HIGH PERFORMANCE

COMBINED WITH
UNRIVALED FLEXIBILITY.

Our third-generation communication management software

offers a powerful array of features to securely and more
easily poll, configure and transmit your data.

AUTOSOL Communication
Manager®

ACM 8.0 Release:

February 04, 2020
Contents
New System Requirements ........................................................................................................................................4
Installation Notes .......................................................................................................................................................4
New Protocols Supported by ACM .............................................................................................................................4
Improved Security in ACM ..........................................................................................................................................5
Features added in ACM ..............................................................................................................................................6
ACM Client General ................................................................................................................................................6
ACM Connections ...................................................................................................................................................6
ACM Publishing.......................................................................................................................................................6
ACM $Server Object ...............................................................................................................................................7
ACM Server Monitor...............................................................................................................................................7
All Protocols............................................................................................................................................................7
BSAP Protocol .........................................................................................................................................................7
DNP3/DNP3 FBx Protocol .......................................................................................................................................7
Eagle Protocol .........................................................................................................................................................8
Flow-X Protocol ......................................................................................................................................................8
Mercury Protocol....................................................................................................................................................8
Modbus Protocol ....................................................................................................................................................8
ROC Protocol ..........................................................................................................................................................9
Totalflow Protocol ..................................................................................................................................................9
Issues Corrected in ACM.......................................................................................................................................... 10
ACM Archive Management ................................................................................................................................. 10
ACM Client General ............................................................................................................................................. 10
ACM Connections ................................................................................................................................................ 10
ACM Database ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
ACM Importer/Exporter ...................................................................................................................................... 11
ACM Installer ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
ACM Publishing.................................................................................................................................................... 11
ACM Reporting .................................................................................................................................................... 11
ACM Server .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
All Protocols......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Benchmark Protocol ............................................................................................................................................ 11
BSAP Protocol ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
DF1 Protocol ........................................................................................................................................................ 12
DNP3/DNP3 FBx Protocol .................................................................................................................................... 12
Flow Automation Protocol .................................................................................................................................. 12
Flow-X Protocol ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Hex Repeater Protocol ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Mercury Protocol................................................................................................................................................. 13
Modbus Protocol ................................................................................................................................................. 13
ROC Protocol ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
Totalflow Protocol ............................................................................................................................................... 15
New System Requirements
With this release, ACM requires .Net Framework 4.7.2.
ACM also has the following new Operating System requirements:
• Microsoft Windows:
o 7 SP1, 8.1, and 10 (Anniversary Update or later)
• Microsoft Windows Server:
o 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, and 2019

AUTOSOL now offers both 32-bit and 64-bit version of ACM.

For more information, reference the ACM System Planning and Requirements Guide.

Installation Notes
• Components from ACM 8.0 cannot be combined with components from ACM 7.1
• If upgrading from a 32-bit version of ACM 7.1 to the 64-bit version of ACM 8.0, ACM 7.1 must be first
uninstalled.
• If upgrading from a beta version of the 64-bit ACM 7.1, it must first be uninstalled.
• For installations that make use of Safe Mode operation, ACM 8.0 uses the "Microsoft ACE OLEDB 12.0"
database driver for the safe mode database. The older "Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4.0" driver is no longer
supported. The ACE OLEDB 12.0 driver can be downloaded from Microsoft here.
• It is always a good idea to back up your ACM configuration database before updating. This update
makes changes to the database and if for some reason the update cannot complete successfully, a
backup may be required to revert to your previous version of ACM. Instructions are found in the ACM
User Guide under Maintenance –> Backing up the SQL Database

New Protocols Supported by ACM

• Dresser Micro Corrector Protocol
o Supports Dresser Micro Corrector devices with firmware version 1.99 and earlier.
o Supported Features
o Device Configuration
o OPC Items
• New Honeywell Mercury Protocol (listed as Honeywell/Mercury (NEW*) in ACM)
o Supported Devices
▪ Honeywell Mercury Instruments EC 350 and ERX 350
▪ Older Mercury device types
o Supported Features
o Device Configuration
o Commands
o OPC Items
o SRBX Polling
 o Scheduler

