Error running Example 1a of tutorial "Unable to connect to broker->unable to register federate"

[adelheidari]

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to run the first example in tutorial (Example 1a) which co-simulates a transmission system (in Pypower) and distribution system (in GridLab-D). This is the link for the example files: https://github.com/GMLC-TDC/HELICS-Examples/tree/main/user_guide_examples/misc/gridlabd_example_1/Example_1a
I'm getting the following error in TransmissionFederate log file:

[2023-11-03 10:57:57.473] [console] [warning] commWarning||Transmission Federate (0)[connecting]::zmq broker connection timed out, trying again (2) [2023-11-03 10:57:57.474] [console] [warning] commWarning||Transmission Federate (0)[connecting]::sending message to tcp://127.0.0.1:23405 [2023-11-03 10:58:17.503] [console] [error] commERROR||Transmission Federate (0)[connecting]::zmq broker connection timed out after trying 5 times (2) [2023-11-03 10:58:17.503] [console] [error] commERROR||Transmission Federate (0)[connecting]::receiver connection failure Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\Ssus\Python\HELICS\Example_1a\Transmission\Transmission_simulator.py", line 53, in <module> fed = h.helicsCreateValueFederateFromConfig("Transmission_json.json") File "C:\Users\Ssus\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\site-packages\helics\capi.py", line 3635, in helicsCreateValueFederateFromConfig raise HelicsException("[" + str(err.error_code) + "] " + ffi.string(err.message).decode()) helics.capi.HelicsException: [-1] Unable to connect to broker->unable to register federate

And the Distribution federate log file is empty. It is stopping at the very beginning line of the code in Transmission_simulator.py (line 53) which trying to create a federate. Here are the versions of the software I'm using:
python v3.9.16
helics v 3.4.0
GridLab-D v 5.2
Pypower v5.1.16

I would really appreciate if you could help me to fix this issue.

[trevorhardy]

How are you launching the co-simulation?

[trevorhardy]

The runner may be having a problem for some reason. Have you tried running the three federates individually in three separate command windows?

helics_broker -f2
(In the Distribution folder) gridlabd IEEE_123_feeder_0.glm
(In the Transmission folder) python Transmission_simulator.py

[adelheidari]

I run the codes you mentioned. I am new in this field and using helics, but it seems that Transmission federate is running, but there is a problem with gridlabd. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Outputs:
C:\Users\Ssus\Python\HELICS\Example_1a\Transmission>python Transmission_simulator.py HELICS Version: 3.4.0 (2023-01-19) TransmissionSim: Federate TransmissionSim has been registered TransmissionSim: Registered Publication ---> TransmissionSim/transmission_voltage C:\Users\Ssus\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python39\site-packages\helics\capi.py:9014: UserWarning: This is deprecated. Use helicsInputGetTargetinstead. warnings.warn("This is deprecated. UsehelicsInputGetTarget instead.") TransmissionSim: Registered Subscription ---> IEEE_123_feeder_0/totalLoad

`C:\Users\Ssus\Python\HELICS\Example_1a\Distribution>gridlabd IEEE_123_feeder_0.glm

ERROR [INIT] : D:/a/gridlab-d/gridlab-d/gridlab-build/gldcore/module.cpp(547): module 'connection' load failed - "C:\Program Files\GridLAB-D 5.2.0\bin\connection.dll": The specified module could not be found.
IEEE_123_feeder_0.glm(23): module 'connection' load failed, No such file or directory
IEEE_123_feeder_0.glm(23): load failed at or near 'module conne...'
ERROR [INIT] : unable to load 'IEEE_123_feeder_0.glm': No such file or directory
FATAL [INIT] : shutdown after command line rejected`

[trevorhardy]

Yeah, something is wrong with the GridLAB-D installation. Does connection.dll exist in that location? Have you set GLPATH?

[trevorhardy]

@afisher1, can you offer any help on what be going on with this GridLAB-D install.

[adelheidari]

Yes, connection.dll exists in the bin folder. Could you explain what do you mean by GLPATH?

[afisher1]

Hi all,
Typically when that happens it's because GridLAB-D couldn't find the libhelics.dll/so/dylib. It looks like you are on Windows so I recommend checking to see if your user/system level PATH environment variable contains the path to "HELICS install location"\bin and/or \lib.

[adelheidari]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I have added the GridLab-D\bin path and helics package installed location in python (both install/lib and install/bin folders) to the local and system Path variable. But, it still shows the same error.

[afisher1]

So in the cmd terminal where you run gridlabd can you confirm that the path to libhelics.dll existing the %PATH% environment variable? You shouldn't need to worry about creating a GLPATH environment variable if you are using v5.2 of gridlabd. Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>

…

________________________________ From: adelheidari ***@***.***> Sent: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 4:44:55 PM To: GMLC-TDC/HELICS ***@***.***> Cc: Fisher, Andrew R ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [GMLC-TDC/HELICS] Error running Example 1a of tutorial "Unable to connect to broker->unable to register federate" (Discussion #2571) Check twice before you click! This email originated from outside PNNL. Yes, connection.dll exists in the bin folder. Could you explain what do you mean by GLPATH? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#2571 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABCXPYW5IO6YYY7T6C3NDZLYDLIYPAVCNFSM6AAAAAA64YPZFKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TKMBUG4ZDA>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[adelheidari]

There is not any file named "libhelics.dll" in the helics package. I thought you mean lib\helics.dll in the previous message. There are "helics.dll" and "helics.lib" in helics\install\bin and lib folders.

[adelheidari]

To answer your question, I did this: I ran 'where helics.dll' and 'where helics.lib' in command window and the output paths of these commands are in the %PATH% (I ran 'echo %PATH%' in cmd to see what is included in %PATH%).

[adelheidari]

@afisher1, Should I enable HELICS in GridLAB-D manually? I saw that HELICS is enabled after version 4.3 of GridLAB-D and there is no need to do any other stuff in this regard.

[afisher1]

I apologize for the delayed response. Can you try renaming helics.dll to libhelics.dll? No need to rename helics.lib. I get your behavior when the library is helics.dll and I got it to work by changing the filename.

[adelheidari]

Thank you so much for the help. I really appreciate it.
I was able to run the case with your suggestion. Also, there were a few other minor corrections needed to be done in order to run the case. I found out that new files have been uploaded in the Github (here) for the examples. Using those files along with the suggestion you mentioned, the case can be successfully run.

Thanks again,
Adel

[trevorhardy]

Great; I'll be closing this out, then. Thanks for trying that example out and helping us get it back up to snuff.