Good day i am new to the forum, and new to the mark 5 controls system. My question, what is the sequence of powering up the mark 5 system . For example do I turn on T core first and wait 2 mins then S and wait 2 mins and so forward, to reach the A7 status. In the manuel am not seeing it listed in steps. From your experience can someone enlighten me please and 6months in to the controller system a " newbie" thank you for all answers I appreciate it

 

@cartwrighttech,

First, a funny story. In the VERY early days of Mark* V a student in one of the very first Mark* V classes asked this very question, and a requisition engineer from the GE factory where the Mark* turbine controls were designed immediately spoke up and said, "<T> MUST be started first because it's the furthest distance from <C>!" (Proximity has absolutely nothing to do with the order of power-up....)

The only real "rule" is that at least one of <R>, <S> or <T> must be powered up and at A7 in order for <C> to go to A7. It must be remembered, though, that <X>, <Y> and <Z> (the three TCEA cards in <P>) are part of the I/O cards of <R>, <S> and <T>, respectively, so <R>, <S> or <T> won't reach A7 until its respective TCEA card is powered-up and can participate in the IONET communications of its control processor. So, I usually power up <Z> first, then <T>, wait a couple of minutes, then <C> (sometimes I just power-up <X>, <Y> and <Z> at the same time; it doesn't hurt anything). When both <T> and <C> have reached A7, I then power-up <Y> and <S> and wait for <S> to get to A7, and finally, <Z> and <R>--and then all the processors in the panel should be at A7.

So, you can power-up <C> first, but it won't go all the way to A7 until one of <R>, <S> or <T> is powered-up and reaches A7. Or you can power-up one of <R>, <S> or <T> first (after powering-up its respective TCEA card!) and wait for it to reach A7 and then power-up <C> and it will (should) reach A7 eventually.

I always start with <T> and <Z> because of that funny story. But, it really doesn't matter which control processor is powered-up first--as long as one powers up the respective TCEA card before or shortly after powering-up a control processor so that the TCEA card can participate in the IONET communications of that control processor.

These days, though, I hear a lot about processors (control or communication) not reaching A7--mostly because someone forgot to turn on the control processor's respective TCEA card OR there is a problem with a card or the power supply of the processor. The components of many of Mark* V-era turbine control systems will eventually fail, and if the temperature and humidity of the location of the Mark* V hasn't been properly maintained that will hasten the failure of card components (resistors; capacitors; etc.). And a lot of people FREAK OUT when they power-up <C> first and it won't get to A7 even after 15 or 20 minutes--because they didn't power-up one of the control processors and its respective TCEA card.

I hope this helps. (And good on you for at least looking through the Mark* V manuals!)

Welcome to Control.com! There is about 30 years' worth of Mark*-related posts, a lot of it specifically related to the Mark* V. And all of it is searchable using the magnifying glass at the top of every Control.com webpage. You might need to try multiple keywords/terms to find what you're looking for, and if you scroll through some of the results of your searches you might find other things which may interest or help you in your journey to become more acquainted with the Mark* V and GE-design heavy duty gas turbine control philosophies.

Unfortunately, Control.com doesn't have avatar profiles so someone can see your experience level, with, in your case, GE-design heavy duty gas turbines. It would help if you could tell us a little about your experience with operating and/or maintaining GE-design heavy duty gas turbines, and what, if any, other GE turbine control system you have experience with. (And because there aren't avatars, don't be surprised to get asked the same experience questions more than once....)

And, please remember--it helps others who read these posts now and in the future--if you can provide some feedback about whether or not you found the information provided to be helpful. One of the several people who posted frequently about Mark* turbine controls was very fond of saying, "Feedback is the most important contribution here at Control.com!" because being able to see if others found the help and information provided in response to questions for help or information helpful is something that is really lacking in other similar technical forums and differentiates Control.com from other similar World Wide Web forums. Please help to continue the "tradition" of providing feedback alive here at Control.com. (Also, very few of the posters here at Control.com get paid for their contributions--in other words they get paid just as much as you paid to ask for help or information: Nothing. So, they also like to know if the help or information provided was useful, or not. We learn from the feedback and can improve our responses, and it's very satisfying to know if the help or information provided was useful, or not (as the case may be).)

 

@cartwrighttech,

I completely missed this error when I quickly proofread the response before releasing it:

"... and finally, <Z> and <R>--and then all the processors in the panel should be at A7."

