What will cause the FP-1000 to fail initializa​tion?

Question

When our Field Point FP-1000 is initialized the Network LED and the Access LED flash then go blank. The Power LED remains illuminated and the Status LED extinguishes. This has become more frequent lately. Sometimes all that is needed is to re-initialize the Field Points again and sometimes cycling the power to the Field points is required. Most of the time a re-initialization has to be repeated several times before the Network and Access LEDs remain illuminated and no Power Controller failure is reported. Once the Field Points are working the FP-1000 will stop communicating with the other modules after several minutes and the Network and Access LEDs extinguish. In this case all that is required is one re-initialization to get all of the modules on-line.
After the modules are all working and the initial failure is corrected the Field Points will operate for several hours without any failures. Then the same Power Controller Failure will pop up. As before all that is required is to execute a re-initialize to get the modules back on-line.
We have replaced all of the Field Point modules several months ago for the same problem and the new units only occasionally faulted until the last couple of weeks. Now the failures are every time the modules are powered up.
Are the Field Point units susceptible to corrosion when exposed to high humidity? We operate near the ocean, about 50 feet, but the Field Points are installed in an air conditioned trailer that once in a while will build up some moisture when the air conditioner cycles off.

Answer 1

FP-1000/1001 modules do not have RTlogs.
Considering that you are loosing communication with the module, but the module does not appear to be crashing from an internally recogonized failure (STATUS LED should start to flash), I would look at the communications and grounding. The FP-100X modules use the NETWORK and ACCESS LEDs to indicate when they recognize activity on the serial port (NETWORK) and when a valid command is addressed to the FP-100X or its attached modules (ACCESS). The FP-1000 uses RS-232 for data transmission. RS-232 relies on 3 primary wires; Rx, Tx, and ground. RS-232 ports are generally not isolated since they are single-ended signalling and need to share a common ground. What is the distance between the FP-1000 and the device it is attached to serially? How are both systems grounded (including power supplies)? It may be that due to the corrosive nature of seawater/salt aerosols, a portion of the system ground is at a different potential that is being charged and/or drifting over time. If you are resetting the FP-1000 by turning the power off, you may be allowing the ground to shift back to a level that allows the FP-1000 and device to communicate. Also, check the serial cable itself for broken pins/ground and corrosion.
Regards,
AaronMessage Edited by Aaron G on 04-21-2005 04:55 PM
Message Edited by Aaron G on 04-21-2005 04:55 PM
Message Edited by Aaron G on 04-21-2005 04:55 PM