We had the same problem (I work in the same plant as Ms. Heckathorn, but in a different unit. Congrats, Tracy! No more of that lurking stuff. Now that you're out of the closet, we expect at least a weekly posting :). The problem was limited to CP60s. The document Shelby and Tracy mentioned is probably what I've seen. It mostly deals with grounding and noise issues on the coaxial fieldbus connections. I thought it was all hogwash, but our field service guy came out and performed the retrofit, and the problem has been significantly ameliorated. We were getting PIO bus failures of almost all FBMs on a CP at once, similar to what your system log shows, at a frequency of once a week or so. The retrofit involves installing an isolated DIN rail section to mount the coax connector bulkheads only, and grounding this piece of rail with a dedicated ground wire (on one end only). They also put chokes (3 of them!) around the little white coax cable segments that come out of the CP. Finally, we made sure the CPs were at rev M (don't remember if we had to replace any). Other things I tried: I was also told to EEPROM the FCMs to the newest rev (1.13 is what my SysMgmt says now). I was also told to go to 6.5.1. I did both of these before the retrofit document/kit came out, and they did not help. I also was told to EEPROM the CPs as well (to 3.30 I think is what it ended up being). We did it on our last turnaround, after the retrofit kit was installed, but haven't run long enough to see what additional effect it had. Good luck, Corey Clingo BASF Corp. tom.vandewater@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent by: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 03/22/2005 08:08 AM Please respond to foxboro To: foxboro cc: Subject: [foxboro] CP-60 Fieldbus Communication Errors All knowing list, I have a CAR in the que regarding intermittent fieldbus communication errors associated with CP-60 fieldbus devices. We have had continual problems with this since we started using CP-60's at Ver 6.2.1. We have been through a host of EEPROM updates for the FCM/FBI/DCM's, (1.07, 1.09, 1.11, 1.12, and 1.13). The current recommendation to fix the problem is that we upgrade our workstation software to Ver. 6.3.2 and our CP-60 software to 6.3.2 or 6.5.1 and then move our FCM/FBI/DCM, (iom82), EEPROM level back to 1.11. Our plant is a 24-7-365 operation and we have been running at capacity so we have not been able to reboot the CP's since the recommendation was made at the end of 2003. As a result, I am asking all of you if anyone else has experienced this problem? If so, how has the problem been resolved? Since I've already been on many wild goose chases regarding this issue, you might imagine that I am a bit skeptical when another fix is proposed that tells me I need to install more software and go back to a previous EEPROM rev for the FCM/FBI/DCM's. Is there anyone out there running Ver. 6.3.2, (or later), workstation software and 6.3.2 or 6.5.1 CP-60 image, and are still experiencing intermittent fieldbus communication errors on CP-60's? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Below is a description of our problem: Since Foxboro has been unable to identify and fix the problem we find ourselves deeply involved in committing OUR resources to nail down as many of the symptoms as we can. Not being privy to the communication structures and error detection and reporting strategies that only Foxboro knows, we are much like the blind man trying to describe an elephant by touching it. However, we have touched this elephant enough to develop some theories. Here are some of our findings: Once all FCM's, FBI10E's, and DCM's were EEPROMed at rev 1.13, these are the symptoms: * Continue to have large numbers of PIO Bus Access Errors if PIO bus switching is enabled. (10 to 100/hour). We have ZERO errors when running "A or B Disable" except for the complete but temporary failure experienced when running "A Disable" at EEPROM 1.11 on the new DCM's. * The errors are spread out across CP's using all three types of fieldbus communication modules, FCM10EF, FBI10E, and DCM10E's and EF's. * The "majority" of the errors occur on CP's communicating through DCM's * Most of the legacy FBM's are at EEPROM rev. 61.1 with a few at 40.1 (As far as repetitive errors are concerned we see no difference between the two EEPROM rev's.) * The majority of the errors occur repetitively on the same, relatively few, FBM's * The majority of those errors are associated with legacy, discrete, FBM's. (Our discrete FBM's run PLB ladders) * Replacing the repeat offender FBM's with newer or different FBM's of the same type does not stop that FBM from reporting errors. * Moving the repeat offender to a different Y-Adapter does not stop that FBM from reporting errors. * Changing the CP's Primary ECB .MPOLL parameter from 7 to 0 had no impact on the frequency of the errors, but it also looked like my change from 7 to 0 had no impact on the Fieldbus Scan Loading as viewed in the CP's Station Block. It should have made a big difference and I wonder if CP-60's only use .MPOLL=7? * The CP's involved are not experiencing any Control Loading or OM Scanner loading overruns as displayed by the CP Station Block. We have a few FBM's that are experiencing repetitive errors that we can replace/reboot/move/EEPROM, with no adverse effect on the process and we invite Foxboro to observe/troubleshoot using those. We also have all System Alarm logs over the past year that can be reviewed/analyzed. It is our conclusion that there are serious errors in the CP-60 fieldbus communication and bus-switching strategies that will only be fixed when Foxboro decides to put some concerted effort into solving them. Our time is now, better spent communicating with other users to heighten the awareness so they can submit CAR's on these problems. These issues have plagued us for over 4 years and we want to see them fixed. Below is a typical System Alarm log that shows one hour before PIO bus switching is disabled. There are 12 PIO Bus Access Errors during that timeframe. The CP's then ran for over 7 hours with no PIO Bus Access Errors. After PIO Bus Switching is re-enabled there are 16 PIO Bus Access Errors in a one-hour period. _______________________________________________________________________ This mailing list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Invensys Process Systems (formerly The Foxboro Company). Use the info you obtain here at your own risks. Read http://www.thecassandraproject.org/disclaimer.html foxboro mailing list: //www.freelists.org/list/foxboro to subscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=join to unsubscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=leave