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AeroWare's VFD control path is broken

As of WT_MS_2 (2026-05-13), AeroWare attempts Modbus writes to 192.168.1.1 (a stale IP from the old Win7 install) and never reaches the drive at the actual address 192.168.50.10. The connection fails silently and the GUI's RPM control has no effect on the motor.

The DAQ side of AeroWare still works because it is independent of the VFD path.

Do not use AeroWare to spin the motor. Use ADCL WinSoft or WindTunnelControl.ps1 instead.

This page exists because AeroWare's DAQ side is still being used as a reference while ADCL WinSoft's DAQ paths are being completed, and because the diagnosis history is useful for new operators encountering "but AeroWare is installed, can I just use it?" — the answer is no, not for the motor.

Why AeroWare's VFD path is broken

The short version, with sources:

  1. AeroWare is a LabVIEW-built application; its VFD network configuration lives in cDAQ Config.ini files inside E:\Wind_tunnel\AeroWare\. There are three copies of this file, and they disagree.
  2. The top-level cDAQ Config.ini was edited (mtime 2026-02-24) to set VFD IP Address = "192.168.0.253" — also wrong, just a different wrong.
  3. The Configs/ and Executable/ copies still hold the original 192.168.1.1 from the Win7 install.
  4. AeroWare reads one of these at start and uses it for the run; it does not detect failure and does not retry against alternate addresses.
  5. From WT_MS_1 and WT_MS_2 we know the drive is reachable at 192.168.50.10 and the Modbus path works under direct PowerShell. AeroWare never gets there.

Full diagnosis trail is in WT_MS_2/debug_session.md.

What still works

The DAQ side. AeroWare's NI-DAQmx integration reads the cDAQ channels at the configured rate, applies the calibration matrices in Configs/N_C1_inv*.csv, and writes CSVs to E:\Wind_tunnel\AeroWare\Data_and_others\. This is independent of the VFD network.

If you need AeroWare's DAQ-side workflow for a specific experiment (e.g. you are validating a calibration against AeroWare's output before retiring it), it is acceptable to run ADCL WinSoft or WindTunnelControl.ps1 for the motor alongside AeroWare for the DAQ, on the same PC. They do not share state.

Retirement plan

AeroWare will be retired once:

  • ADCL WinSoft's PGB sting calibration produces the same engineering-unit outputs as AeroWare against a held-out validation file;
  • ADCL WinSoft's CSV format matches the one consumed by downstream post-processing scripts;
  • ADCL WinSoft has been exercised on at least three full experimental sessions without operator-visible defects.

After retirement, AeroWare's install at E:\Wind_tunnel\AeroWare\ stays in place for historical reference but is renamed or marked deprecated. Calibration matrices at Configs/N_C1_inv*.csv are read by ADCL WinSoft from the same location, so the directory is not removed.

Reference