Re: [foxboro] Keyboard locks up on a AW/WP on a 51B box
- From: <tom.vandewater@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 13:37:16 -0400
To All,
We have been plagued by the keyboard lockup problem ever since
the old CAD, (Current Alarm Display), changed from an X-Window to a
Motif window. I still contend that it is the Motif window applications
that somehow capture and fail to release the keyboard during certain
situations. For us the problem has been around for quite awhile as
evidenced by these archived freelist threads that my colleague, Dave
Caldwell, dug up today. Reading them may provide useful information for
you if you are experiencing the problem.
//www.freelists.org/archives/foxboro/10-2002/msg00096.html
//www.freelists.org/archives/foxboro/10-2002/msg00072.html
There are a bunch of half truths that contribute to the keyboard
lockups but we have found no sure-fire 100% solution. The OAJ logging
that Russ Boulay mentions above is a possible contributor. We direct
all of our Operator Actions to a single historian on our 20 node
carrierband system that is now also connected via an ATS with our MESH
network. We noticed a very significant drop in keyboard lockups when we
moved the OAJ historian from an AW51B box to a more powerful AW51D style
box. With the old B style box Duc tracked the actions and saw
unreasonable gaps in the data that made it look like no actions were
initiated. We theorized that the data gaps, (more than 10 minutes with
no actions recorded), were caused by the B boxes inability to buffer and
store the amount of data that was constantly streaming into the Informix
historian database. On the B box we saw multiple gaps per day. Duc
tells me that after we updated the OAJ to a D style box we only see a
gap every two to three weeks! Our number of reported keyboard lockups
dropped an order of magnitude also.
In a similar timeframe we modified the Alarm Manager Motif
windows so that the technicians could dismiss the Motif window using the
mouse which was usually still functional. As soon as the Alarm Manager
was dismissed the keyboard functionality was restored for use by the
Display Manager. We don't use Foxview which is also a Motif Window but
I guess you would have to close and restart Foxview window also to
regain use of the keyboard. Our reduction in reported lockups may have
been partially affected because we trained the operating technicians to
close the Motif Alarm Manager window when they lost their ability to
make keyboard entries on the Display Manager windows. This was a big
revelation for us. I hope it can help you too.=20
In closing, I still think the keyboard lockup is the result of a
bug/contention issue associated with Motif. Other issues contribute to
the likelihood that you will encounter this bug.
Cheers,
Tom VandeWater
Control Systems Developer/Analyst
Dow Corning Corporation
Carrollton, KY USA
-----Original Message-----
From: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Boulay, Russ
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 6:18 AM
To: foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [foxboro] Keyboard locks up on a AW/WP on a 51B box=20
Are you using OAJ Operator Action Journal
=20
We have found that most lockups are caused by OAJ actions not being able
to get to their destination because they no longer exists, out of
service or historian is not responding timely.
=20
When this occurs, actions get queued up in the workstation and can't be
delivered.
About 120-150 mouse clicks queued up can cause apparent lockup.
Current Alarm Display is usually the most common offeneder as operator
actions can build up quickly during upset conditions.
=20
Be sure all OAJ destinations are available and functioning.
________________________________
From: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of
andrew.roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue 5/15/2007 4:26 AM
To: foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [foxboro] Keyboard locks up on a AW/WP on a 51B box=20
We have a number of 51B boxes running Foxboro 6.1.1 and 6.2.1 - we have
over the years experienced keyboard locks ups, but recently the problem
seems to be getting more frequent. The problem happens on different
boxes on different areas - so no pattern.
To resolve the issue we have to kill the alarm manager from a remote
station due to the keyboard on the local station not working. This then
releases the local keyboard to work again until the next time - approx
every 6 weeks this happens but we have 25 51B boxes - so the frequency
seems worse.
We have implemented the changed in CAR 1003752 where you edit the
.Xdefaults file - but this as made no difference - this as been in place
for a few years.
As anyone had similar problems, if so how did you resolve.
Thanks
Andrew
Andrew Roberts,
Systems Engineer
* Dow Corning Ltd
Cardiff Road, Barry, South Wales CF63 2YL
* Voice: +44 (0)1446 723581 =20
* Fax: +44 (0)1446 700874 =20
* E-Mail: andrew.roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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