Important information regarding the existing Honeywell Mercury Protocol

• Mercury devices already configured in ACM will continue to work using the existing protocol
driver, but will need to be converted to the new protocol driver by the end of year 2020.
• AUTOSOL will provide assistance and a method for converting existing devices to the new
protocol driver. Contact your AUTOSOL Sales Representative or AUTOSOL Customer
Support when ready.
• AUTOSOL suggests that testing is done with the new protocol driver using devices in your system
to ensure correct operation.

Important information regarding the initial Beta version of the new Honeywell
Mercury Protocol
• EC 350 devices created with the initial Beta release of the New Honeywell Mercury Protocol
driver may have the incorrect device type in this updated version. Please verify the configured
device type for each EC 350 device already created in ACM.

• ROMET-AdEM Protocol
o Supports AdEM-PTZ devices
o Supported Features
o Device Configuration
o OPC Items
• Siemens S7 Protocol
o Supports 300, 400, 1200 and 1500 model devices
o Supported Features
o Device Configuration
o OPC Items
• Teledyne CA Protocol
o Supported Features
o Device Configuration
o OPC Items

Improved Security in ACM

• Improved security configuration to allow authorized users to:
o Assign permissions for Create/Update/Delete operations on all objects, objects of a specific
type, or specific properties on objects of specific types.
o Assign permissions for command execution on all objects, objects of a specific type, or specific
commands on objects of specific types.
o View the User Guide for more information.
Features added in ACM
ACM Client General
• Added an option to the Dashboard "View" drop-down to select no active view, which cancels item
subscriptions.
• Added an option to the User Preferences to use the default datetime format or to establish a custom
datetime format. All datetime tags shown within the client for the logged in user will follow this setting.
• Added a button to the Log Viewer to mimic the behavior of the keyboard short-cut Ctrl+M in order to
add a mark to the log.

ACM Connections
• Added a connection option "No status update and poll immediately on secondary" to the Connection
tab of all Device objects. This feature, if enabled, will prevent bad quality item updates from going to
OPC clients until a poll is attempted on the secondary connection.
o The feature will be in effect if:
▪ The new feature option is enabled.
▪ The device is configured to "Switch to Secondary on Failure".
▪ The device has a secondary connection configured.
o If the conditions are met, failed polls will not send bad quality updates for items. Instead, once
the poll on primary is complete ACM will trigger a poll on the secondary connection for the
same task at the same priority. Item updates will happen normally while on the secondary
connection.
o This option is disabled by default and only available if the selected Connection Option is "Switch
to Secondary on Failure".
• Added the Host Address 1 and Host Address 2 fields from the TCP/IP connection as standard OPC items
that will be updated when a configuration change occurs.
• Added communication statistics items for each port within the TCPPool port object. Note: These
components must be applied as part of a full ACM update. This feature changes the method used by
ACM components to track communication statistics data. It affects all protocol modules, all connection
port modules, the main polling engine, and the database. They should not be applied as a single module
update.

Effect on Published Output

More comm stats items are available for the TCPPool port type.

ACM Publishing
• Added the following fields for PFX:
o Under Prove Report Tab: Resultant K-Factor, Meter Flowing Density, Density, Totalizer
o Under Prove Run: Flow Rate, Under Prove Identification, Pipe Material, Base Prover Volume
(Upstream and Downstream)
o Under Meter ID: K-Factor, Proving Mode, Prover Location
 • Added an option to publish colon, comma, pipe and tab delimited files for CSV.

Effect on Published Output

New options to separate fields in published CSV files.

• Modified ACM to only publish records with EFM fields to EFM output types. i.e. FLOWCAL Transaction
Queue, Autosol EFM Database and PGAS.