That SHOULD have been "... and finally, <X> and <R>--and then all the processors in the panel should be at A7."

Sorry for any confusion.

 

Welcome! Usually, you power on the T-core first, let it stabilize, then the S modules, and finally the rest, giving each a minute or two to initialize. This generally helps the system reach A7 smoothly.

 

@cartwrighttech,

First, a funny story. In the VERY early days of Mark* V a student in one of the very first Mark* V classes asked this very question, and a requisition engineer from the GE factory where the Mark* turbine controls were designed immediately spoke up and said, "<T> MUST be started first because it's the furthest distance from <C>!" (Proximity has absolutely nothing to do with the order of power-up....)

The only real "rule" is that at least one of <R>, <S> or <T> must be powered up and at A7 in order for <C> to go to A7. It must be remembered, though, that <X>, <Y> and <Z> (the three TCEA cards in <P>) are part of the I/O cards of <R>, <S> and <T>, respectively, so <R>, <S> or <T> won't reach A7 until its respective TCEA card is powered-up and can participate in the IONET communications of its control processor. So, I usually power up <Z> first, then <T>, wait a couple of minutes, then <C> (sometimes I just power-up <X>, <Y> and <Z> at the same time; it doesn't hurt anything). When both <T> and <C> have reached A7, I then power-up <Y> and <S> and wait for <S> to get to A7, and finally, <Z> and <R>--and then all the processors in the panel should be at A7.

So, you can power-up <C> first, but it won't go all the way to A7 until one of <R>, <S> or <T> is powered-up and reaches A7. Or you can power-up one of <R>, <S> or <T> first (after powering-up its respective TCEA card!) and wait for it to reach A7 and then power-up <C> and it will (should) reach A7 eventually.

I always start with <T> and <Z> because of that funny story. But, it really doesn't matter which control processor is powered-up first--as long as one powers up the respective TCEA card before or shortly after powering-up a control processor so that the TCEA card can participate in the IONET communications of that control processor.

These days, though, I hear a lot about processors (control or communication) not reaching A7--mostly because someone forgot to turn on the control processor's respective TCEA card OR there is a problem with a card or the power supply of the processor. The components of many of Mark* V-era turbine control systems will eventually fail, and if the temperature and humidity of the location of the Mark* V hasn't been properly maintained that will hasten the failure of card components (resistors; capacitors; etc.). And a lot of people FREAK OUT when they power-up <C> first and it won't get to A7 even after 15 or 20 minutes--because they didn't power-up one of the control processors and its respective TCEA card.

I hope this helps. (And good on you for at least looking through the Mark* V manuals!)

Welcome to Control.com! There is about 30 years' worth of Mark*-related posts, a lot of it specifically related to the Mark* V. And all of it is searchable using the magnifying glass at the top of every Control.com webpage. You might need to try multiple keywords/terms to find what you're looking for, and if you scroll through some of the results of your searches you might find other things which may interest or help you in your journey to become more acquainted with the Mark* V and GE-design heavy duty gas turbine control philosophies.

Unfortunately, Control.com doesn't have avatar profiles so someone can see your experience level, with, in your case, GE-design heavy duty gas turbines. It would help if you could tell us a little about your experience with operating and/or maintaining GE-design heavy duty gas turbines, and what, if any, other GE turbine control system you have experience with. (And because there aren't avatars, don't be surprised to get asked the same experience questions more than once....)

And, please remember--it helps others who read these posts now and in the future--if you can provide some feedback about whether or not you found the information provided to be helpful. One of the several people who posted frequently about Mark* turbine controls was very fond of saying, "Feedback is the most important contribution here at Control.com!" because being able to see if others found the help and information provided in response to questions for help or information helpful is something that is really lacking in other similar technical forums and differentiates Control.com from other similar World Wide Web forums. Please help to continue the "tradition" of providing feedback alive here at Control.com. (Also, very few of the posters here at Control.com get paid for their contributions--in other words they get paid just as much as you paid to ask for help or information: Nothing. So, they also like to know if the help or information provided was useful, or not. We learn from the feedback and can improve our responses, and it's very satisfying to know if the help or information provided was useful, or not (as the case may be).)

This is so helpful thank you for your response, I really appreciate it

 

Welcome! Usually, you power on the T-core first, let it stabilize, then the S modules, and finally the rest, giving each a minute or two to initialize. This generally helps the system reach A7 smoothly.

OK thank you for your response