Facility Control

I have a Dashboard panel connecting to XPression and Carbonite via IP, all on the same Gateway. I've noticed that if I am not actively running actions in Dashboard for a couple minutes, it "freezes up," and when I hit any custom buttons it takes 5-10 seconds to fire the command. Then it runs smoothly until another short period of inactivity. 

This is not ideal when coming back from commercial breaks. It's almost like my connections through Dashboard are timing out after a short period of inactivity, and then reconnecting slower than ideal once activity resumes. 

Could you please provide the source code of your panel?

Sure, but I will say that I was also experiencing this same problem even with the pre-built Carbonite Panel option in dashboard as well. 

Here is the code: 

<abs contexttype="opengear" id="_top" keepalive="false" style="" virtualheight="946" virtualwidth="1719">
<meta>
<lookup id="hosts">
<entry key="BCarbonite.color">-1145302</entry>
<entry key="BCarbonite.port">7788</entry>
<entry key="BCarbonite.host">params.getValue('BCarbonite_IPAddress', 0)</entry>
<entry key="BCarbonite.scripthost">true</entry>
<entry key="BCarbonite.devicetype">Carbonite</entry>
</lookup>
<params>
<param access="1" maxlength="0" name="BCarbonite_IPAddress" oid="BCarbonite_IPAddress" type="STRING" value="10/102.35.146" widget="0"/>
</params>
<style id="globalstyle" name="Global Style" value="bdr#FFFFFF;bdr:thick;font:bold;size:Bigger;"/>
</meta>
<widget height="545" id="xpressionbpreview" left="3" name="XPression B Preview" style="style:globalstyle;" top="2" widgetid="com.rossvideo.xpression.preview" width="901">
<config>
<params>
<param oid="preview_widget_show_channel" value="0"/>
<param oid="preview_widget_show_name" value="0"/>
</params>
</config>
</widget>
<table height="401" left="1" top="544" width="618">
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="up" name="UP" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;size:Biggest;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'UP');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="take" name="TAKE" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;size:Biggest;bg#blue;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'READ');</task>
</button>
</tr>
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="down" name="DOWN" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;size:Biggest;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'DOWN');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="clearfb1" name="CLEAR CGB1" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;size:Biggest;bg#red;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'CLFB 0');</task>
</button>
</tr>
</table>
<table height="400" left="619" top="544" width="285">
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="takenext" name="TAKE NEXT" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;size:Bigger;bg#green;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'NEXT');</task>
</button>
</tr>
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" id="clearall" name="CLEAR ALL" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;bg#7A1414;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'CLRA');</task>
</button>
</tr>
</table>
<table height="144" right="3" top="132" width="813">
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="doubleboxmem" name="DOUBLE BOX" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 32');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="tripleboxmem" name="TRIPLE BOX" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 33');</task>
</button>
</tr>
</table>
<table height="139" right="3" top="273" width="812">
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="leftfullmem" name="LEFT BOX FULL" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 31');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" name="MID BOX FULL" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 36');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="rightboxmem" name="RIGHT BOX FULL" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 34');</task>
</button>
</tr>
</table>
<label header="true" height="59" id="memoerylabels" name="ENN BOX CONTROL" right="2" style="style:globalstyle;txt-align:center;bg#darkdivider;" top="76" width="813"/>
<table height="75" right="7" top="2" width="810">
<tr>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="morningbugonline" name="BUG ONLINE" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;bg#orange;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'TAKE 9999:0:10');</task>
</button>
<button buttontype="push" colspan="1" fill="both" flat="true" id="morningbugoffline" name="BUG OFFLINE" rowspan="1" style="style:globalstyle;bg#red;" weightx="1.0" weighty="1.0">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.147', 7788, 'CLFB 0:10');</task>
</button>
</tr>
</table>
<button buttontype="push" flat="true" height="113" id="croppeddblbox" left="1120" name="Double Box Cropped" style="style:globalstyle;" top="462" width="385">
<task tasktype="rosstalk">rosstalk.sendMessage('10.102.35.146', 7788, 'MEM 42');</task>
</button>
</abs>

I've not seen that before.   As far as I know, there is no timeout mechanism between DashBoard and its connections if something has been idle.   

I have seen buttons that take a while to execute because they are sending a message to a device that is not online, and then waiting for the response.  That timeout takes a few seconds.   Can you check that all the devices your panel communicating with are active.   Although I don't think that is the problem if you have similar issues with the Carbonite panels.

Do you have any custom panels opened that are running other tasks in the backround? 

Do you have a lot of panels opened when this occurs?

Normally we do have other panels running tasks, usually on the XPression itself so it's all just localhost.With COVID precautions, we've started to use other computers to run these panels for physical distancing, and that's when the issues commenced. I have tried with just a singular virtual panel to switch between 2 sources on a Carbonite, no other graphics or panels open, and still had this issue. 

My first thought was the computer generally being sluggish due to the addition of running incoming network traffic for the XPression Preview widget as well as the typical outgoing traffic of firing off commands to devices. But it happening with the virtual Carbonite panel (on a different computer and gateway for that matter) made me think that perhaps this is an overall network issue that my organization would need to address? I just wouldn't know what direction to point them in. 

I have not seen this either as Ben mentioned.

But one thing to note is that your custom panel does not have the keep alive attribute set to true on the top level.  <abs contexttype="opengear" id="_top" keepalive="false" style="" virtualheight="946" virtualwidth="1719">

This means that if your DashBoard is running low on memory due to other panels being open and other operations it will unload your custom panel if it is not currently in focus. 

The correction is as follows. <abs contexttype="opengear" id="_top" keepalive="true" style="" virtualheight="946" virtualwidth="1719"> 

You also may want to try the 64bit version of Dashboard which allows you to determine the amount of memory DashBoard has access to.

This could also be an issue of bandwidth.