Dear PRV and All,
I would like to know the purpose of various directories/sub directories such as C-D-E-G-F used in Mk5/6 controls and what occasions the individual sub directories are viewed/used? Under which directory/file is the TC2KREPT stored? and how to get this file in the "start Menu" for quick reference by drag/drop method. Thanx.

 

DIRECTORIES IN MARK VI AND MARK V
Eskay the information is all there in the manual GEH - 6126 vol II , HMI for speedtronic control volume 2 , chapter 3 maintenance. please read through it for better understanding. i will give a brief explanation here

the directories which you see are actually TCI and cimplicity directories and they have a specific function.

you will have at leaset the following directories

Cimplicity directories

C:
Cimplicity
HMI
BSM_DATA
LOG
DATA
EXE etc .....
TCI directories
The TCI directories are actually pseudo drives. I believe they have been used for programming ease and also to make the programs site indipendent.
there are two TCI pseudo drives

TCI
Data
EXE
LOG

this directory which may be present anywhere in the C drive or the computer is made into the pseudo drive G

G:
Data
EXE
LOG

the second pseudo drive is the G drive which references the Site directory

Site
Runtime
Unit #
User
this directory which may be present anywhere in the C drive or the computer is made into the pseudo drive F

F:
Runtime
Unit #
User

your site may contain may other pseudo drives , or regular partitions depending on the cimplicity conficuration but the above is a base minimum , you can

find out whcih ones in your site is a pseudo drive and which one is not by using the command prompt

Run -> CMD
in prompt type - subst

you will get a something like this

F:\: => C:\site
G:\: => C:\Tci

this command will give the pseudo drives and the referncing / indexing location . i have given only an example , the actual site configuration will differ.

Extra information : How to create pseudo drives in win XP

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Folder Options
View tab
Check "Show hidden files and folders {Later you check "Do not show hidden
files and folders}
Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) {Later you will
check "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

Go to the C drive
With Notepad change file type to * (all) and open
AUTOEXEC.BAT (it is probably empty - mine was)
Add line
subst E: C:\Drive_E
{you may want another drive letter besides E - change both E's}
Save as AUTOEXEC.BAT

Now create a shortcut of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and put it in your Startup
folder.

Now go back to Folder Options and check "Do not show hidden files and
folders and "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)
Click OK
Reboot

Note: You can add multiple "subst" lines as long as you don't repeat the
drive letters to be used. (until your run out of alphabet) in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file

in the C directory at your site you will have a AUTOEXEC.BAT file ; it will have the drive refernce index for the pseudo drives , this also another way by which you can find out the pseudo drive referencing , and yes please do not do anything to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file ; this is for information only. any corruption to the file will shutdown TCI , mess up SDB referencing , in effect mess up cimplicity too.

 

In short (for those who don't want to read an overly long explanation) drive letters other than C: or D: usually refer to psuedo drives. (A psuedo drive is not a separate, physical hard drive even though it uses a drive letter just like a physical hard drive; it's a reference to a directory on a hard drive, and on a network it can also be a reference to a directory on another computer on a LAN or WAN (sometimes referred to as "mapping" a location on a LAN or WAN).)

E:, F:, and G: drives are usually just drive-letter references to directories located on the C: drive. (D: usually refers to a second, physical hard drive, by convention, on a PC. On GE HMIs for Speedtronic turbine control systems sometimes the D: drive is used for back-up and/or RAID configurations.

Many executables and applications necessary for a PC to serve as a GE HMI for Speedtronic turbine control system require and expect to find files in these psuedo drives, so they are very important to the successful and trouble-free operation of GE HMIs for Speedtronic systems.

In general, F: drive is used for site-, or application-, specific files which are necessary to configure the HMI or the Speedtronic control panel(s) for a particular site and type of turbine. It is quite often also used for the CIMPLICITY project files, including display files.

The G: drive is used for the executables and applications that GE develops and are necessary for the HMI to communicate with, configure, and troubleshoot Speedtronic turbine control systems. Drivers and applications like Control Constants Display and Logic Forcing for the GE Mark V HMI are usually stored in directories on the G: drive. Also, some status- and log files used for troubleshooting the loading and operation of these executables and applications are also stored in folders on the G: drive.

Now, for the overly long explanation. The GE HMI for Speedtronic turbine control systems is built on a PC-compatible platform running MS-DOS/MW-Windows (command line-driven OSs, one with a graphical user interface), meaning that computer has at least one physical, primary hard drive which is usually designated the C: drive by convention.

The designers of the Mark V decided (Why? Because they could!) to use "psuedo" drives, made with the SUBST command, to set up different references to some information which is almost always on the C: drive of a GE HMI used for Speedtronic turbine control systems. The designers decided to use the F: drive for site-specific files and information, and the G: drive for HMI-specific applications and executables, as well as for some status- and log files. This was also used in most of the Mark VI applications, but has also been modified towards the end of the Mark VI production. (The one thing you can always count on with Speedtronic-related controls equipment and software: it is always changing and the changes aren't always well-documented, if at all.)

