Author Topic: Remote Support Methods  (Read 6897 times)

Offline Scott_MARL

  • PLUS+1 Developer
  • ***
  • Posts: 15
  • Karma: +0/-0
Remote Support Methods
« on: April 29, 2023, 12:09:09 AM »
What does everyone do for remote support for clients?

We used to be able to install a unlicensed version of Service Tool on laptops for a client then remove in and load programs and use service tool to trouble shoot.
With the newer versions, you can no longer create a log or parameters page without a license.

Telematics is ok but over an hour of troubleshooting, at least 30 minutes is connecting and any program update (HLX over 2 MB) will time out and fail. Even Parameter updates are sketchy.

For company wide solutions I can use an old WS103 for wifi and our companies VPN but this is not practical for clients to set up. 

What does everyone else do?
MARL Technologies

Offline FluidPowerTom

  • PLUS+1 Guru
  • *****
  • Posts: 363
  • Karma: +33/-0
Re: Remote Support Methods
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2023, 05:33:08 PM »
We've got kind of a mishmash of solutions that depend on the application.  Most of our customers have a local salesman who calls on them, and most of our salesman who have PLUS+1 customers have the Service Tool on their laptop.  That along with Teams for screenshare can get us through some goodly amount of testing.

Our customers who require the most heavy duty support also tend to have at least one technician or engineer who is technical and patient enough to be walked through getting the free version of GUIDE with which also include the full version of the Service Tool.  However, this has become much more difficult since the only way to get that stuff is through the Update Center, but it's just like an annual hassle.  Generally, if one of our customers has a machine that needs programming support then they're sending one of those guys out to the machine because there's often hydraulic/machine support needed too.  The slow improvement of the CS product line is beginning to help mitigate some field visits.

One major critical step that I learn some years back is that you can create log and parameter pages without having a controller connected in case you haven't tried that.  You can load the .lhx as a diagnostic file into the Service Tool in Offline Mode and set the ECU to that file basically.  Then you can add and tweak parameter and log pages to your .p1d file which you can then send out to a customer/technician.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2023, 05:35:05 PM by FluidPowerTom »
Controls Engineer
Hydra-Power Systems