]</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</body>
</html>
The first highlighted line causes the browser to reload the page every second.

The web server implemented in m.Lab will interpret all strings starting with [# and ending with #] as placeholders and substitute them in the sample page as follows:

The placehholder prefixed by L: becomes the name of the dataset x_ad1.
The placehholder prefixed by D: becomes the current value of the dataset x_ad1.
The placehholder prefixed by U: becomes the unit of the dataset x_ad1.

Next, please activate the web server and identify the HTML page to the web server:

You will find the appropriate dialog under the menu item list Extended/Advanced/Remote Access…

In this example, it is assumed that the previously created HTML page was saved as
c:\MLabWebServer\WebserverTest.html

Activate the web server by checking the top box.  HTML path) defines the folder that holds the HTML pages for the project.  Start page is the page displayed on calling the server, if no other page is specified.

You can now test the web server by starting a browser on a computer that has m.Lab, and entering localhost into the address bar (please note: m.Lab must be in the online mode for the web server to be activated).

Error “MKernel no longer starts with realtime priority”

Reason:
The IT responsibles activated a PC group policy on domain PCs. This restricts the right to “Increase scheduling priority”.  As a side effect, the priority for a process on domain PCs can maximally be set to “High”.

Solution:
The IT responsibles can configure a user group with the permission to start processes scheduled for “Realtime” priority.

All users who need this permission should then be assigned to this group.

Inactivating fast startup in Windows 10

When a Windows-10 computer starts, it typically runs a fast startup process, which loads an image of certain settings from the last session from the hard drive. Experience shows that this may cause some expansion cards to fail to initialize properly, which can lead to driver issues. To prevent this, fast startup can be disabled.

Please act as follows:

1. Open the Run dialog with the keyboard shortcut Windows + R.

2. The powercfg.cpl command opens the “Power Options” view in the Control Panel.

3. Click “Choose what the power button does” on the left side.

4. Clicking on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” will take you to admin mode if it is not already activated.

5. Under “Shutdown settings”, remove the check mark of the checkbox “Turn on fast startup (recommended)”. Note that this option will not appear if Hibernation is disabled. Without Hibernation enabled, fast startup is not possible at all.

6. Click on “Save changes”.

7. Restarting Windows will make the settings take effect.

Error: Device driver not found

Error message on starting measurement: Device driver was not found.

Solution: Check the list of installed drivers by starting MConfig and selecting the menu item Extras/Installed drivers. The driver DMYDRV should be installed only once. Please delete multiple installations. You can do this in the Windows Device Manager. Please deinstall the drivers under SD Devices.

QuantumX Usage in sd.Solutions

The program MX Assistant and a programming interface (QuantumX-API) are required for m.Lab to be able to access QuantumX. Both are provided by the manufacturer (HBM).
The MX Assistant is used to configure the device. The QuantumX-API is required as soon as you integrate QuantumX as a device in m.Config. In addition, the NET Framework of Windows is used.

This short guide mainly shows you how to install and register the API.

Using MX Assistant

Before use, QuantumX must be configured with the program MX Assistant. It can be loaded from the website of HBM. The configuration is independent of the computer with which QuantumX will later be used.

Installing QuantumX-API

The QuantumX API compenent uses .NET Framework 3.5. Starting with Windows 10, this version is not part of the operating system and must be installed separately.
One way to do this is the Control Panel.

Enter Turn Windows features on or off in the desktop search bar.

The following dialog window opens:

Select .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) and click OK. The framework will now be installed and activated.

Start the program QuantumX API 4 Setup.exe with administrator rights and carry out the following further steps after completion:

Open the program folder of the assistant. The path varies depending on the installation and Windows system, e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\HBM
Copy all files with the dll file extension from the subfolder
QuantumX API 4\DLLs\x86
to the folder
QuantumX API 4\DLLs

On both 32- and 64-bit systems, use the x86 directory. The following file must then be executed with administrator rights (via the context menu even if you are already logged in with administrator rights, see the following figure) RegCOMAssembly32.bat.

Including in m.Config

After registering the QuantumX API, QuantumX can be integrated in m.Config as a device. It can be found in the hardware dialog under the Ethernet tab in the device icon area far to the right.

The following dialog is opened:

Click Scan network or Scan network full. Scanning can sometimes take a little longer.

If QuantumX under m.Lab doesn’t work, check the IP addresses.

For further questions, please contact the support of STIEGELE Datensysteme GmbH.

FAQ