Site-specific (or sometimes referred to as application-specific) files are the files used for configuring the Speedtronic panel and the HMI used to communicate with the Speedtronic panel for a specific site (application). So, the files that are downloaded to the panel to make it specific for the application at the site to configure the I/O and which contain the software for control and protection and monitoring of the turbine and driven device are usually found in directories ("folders" in MS-Windows-speak) on the F: drive.

On many GE Mark V HMIs and HMIs used with Mark VI turbine control panels, the F: drive also contains the CIMPLICITY project files which configure CIMPLICITY and the displays used to operate and monitor the turbine and driven device. These are also specific to the site (application).

If one needed to navigate to directories or folders on the F: drive from a command prompt, it could be done in one of two ways: either from the C: drive or by switching to the F: drive. Because the F: drive is a psuedo drive on the C: drive, you can usually get there from the C: drive by changing directories (using the CD command) to \CONFIG\SITE (that's the typical location for the F: drive on GE Mark V HMIs) or by changing directories to \SITE (which is the typical location for the F: drive on many later Mark VIs).

About the easiest way to try to explain the concept of psuedo drives is to say that they are "shortcuts" to directories on the C: drive. Instead of typing C:\CONFIG\SITE\UNIT1\IO.ASG to indicate the location of the I/O Assignment file on a GE Mark V HMI, one can just use F:\UNIT1\IO.ASG. They are both "pointing to" (indicating) the same file: IO.ASG on the C: drive. They are just using different "routes", or paths, to indicate the same file.

And in the DOS/MS-Windows world, PATHs are very important, and F: and G: are just two different paths to the same information on the C: drive.

The G: drive is usually used to define executables and applications that are used to permit or configure the PC to be able to communicate with a Speedtronic turbine control panel. The path to these files on a GE Mark V HMI is usually C:\CONFIG\EXEC or G:\EXEC; they both point to (indicate) the same directory (folder) on the C: drive.

Many status- and log files used for troubleshooting the loading and operation of GE HMI applications are found on the G: drive, as well (though not all of them; again, consistently inconsistent as has been said of Speedtronic-related software and equipment many times).

Lately, I've seen some GE HMIs use the E: drive for some site-specific files and information, as well as the M: drive to indicate a "master" directory (folder) on a specific HMI on one or both of the Ethernet networks (UDH, PDH).

One of the important things about these psuedo drives is that a lot of executables written by GE and used on GE HMIs for Speedtronic turbine control systems expect (look for) files in these psuedo drives. So, if the psuedo drives don't exist the executables can't find them, even if the files do exist on a hard drive somewhere.

One has to remember that the earliest PC-based operator interfaces used with GE Mark V Speedtroinc turbine control panels were MS-DOS-based, command line-driven operating systems. (IDOS is a proprietary, multi-tasking, command line OS that ran on these PCs used as operator interfaces, called <I>s.) And, the command line operating systems of that time had a limit on the number of characters on a command line, and it's my personal belief (though I have no proof or confirmation of this) that the designers used psuedo drives in order to reduce the number of characters required on a command line when referring to executables or files. Again, that's just a personal belief and that has never been confirmed, or denied, by former colleagues.

Lastly, I never worked on an early GE "HMI" called the SmartRemote, which was based on the DEC MicroVAX hardware and VAX OS. The SmartRemote preceded the PC-based HMI GE developed, and it may also be that the designers of the GE Mark V operator interface copied the same directory structure and mapping/paths as used on the SmartRemote. So, this whole psuedo drive concept may even have been used by GE long before the PC-based HMI, since many of the same people who developed and worked on the SmartRemote also developed and worked on the GE PC-based HMIs. And they liked to "copy" some or all of the things that were done from one system to another. Kind of nice if they do that and remain consistent, but, that isn't always the case; it's usually consistently inconsistent (as a former colleague was wont to say more than once!).

Perhaps an overly long explanation, but one that is more correct and more directly answers the original post.

 

Oops, kinda forgot (just like ProcessValue kinda forgot to answer this specific question in his response to the original post): TC2KREPT.TXT is a file only used with the Mark V, and it's usually found in the F:\UNIT1 directory. And it's not used with all Mark V applications, usually only those for GE-design heavy duty gas turbine applications.

I'm not a MS-Windows expert, but you could probably open a MS-Windows Explorer window and navigate to F:\UNIT1 and right click on the TC2KREPT.TXT file icon and then click on 'Create Shortcut' which would create a shortcut icon to the file in the F:\UNIT1 directory/folder. You could then right-click on the shortcut icon and click on 'Cut' and then navigate to the Start | Programs directory for the HMI and Paste it there, and then likely find it in the Start | Programs menu/list of the MS-Windows Task Bar. (I think it would be something like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs for the Start Menu folder, presuming you were logged in as Adminstrator on a computer running MS-WinXP. Different versions of MS-Windows have this directory in different locations; so you're going to have to find it on the HMI you're using.)

That's just one method; if you're familiar with MS-Windows, you can do the same thing several different ways. (Isn't MS-Windows fun? Almost as fun as GE Speedtronic-related software and equipment!)