Maintenance and troubleshooting

General maintenance

In order to maintain a high software quality CAMAG will provide updates and patches. You should always install the latest software version available.

Service Tool

On the server, a visionCATSServiceTool.exe will be installed. It should only be used to get log files when no visionCATS client is working. See The Get debug logs functionality.

Known Issues and Workarounds

The “Export entire log” functionality is not available anymore in method, analysis and comparison’s log tab.

Reason: In visionCATS 2.5, the export of the HPTLC log has been integrated into the reports. As a result, visionCATS methods don’t have the functionality anymore because no report is generated for methods.

For analysis and comparisons, go to the report tab, use a report template where the loading of the log data is enabled, and check the log option.

After reinstalling with different server and instrument service ports, no instrument service are available.

Restart the service visionCATS Server.

The camera is not recognized anymore after the PC was in sleep or hibernation mode.

Some USB3 controllers have some issues with the camera, like the Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller. Restart the machine to resolve the problem, and disable sleep mode to prevent the problem from occurring again.

Blue screen when capture image with TLC Visualizer on a Windows 10 / 11

Go to Power Options/Choose what the power button does/Change settings that are currently available/Shutdown settings and disable the option “Turn on fast startup”

A click on the OK button of the message box appearing when an error occurs during a step execution, while the instrument is already executing a step of another analysis, causes an error to occur in the step currently in progress.

When the error message appears, click on the OK button before starting the execution of the other step.

The import of winCATS methods won’t import steps of instruments not supported in visionCATS, and some winCATS specific parameters will be ignored

Reason: winCATS and visionCATS don’t exactly support the same set of instruments, and for each instrument, the exact same set of parameters

After having imported some winCATS methods, visionCATS will inform the user when some steps are ignored. In all cases, please review the imported methods.

After changing of the TLC Visualizer, a TLC Visualizer cannot be executed in an analysis already having images

Reason: Only one TLC Visualizer can be used in an analysis

Redo the analysis

After changing of the camera for a TLC Visualizer, an already opened analysis with a TLC Visualizer step waiting for execution, or TLC Visualizer Manual control or OQ may behave strangely (using the old camera, bad image corrections…)

Before changing of a camera, close all analyses with the next step as TLC Visualizer and Visualizer views

After changing of the camera for a TLC Visualizer, the Visualizer icon in the toolbox isn’t marked as having a bad Diagnostic

Restart the client

While using two TLC Visualizer on a single PC, one or both cameras aren’t detected, or the camera of one TLC Visualizer seems to be connected to the other.

We strongly suggest to use only one TLC Visualizer per InstrumentService (PC)

No image appears in Data or in Comparison after the initial installation of visionCATS on the PC

Restart Windows

Track Assignment doesn’t allow to drag & drop a multi-selection

Before clicking for drag and during the drag, hold SHIFT key for dragging a multi-selection

Application crashes after clicking on an image or opening a comparison

Update your graphic driver to the latest version

After installation, no visionCATS is installed. Also, the SQLServer service may not want to start.

Change the name of the user which installs the application, so that the username is different from PC and domain name

Instruments aren’t responding correctly

Check if you have an Intel(R) Active Management Technology - SOL COM port on your machine, and disable the corresponding COM port in visionCATS/General Settings

When using offline help, the display of some pages is very slow

Reason: the page requests an online resource that is not accessible, causing the slow down

Use the online help when possible. If not possible, try using Chrome or Firefox (instead of Internet Explorer), where the slow down occurs less often.

visionCATS fails in Scanner/Scanner 3 Diagnostics if the Positioning-Test is started in the same session.

Reason: Scanner data of the new test cannot be stored for later processing. This does not invalidate the test results of the previous run.

Close the current Scanner Instrument Tab and reopen it. Attention: just switching between the Tabs inside the Instrument Tab will not prevent the failure. You need to close the Instrument Tab.

When installing visionCATS’s client on machines with Windows of different language (different code page), or restoring a backup on a machine with Windows of another language (code page), all passwords are corrupted.

Reason: Passwords are encrypted using the code page of the local machine (client).

All visionCATS machines of a system (clients and server) should have the same Windows code page.

When installing visionCATS’s server on a machine with name including diacritic (like è or ó), the ports will always be marked as used, blocking the installation.

Reason: Depending on the query, Windows will use the host name with or without diacritic, creating mismatch which result in errors.

Don’t use diacritic in host name (other international characters should work)

When installing visionCATS’s server on a machine with Region settings “Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support” enabled, SQL Server will fail to install .

Reason: Microsoft SQL Server don’t support code page 65001 (UTF-8).

Uncheck “Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support”.

Troubleshooting USB connection errors for HPTLC PRO Modules

When a HPTLC PRO Module is connected to the host PC, it follows the standard USB connection process performed by the Windows operating system. This process can fail for various reasons. This section describes the main steps to follow in order to troubleshoot the vast majority of issues:

1. Check that the HPTLC PRO Module is powered on (front LED switched on) and that the right module is connected to the right PC.

2. Check whether the issue comes from the USB cable, by trying to connect the HPTLC PRO Module with another USB cable. The USB cable might be damaged in some way (visible or not, even if it is brand new). Some USB cables do not follow the USB standard (for example, the length of the cable should not exceed 5m). Please use only standard USB cables.

3. If the PC detects the USB connection but fails to set up the device, try to reinstall the USB driver manually (see Installation of HPTLC PRO drivers).

4. Check whether the issue comes from the USB port on the PC, by trying to connect on another USB port. Note that some chipsets can prevent HPTLC PRO Modules from being correctly recognized by Windows. Some USB hubs (internal or external) can also cause issues. Therefore, trying different kind of USB ports (front and back on the PC, USB 3 and USB 2) may help. If no USB port is working, consider adding a PCI-USB card to the PC.

5. Check whether the issue comes from the PC, by trying to connect on another PC. In rare situations, performing pending Windows Updates or reinstalling Windows will also resolve the issue.

6. Check whether the issue comes from the HPTLC PRO Module itself, by connecting another HPTLC PRO Module. CAMAG always performs USB connection tests when mounting the module, but the module can still be damaged for example during the transport.

7. If none of the steps above did work, please contact your CAMAG reseller.

Warning

By default, Windows can put USB controllers to sleep, see Disable USB selective suspend setting to disable it.