Effect on Published Output

No record will be output to EFM output types if there is not an EFM field in the record.

• Added an option to the FLOWCAL Transaction Queue publisher to set a custom floating-point precision.
This new option is on the Queue Records tab in the area labeled "Numeric Precision".

Effect on Published Output

If a custom floating-point precision is set, this will change the precision of single precision floating
point values when they're written to double precision output fields.

ACM $Server Object

• Added a new option to control how often ACM updates values for items subscribed through the custom
Item Server interface. Items can now be updated only when their value or quality changes, or they can
be updated on every poll. This new option was added to the Server tab of the $Server object and is
labeled "Item Update Frequency". The default is to only update when value or quality changes.
• Added the sub-option "Shutdown even when auto-poll enabled" under "Auto-Shutdown" to the $Server
Object form. This was previously only visible in the property grid view.

ACM Server Monitor

• Added support in the ACM Monitor for accounts with blank passwords.
• Added more information to the Server Information form regarding platform version. This is accessed via
the "Status" tab of ACM Monitor.

All Protocols
• Added "Abort Current Task" and "Dump Item List" as commands available to each protocol. These
commands were previously only available via an OPC Client.

BSAP Protocol
• Provided the ability for the “Retrieve History” and “Time Sync” OPC items to accept a -1 value.

DNP3/DNP3 FBx Protocol

• Increased the number of DNP3 FBx Station Meters to 24 and made a modification to read history using
the new history commands.
• Added the ability to read DNP3 Objects by group and index to avoid a large retrieval of data for a small
number of items. This is available via an Item Modifier. View the User Guide for more information
regarding DNP3 Item Modifiers.
 • Added the option to use the lagging/end timestamp for history in the DNP3 FBx protocol. This new
option on the Archive Collection tab is labeled “Use end timestamp for history”. It is not selected by
default.
• Provided the capability to read user defined objects and parameters in the DNP3 FBx protocol.
• Added the Class Upload Fields to the DNP3 and DNP3 FBx forms as they both support class uploads.
These fields are found on the Device tab.
• Added an option to initialize Class 1-3 items with a Class 0 poll after communication failure in the DNP3
protocol. This option is on the Device tab and labeled "Initialize class 1-3 after comm failure" and is not
selected by default.
• Added GC writes to the DNP3 FBx extension. Note: The items for the GC write configured in the Gas
Chromatograph object must be FBx object parameters.

Eagle Protocol
• Added an option to the Eagle protocol to retrieve history during a call-in to eliminate the need for a
second connection to be created for history collection. This new option is on the Device tab and labeled
“Retrieve history during call-in”. The option is not selected by default.
• Provided the ability for the “Retrieve History” and “Time Sync” OPC items to accept a -1 value.

Flow-X Protocol
• Added the ability to schedule the retrieval of new reports in the Flow-X protocol. This feature can be
configured on the Archive Collection tab of the Flow-X device setup.
• Modified the publisher to automatically map the Flow-X protocol Differential Pressure and Pulses to the
correct fields in the CFX file based on the meter type.

Effect on Published Output

The Gas History Record will use the Pulse field data for Turbine meters and the DP field data for
Orifice meters.

Mercury Protocol
• Provided the ability for the "Retrieve History" and "Time Sync" OPC items to accept a -1 value.

Modbus Protocol
All Modbus Extensions
• Provided the ability for the "Retrieve History" and "Time Sync" OPC items to accept a -1 value.

Modbus/FB3000 Protocol
• Renamed the Modbus/FB3000 protocol to Modbus Ferguson Beauregard.
 OMNI Modbus Protocol
• Added an option to the OMNI protocol to prevent DP and Pulses conflicts by automatically mapping the
fields to the CFX file based on the meter type. This new option is on the Archive Collection tab and
labeled "Prevent DP and Pulse value conflicts" and only necessary if the OMNI archive is configured to
contain both the DP and Pulse registers. This option is not selected by default.

