Mark-V <C> core freezes frequently
Kindly advise wht to be done.

Mentioned mark-v is connected with Cimplicity HMI
with a mutiunit configuration.

 

If your post is understood correctly, then you have more than one Mk V turbine control panel but you are experiencing the problem only on one Mk V turbine control panel's <C> processor. Is that correct?

Has this problem just started or has it persisted since initial commissioning/start-up of the unit?

What Diagnostic Alarms are being displayed on the HMIs for the affected unit?

What error messages are displayed on the LCC Display of the <C> core?

Have you tried resetting the System Errors on the <C> core using the LCC Display keypad? (Press the LCC key in the upper left-most corner of the keypad; the display should indicate "--i86 MONITOR--". Press the INC button at the bottom of the display keypad three times until the display shows "3) CLEAR SYS ERRORS", then press "ENTER" on the display keypad. The number of errors being reset, or cleared, should be displayed. Press INC three times again to show "3) CLEAR SYS ERRORS" and if the error count should show zero; if not, and new errors have occurred then the problem(s) has(have) not been reset.

Have you verified that the coaxial cable(s) connected to the affected <C> core is(are) good? Are there any 93-ohm termination resistors on the <C> core? Are they properly connected? (More than one site has had the wrong termination resistor connected; early Mk V HMIs with Ethernet used coaxial 10-Base2 cables and 50-ohm termination resistors. Both the 10-Base2 cable and the termination resistors, while very similar to the ARCnet cable and termination resistors, CANNOT be used on the ARCnet StageLink. Also, more than one site has been found to have different types of coaxial cable used for the StageLink. The correct type is specified in the Mk V Application Manual, GEH-6195. Poor termination of coaxial BNC connectors has also caused problems at many sites.)

Are there any Fiber Optic hubs in the StageLink? Is the Fiber Optic hub for the affected <C> working properly? Are the coaxial cables and the fiber optic cables properly connected to the hub? Is the RECONFIG LED on the fiber optic hub lit or flashing intermittently?

Have you tried running the ARCWHO utility from the HMI?

Have you checked all the cables in the <C> core for proper seating?

If the problem is affecting all the <C> cores intermittently, then the problem could be in the CIMPLICITY project. The conifguration or the point definitions have been known to cause similar problems. Such CIMPLICITY problems are much too complicated to troubleshoot in this forum.

GE also has a recommended "limit" of no more than two GE Mark V HMI Servers per Mk V <C> core. Limit is in parentheses because many sites have reported that they have more than two HMI Servers per Mk V <C> core and they have no communication problems. It is suspected that these sites have very "clean" CIMPLICITY project configurations/point definitions AND newer Mk V PROMsets....

How many GE Mark V HMI Servers do you have per Mk V <C> core? (That's a difficult question to answer without looking at the F:\CONFIG.DAT files of every HMI Server; so please send back the definition of which Mk Vs each HMI is configured to talk to.)

Lastly, some later Mark V installations which used GE EX-2000 exciter regulators had the StageLink connected to the exciter regulators, also. If this is the case at your site, check those coaxial StageLink connections, also, for the affected unit.

A similar question has been posted before, but the poster never responded with any requested information or any results. However, it must be said that this is a difficult issue to troubleshoot and resolve without some familiarity with how GE Mark V HMIs are configured and some familiarity with CIMPLICITY and some familiarity with fiber optics (if fiber optics were used on the site) and some familiarity with how StageLinks were set up if there were GE EX-2000 exciter regulators involved.

If the units were packaged and provided by GE, there should be a drawing titled, "Assembly, Remote Control System", with a ML number something like A108 or 4108 (the drawing numbers were unique for every site, but the ML, or Model List, numbers were the same for every Remote Control System Assembly drawing). This drawing should be very helpful in determining the overall layout and connection of the StageLink. If the packager was not GE, then there still should be some similar drawing which depicts the StageLink layout and connection. Troubleshooting a problem like this without such a drawing would be very difficult.

If this problem has been persisting for some time and/or you are not familiar with or comfortable with reading files and configuring CIMPLICITY, it is recommended you obtain the services of someone who is. If you have tried all the hardware-related suggestions and you are still experiencing problems, it would take many exchanges in a forum such as this to check the CIMPLICITY configuration/point definitions for correctness.

If there are fiber optic hubs in the StageLink, and the problem is just being experienced on one <C> core, then the fiber optic cables and hub related to that Mark V should be verified by a knowledgeable person.

markvguy

 

Sorry; somehow this got posted to another thread...

There's one more thing which can bring a <C> processor to its knees: a problem with GSM communications. Specifically, requesting too much data or requesting it too often or even requesting data points which don't exist. (GSM is a communications protocol which the DCS uses to ask for data from Mk Vs via GE Mark V HMIs, usually via an Ethernet connection. GSM can also be used to send commands to Mk Vs via GE Mark V HMIs.)

Does your plant use GSM to get data from Mk Vs via GE Mark V HMIs?

markvguy

 

Thnx for ur response... It really helped a lot.
I've one more query, this is regarding Cimplicity
HMI connected to a MARK-V.

Is there any option available in Cimplicity to directly print periodically logged data?

I've tried Cimplicity data logger option but couldn't get the desired result.

Thank You.

 

You're welcome.

This author never availed himself of the opportunity to learn about any of the features of CIMPLICITY over and above those needed to control and monitor a turbine.

Other HMI applications have a "report generation" feature. Check the CIMPLICITY Help file for something like that.

However, one of the problems this author noted with early versions of TCI and CIMBIDGE (the software which allows the Mk V and CIMPLICITY to communicate) was that they didn't seem to work very well with the printer when an MS-Windows application (like CIMPLICITY) tried to write to the printer. Later GE Mark V HMIs (those with Win2K and later versions of CIMPLICITY, TCI and CIMBRIDGE) seemed to "share" peripherals like the printer better.

The IDOS operator interfaces had a periodic logging function, but it's not believed that it was carried over to TCI.

markvguy