Hello,

As I'm commissioning a new Mark V TMR installation i noticed that the HMI is not receiving ANY diagnostic alarm even though there should be many out as half the field instruments are still disconnected and we reset each core at least a couple of times. Further investigation brought out something that I found slightly odd.

I'm not exactly sure if this is relevant but the version number of the various prom is differing not only in the last 2 digit usually reserved for the release number but also with the third last
e.g GHDQF1<b>C</b>BG and TCQAF1<b>B</b>BF can this be related to the missing diagnostic alarm?

 

Now here's an interesting post. Someone who's concerned about the <b>lack</b> of Diagnostic Alarms. This is certainly a first, for me anyway. (grin)

You may have already looked at this, but the CIMPLICITY Alarm Display can be configured to show ALL alarms and events, or just particular alarms and/or events. It's done through the 'Setup' button. Has someone disabled the display of Diagnostic Alarms? Because if you're seeing Process Alarms, then the CIMPLICITY AMV alarm object should also be receiving Diagnostic Alarms, even if it's not displaying them.

It's been a long time, but I think there is a command-line utility for displaying alarm queues. I think it's called ALMDSP1.EXE and a second one called ALMDSP2.EXE, or something like that. (Sorry; I don't have access to GE Mark V HMIs any longer, and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned!). Search the G:\EXEC folder for files with the names like or similar to those above. Type the command at a command prompt window followed by a /? to get a help screen.

Using that (or those) command-line utility(s) would allow you to see if Diagnostic Alarms are being transmitted (broadcast) on the StageLink. Then the HMI has to "receive" them and transmit them to CIMPLICITY to display them (one of the many reasons I'm happy not to work on GE Mark V HMIs, too many handoffs and things that can't be easily troubleshot, much less understood).

The two designations you have shown below are completely unrelated. One is for the DCC or SDCC "main" PROMset (the one that starts with GHD) and the other is for the TCQA card (the one that starts with TCQA).

The only two characters in the designations which matter are the last two, the Major- and Minor Revisions. And, the Major- and Minor Revisions for each "card" in the I/O Configurator must match the characters for the respective PROMset.

My bet is that somehow the CIMPLICITY Alarm Window has been configured to not display Diagnostic Alarms.

 

Yes sorry for not mentioning it. but I've already checked the Cimplicity alarm screen setup and it should be showing everything. and also used the ALMDUMP2 DALARM command to verify the diagnostic alarm queue and it shows up as empty there too.

The process queue is working normally from ALMDUMP2. I'm really stumped by this.

 

Then it would seem there is something amiss with the installation of TCI, CIMBRIDGE, or CIMPLICITY. Or, there is some mismatch with the version of TCI and/or CIMBRIDGE and the DCC/SDCC PROMset.

 

I tried verifying all this things. the only thing that comes to mind is the same that I've got at the beginning. that is that the PROM set installed is the following:

<pre>
GHDQF1CBG
TCQAF1BBF
DENQF1BDE
IOMAF1BDE
TCEAF1BEC
TCDAF1BCI
GDHCF1CBG
TCCAF1BDF
TCCBF1BDC
TCCBF2BDA
</pre>

And that the GHDx prom have a C as the third last letter while all the other have a B. I've found that there was a wrong configuration in IO_CFG regarding the DCC Version [it was set to 2.6 instead of 2.7] but even after correcting it, downloading and restarting it made no difference.

 

If you're commissioning a new unit with a Mark V, what does GE say?

 

At the moment they are quite in the dark also. I hope that before the end of the other commissioning work this has come to a solution else I definitely won't start anything ^^;;

 

So, there is more than one unit being installed?

If so, what are the PROM revision numbers for the GHD proms on the other unit versus the rest of the PROMs?

Is the other unit having similar problems?

You say you've tried verifying all these things. Have you reinstalled TCI and CIMBRIDGE from the eTCSS CD? There have been many cases of corrupt executable files, sometimes just one file, that cause problems like this.

Have you specifically asked about PROMset compatibility issues? I've never heard of GE providing an HMI that wouldn't work with a particular PROMset. The only thing I've seen cause problems is when PROMs were upgraded during a start-up and the PROM subdirectory files and/or the I/O Configuration files were properly updated.

Were PROMs upgraded prior to or during this commissioning?

This problem should be relatively easily solvable.

 

Yes there is more than one unit being installed. The other one has the same prom set, but as the power supply for that panel is not yet finished i don't know if it is giving the same issue.

For what I know there should not have been any prom upgrade. but as I'm following this only since last week I haven't got a really clear history of what happened in the past.

About PROM in one of the boxes I've found a set of GAS prom but they seem to not have been installed, nor used anywhere.

While trying to find a reason for this i chanced on this thing: the SDCB_CFG.DAT file and the SDCQ_CFG.DAT file in the Prom directory are referencing just Rev 2.6. That is one less than the PROM revision, as the latest revision, while the other files in the prom directory go straight to the same number as the prom.

 

Ok the problem in the end has been solved. It was because the file in the Prom Directory didn't match EXACTLY the PROM set for GHD.

I've had to discuss for half an hour with the GE support to get them to send those two damned .dat files, but as soon as they were there everything was solved.

 

Thanks for the feedback! It really is the most important contribution here at control.com.

Again, it just goes to show how important it is that the files in the PROM subdirectory match the PROMset revisions that are installed in the Mark V turbine control panel.

That was a good catch on your part; congratulations!