Factory Automation Service Release Notes
About This Document
This document contains a revision history of Factory Automation Service, including new features that may not be included in the User’s Guide, resolved issues, and known issues.
Trademarks
Microsoft, Internet Explorer, and Windows are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
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PerkinElmer is either a trademark or registered trademark of PerkinElmer, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
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Bruker and OPUS are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Bruker Optics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
All other trademarks are the property of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and its subsidiaries.
About Factory Automation Service
Factory Automation Service is a software package for allowing application interaction with a company’s digital communication system via Modbus TCP. Factory Automation Service is comprised of the following software applications:
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Service is an PC service that creates a Modbus TCP server that can be used in a factory setting to provide data for external automation and analysis.
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Application Client Library is a utility used by applications such as RESULT to communicate with the PC service installed on a PC. This allows simple communication with service without the need to know the details of Modbus_ TCP protocols._
Factory Automation Service 1.4
Release Date: April 2024
Supported Operating Systems
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Windows 10 64-bit
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Windows 11 64-bit
New Features
Factory Automation Service now supports OPC-UA
Resolved Issues
None
Known Issues
OPC UA:
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RE__SULT.Workflow.MessageBox nodes not yet properly supported.*
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OperatorRequest values not updating correctly.
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HMILockoutStatus node not currently implemented.
Modbus:
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No known issues.
Factory Automation Service 1.3
Release Date: Oct 2023
Supported Operating Systems
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Windows 10 64-bit
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Windows 11 64-bit
New Features
Number encoding can now be accomplished with 4 choices. BigEndian (default), BigEndianByteSwap, LittleEndian, LittleEndianByteSwap. See PCConfig.txt for use.
Resolved Issues
UINT values
UINT values were not being written properly. This has been resolved.
Double and Float values
Insufficient significant digits were used with these data types. This has been resolved.
Known Issues
None
Factory Automation Service 1.2
Release Date: June 2022
Supported Operating Systems
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Windows 10 64-bit
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Windows 11 64-bit
New Features
Factory Automation Service will no longer restart after editing either configuration file
If Modbusconfiguration.tfas is modified, the service will reload that configuration, but will no longer restart the entire service. If PCConfig.tfas is modified, the service will restart due to the possible need of binding to new IP address, etc.
Ability to turn on/off PLC address offsets
There is now the ability to use PLC address offsets (address index starts at 1) or not (address index starts at 0). By default, PLC address offsets are not used. See “UsePLCAddressOffsets” in PCConfig.txt for use.
Resolved Issues
Factory Automation Service could fail
While configuration files are being modified if reading or updating Modbus values, an exception could occur that causes the service to stop.
Known Issues
None
Factory Automation Service 1.1
Release Date: October 2020
Supported Operating Systems
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Windows 10 64-bit
New Features
RESULT is updated to support reading and writing data with Modbus TCP through Thermo Scientific Factory Automation Service
A new service – Thermo Scientific Factory Automation Service is installed and runs in the background to support Modbus TCP communication. Two text documents with help information are installed under “C:\ProgramData\Thermo Scientific\FactoryAutomationService”: ModbusConfiguration.txt for workflow configuration, and PCConfig.txt for Modbus TCP configuration and default RESULT identifiers configuration.
Resolved Issues
Issue related to saving/restoring large configuration files
When a large configuration file is saved in a RESULT workflow, the entire contents may not get restored properly.
When restoring a configuration from a RESULT workflow, service may not properly read file
A timing issue cause the service to incorrectly import the updated configuration file. This results in incorrect or incomplete Modbus information being available to the service.
Issue related to regional settings
It was possible to use different regional settings in the application and the service. Numeric values passed between the two could have different decimal separator. Fixed in version 1.1.
Known Issues
None
Factory Automation Service 1.0
Release Date: August 2020
Supported Operating Systems
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Windows 10 64-bit
New Features
Initial Release of Factory Automation Service
This service allows applications to communicate with a company’s digital communication system via the Modbus TCP protocol.
Configuration of the service is controlled by manual and automatic editing of two files with “.tfas” extension.
The file PCConfig.tfas is for configuration of the service and for internal use application specific Modbus entries.
The file ModbusConfiguration.tfas is for configuration of workflow or experiment-specific entries. This file is typically saved with the workflow or experiment and must be re-imported if file is manually changed.
Resolved Issues
None
Known Issues
None
How to Contact Us
Current contact information is located at Select the “Contact Us” icon at the top of the screen.
Attachment(s):
| File | Last Modified |
|---|---|
| Factory Automation Service Release Notes.pdf | April 10, 2024 |