Effect on Published Output

A new option to 'Prevent DP and Pulse conflicts' will change the EFM identifier of either the DP
field or the Pulse field in periodic records. Each field retains its name (for database and CSV
publishers), but only one has it's EFM identifier. This prevents two fields from going to the same
shared output of CFX files when a custom map is used with both DP and Pulse fields in it.

• Added support for 32 OMNI products and included more registers in support of Revision 22 of the OMNI
protocol.

Effect on Published Output

Up to 32 products can be assigned and published.

SCADAPack Modbus Protocol

• Added an option to SCADAPack Modbus to retrieve historical gas analysis records and merge them with
the corresponding hourly records. This option is on the Meter Runs tab and labeled “Collect Meter Gas
Quality”. It is only available if collecting hourly records.

Effect on Published Output

Gas analysis values will be included in the audit record.

ROC Protocol
• Provided the ability for the "Retrieve History" and "Time Sync" OPC items to accept a -1 value.

Totalflow Protocol
• Added additional logging details for Totalflow devices to show the saved position information for each
archive type in order to help troubleshoot problems related to the history collection.
• Added an option to Totalflow devices to stop the publishing of log period records if GC analysis trend
retrieval is configured but failed to be collected due to a communication time-out. This option is on the
Device tab and labeled "Do not publish period records if matching GC trend records are not available". It
is not selected by default.

Effect on Published Output

The new option for ensuring GC trend data is merged with log period data can prevent log period
records from being published if their associated GC trend record isn't found.
Issues Corrected in ACM

ACM Archive Management

• Corrected an issue in the Archive Manager causing ACM to close due to an Application Hang error.
• Modified the Archive Management process to display the correct type of periodic history based on the
"Type" selection of Hourly or Daily.
• Resolved an issue where the toolbar on the Archive Detail screen was not functioning.
• Updated the Archive Management tab buttons and tool tip labels to better describe the form functions.
• Added a refresh button to the Archive Management grid to refresh the data in the grid.

ACM Client General

• Modified the Queue Viewer to show historical records for a device and/or port object when the object is
opened.
• Corrected an issue in the Record Collection "Add-Multi" form that allowed values greater than the
maximum to be entered.
• Corrected issues that caused unexpected results when pasting into a Multi-editor grid.
• Updated messages when importing ACM configuration data to make it clear when a rename is related to
leading or trailing spaces having been deleted.
• Corrected an error that prevented the selection of RTU Configuration files located on a different drive
than where ACM is installed.
• Corrected an issue that displayed many pop-up error messages when the connection to the ACM Server
was lost.
• Corrected an issue in the Archive Collection and Meter Run forms that made it appear object names
were being truncated.
• Corrected the right-click action on multi-edit grids for unit fields so that all highlighted fields will be
updated.
• Corrected an issue that caused the application to lose focus when turning off Tabular View in a record
collection window.
• Updated verbiage on the Reconnect dialog to make the options clearer. This dialog appears if the
connection to the ACM Server is lost.

ACM Connections
• Modified all port types to enforce the maximum allowed Transmit Delay of 60 seconds to prevent a very
long delay period from blocking polling on the port.
• Modified ACM to prevent high CPU usage when multiple devices using the TCPPool port type come due
to poll at the same time using the same phone number.
• Corrected an issue with the Demand item getting stuck 'On' when demanding a poll on the secondary
connection while a primary connection test is in progress.

ACM Database
• Corrected an issue in the Bulk Manager that caused staging tables to grow continuously with
unprocessed records after timeouts.
ACM Importer/Exporter
• Corrected an issue preventing a device with a tab character in its name from being loaded into ACM.

ACM Installer
• Included the optional Mercury file, "unitmap.txt", in the ACM install pack.

ACM Publishing
• Corrected an issue that caused the publisher to skip records when a column was not defined in a
database.

