[foxboro] FBM214 (HART 8-input) question

Hello list.  Hope you all had a merry Christmas/happy Hannukah/great 
holiday :-)

We're just now diving into 200-series FBMs and the HART FBMs in 
particular.  I recall asking someone at the users' group (though I forget 
his name) two years ago about what transmitter status information would be 
viewable and/or alarmed in System Management for HART transmitters.  He 
replied that bad transmitter status (other than loss of HART 
communications) would show up in System Management as yellow or something.


Well, I'm somewhat disappointed to discover that a temperature transmitter 
with no thermocouple connected is not indicated as having any kind of 
problem in System Management, at least not in any way that I can see. IFDC 
shows the sensor status to be bad, and the 4-20 value is high out-of-range 
(because the transmitter is configured to drive high on open TC), but SMDH 
doesn't say anything.  I suppose I could configure a block to look at a 
HART status flag, but that adds to the already laborious extra 
configuration these FBMs require (more on this below).


I'm just curious what other users' do to remedy this, and what the 
feelings on the HART FBMs are in general.  For me, I'd say its a mixed 
bag.  I primarily bought the FBM214 so that we'd (finally!) get 250-ohm 
loop resistance for our handhelds to work, and figured the smart 
transmitter info on the DCS would be a bonus.  IFDC is nice for verifying 
loop integrity, and I can rerange transmitters and do a few other things 
with it, but I apparently can't upload and save the entire transmitter 
database for later download.  For this functionality, I pay a price in 
having to build ECBs for each channel on each card, having to bring these 
on-line even if I only want the 4-20mA signal, and having to build both an 
RIN and another block (MEALM, AIN, etc) for display-only analog inputs.  I 
know Foxboro is pushing their FDT, but most of our transmitters come from 
a vendor (Rosemount) that has chosen to put their effort into the DDL/EDDL 
camp (arguably the majority position in the industry right now), and we 
don't want to be limited to the Windows platform (our two AWs that do more 
than one thing are, and will remain, Solaris for the foreseeable future).


All opinions welcome.


Corey Clingo
BASF Corp.


 
 
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