Effect on Published Output

More records will be output.

• Added BTU output to the FLOWCAL Online Transaction Queue.

Effect on Published Output

Added BTU output to the FLOWCAL Online Transaction Queue.
• Modified the PGASXml publisher so that no volume records will be created when the "Populate Volume
Record" option is not selected.

Effect on Published Output

Meter characteristic records will no longer be created alone. They will only be included when
volume and/or quality records are added to the file.
• Corrected an issue when executing the "Refresh Published Reports" command for a publisher with no
filter applied.

ACM Reporting
• Modified the Reporting tab to keep the same report selected when clicking back and forth between the
main ACM tabs.
• Disabled the "interval" option for the weekday schedule in Scheduled reports. Also corrected the
calculation for the next run date for the weekday schedule in order to properly email daily reports.

ACM Server
• Corrected a problem that caused asiDATA to send back an unscaled value for an item with scaling flags
when an OPC client did a synchronous read request before ACM had polled the item.

All Protocols
• Corrected an issue that caused messages to be sent with the wrong priority when "Poll items
immediately when activated" is enabled.

Benchmark Protocol
• Corrected an issue causing the Benchmark Protocol to return the error message "Field item data is out
of range".
BSAP Protocol
• Corrected an issue with certain BSAP items that caused the Status tab in the device configuration to
freeze.

DF1 Protocol
• Corrected an issue in the DF1 protocol that prevented the connection from returning to the primary
connection after a fail-over to the secondary connection.
• Corrected the high message count in NGCTT devices for Gas Quality write by combining write values into
as few messages as possible.
• Corrected history collection, event collection and time sync for NGCTT devices.

DNP3/DNP3 FBx Protocol

• Corrected an issue preventing DNP3 from working with the Archive Manager due to the internal
property names used for meter objects not following the standard naming convention for ACM.
• Corrected an issue in the DNP3 FBx protocol that caused uploads to go permanently into an unknown
state after encountering a "too many open files" error.
• Corrected an issue that allowed multiple copies of the same object to be added to a poll in the DNP3
protocol.
• Corrected an issue with certain DNP3 FBx items that caused the Status tab in the device configuration to
freeze.

Flow Automation Protocol

• Corrected the meter configuration data for the Auto-Adjust meter in the Flow Automation native
protocol.

Effect on Published Output

Auto-Adjust meters are now identified as a turbine meter type. The value that was used as the K
Factor is now identified as the pipe diameter.

• Modified the Flow Automation protocol to compare daily records with previous records using the date
and contract hour so that new records aren't erroneously ignored.

Flow-X Protocol
• Corrected an issue in the Flow-X protocol that caused the "double" data type to be displayed in scientific
notation when converting the value to a string for a CFX file.

Effect on Published Output

This change prevents scientific notation format on numbers that are stored in string fields of CFX
custom batch records.

• Corrected an issue in the Flow-X protocol that caused a crash during a demand poll.
• Corrected an issue in the Flow-X protocol that halted event collection after encountering an event
record with an empty text field.
 • Modified the Flow-X driver to use the Batch Record start timestamp value as the timestamp in custom
batch records.

Effect on Published Output

This change corrects an issue that could cause CFX batch report and custom batch records to
have mismatched timestamps.

• Corrected an issue causing the Flow-X protocol to crash while retrieving history.
• Modified the Flow-X protocol to provide more detailed logging information when the publisher fails.

Hex Repeater Protocol

• Corrected an issue causing the Hex Repeater protocol to crash when executing different commands.
• Mapped the following Hex Repeater strings to their appropriate CFX properties:
o Temp SG was measured
o Pres SG was measured
o Dynamic Viscosity
o Volume Corr. Factor

Effect on Published Output

More events will be mapped to EFM fields.

Mercury Protocol
• Made a modification to the Mercury protocol to handle errors reported as "Invalid inquiry error: 30" as a
time-out so the poll is retried.

Modbus Protocol
All Modbus Extensions
• Corrected an incorrectly formed register write message in the Modbus protocols when using the multi-
write function code with an extended device address format.
Enron Modbus Protocol
• Fixed issue where GC is not merged on push up/down array in Enron Modbus.
Lufkin Modbus Protocol
• Corrected issue with Lufkin Modbus where an incorrect extended address was used when building write
messages.
• Corrected an issue preventing the Test Communication from working for Modbus Lufkin devices with an
address over 248.
OMNI Modbus Protocol
• Added an option to skip the Date Time Format register request and the Text Batch Report Availability
register request to allow old model OMNI devices to collect text Batch Reports. This new option is on
the Archive Collection tab and labeled "Skip report timestamp check" and is not selected by default.

Effect on Published Output

This update added a new option to skip the step of reading the timestamp registers for batch,
prove, and daily reports in the OMNI protocol. Some old firmware doesn't have those
registers. This can make published report files that use the report's timestamp information
(in tokens as part of the file name, for example) use the current date and time instead of the
report's date and time.

• Corrected an issue in the Modbus OMNI protocol that prevented all Prove records from being collected
when collecting from multiple archives.
• Corrected an issue that could cause the prove collection from multiple archives to be out of sync and
terminate unexpectedly when "Collect Meter and Product Info" was not checked on a Modbus OMNI
device.

Effect on Published Output

More Prove records will be output.

• Added a new option for Modbus OMNI devices to combine prove records using timestamps. The default
behavior is to combine prove records from different archives at the same index position. This new
option combines records from different archives only if their timestamps match. The option is not
selected by default.
• Corrected an issue causing the Modbus OMNI driver to poll endlessly if the last record on the last
archive had an empty time stamp.
• Corrected an issue that prevented the archive pointer from being moved back on a Modbus OMNI
device.
Scanner 1150 Protocol
• Corrected an issue in the Scanner 1150 protocol that generated duplicate records after communication
time outs.

ROC Protocol
• Updated the error code message for "Unknown Error Code 251" to "Industry Canada audit log full" to
match the ROC manual.
• Corrected an issue requiring multiple passes for ROC event collection.
• Corrected an issue that caused the ROC protocol to switch from Hourly Upload to Event Upload before
Hourly Upload was complete.
• Corrected the ROC protocol to output pipe diameter only when the calculation method is AGA3.

Effect on Published Output

The ROC protocol will output pipe diameter only when the calculation method is AGA3.
 • Corrected an issue that caused the ROC Meter Configuration to be read multiple times during a single
poll cycle.
• Added Pulse Index Start and Pulse Index End to ROC Batch records.

Effect on Published Output

The CFX file will be published with Pulse Index Start and Pulse Index End.

• Modified the ROC protocol to stop polling OPC items with invalid TLP addresses upon a TLP error response
from the device.
• Corrected an issue which prevented ROC Events from polling correctly.
• Corrected an issue which prevented ROC Alarms from polling correctly.
• Changed the time out for the ROC sign-on to 9 minutes 30 seconds to prevent an issue with a poll that
runs every 10 minutes. The system will also reset the time out flag when a sign on fails, so it will attempt
to sign on at the next poll.

Totalflow Protocol
• Modified the Totalflow manual import service to detect the Measurement Canada indicator in the
import file.

Effect on Published Output

This change corrects an issue with the 're-verification' data in published event records. These
records will now have the correct value for the ‘re-verification’ event.

• Modified the Totalflow TimeSync command to work with non-NGC 8200 devices that use an Operator ID
without a password.
• Added a new option to the Totalflow protocol to verify the count of history records received matches
the count requested. This new option is on the Archive Collection tab and labeled "Verify History
Records" and is not selected by default.
• Modified the method by which static pressure type (gauge or absolute) is determined in the Totalflow
protocol.

Effect on Published Output

This change may display a static pressure value in the meter config record where one did not
appear before.