LCN Diagnostics Tool Specification and

Technical Data

Release R100.1
April 2010

Honeywell Process Solutions

1860 W Rose Garden Lane
Phoenix AZ 85027
(800) 822-7673
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Notices and Trademarks

Copyright 2010 by Honeywell, International Inc.

While this information is presented in good faith and believed to be accurate, Honeywell disclaims the
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and makes no express
warranties except as may be stated in its written agreement with and for its customers.

In no event is Honeywell liable to anyone for any indirect, special or consequential damages. The
information and specifications in this document are subject to change without notice.

Honeywell, Experion, TotalPlant, and TDC 3000 are U.S. registered trademarks of Honeywell
International Inc.

Honeywell Process Solutions

1860 W. Rose Garden Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85027

LCN Diagnostics Tool Specification and Technical Data

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Table of Contents

OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................. 4

PURPOSE.................................................................................................................... 4

PRE-REQUISITE.......................................................................................................... 4

SOFTWARE MODELS................................................................................................. 4

LCN DIAGNOSIS TOOL – MAIN MENU ..................................................................... 5

WHEN, WHY AND WHICH OPTION TO BE USED..................................................... 6

PC ARCHIVING TOOL ................................................................................................ 7

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Overview
The LCN Diagnosis tool is a standalone personality image that runs on GUS / ES-T through
the Native Window. The tool helps to investigate the LCN network transaction anomalies. The
tool can be loaded on an existing node and its assigned node number can be used for referring
the node. If an additional node is added in the network to load the tool, then an unused node
number or a number between 97 and 127 is assigned to the new node. The status of the node
(numbered 1 through 96) appears as SUSPCT ISOL in the System Status Display.

Purpose
After launching, the tool captures the token pass frames and token pass related errors
such as media dead, token pass sequence fail, and noise. Online errors are captured and
archived. The provision to select a specific cable for diagnosis is also available.
The tool helps in finding the cause for the following errors in a node.
• ISOLATION: When there is isolation in the network due to multiple Rings/Tokens,
the tool assists in identifying the nodes with errors.
• Media Dead: When the cables are faulty and there are instances of Media Dead, the
tool assists in identifying the individual node that is missing the token.

Pre-requisite
The node, on which the tool is running, must have the following:
• Connection to the active LCN
• LCNP4e board with the associated firmware Rev F and above
A GUS/ ES-T node with LCNP4e and Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) will be required to use this
functionality. Also the 5xx and 6xx series of TPN releases required for this functionality.

Software Models

Model Description

MP-STPN00 LCN Cable Diagnostic Tool R100

Note: - The media has the custom TPN personality (&disk_&z18.lcn) and installer for the
Windows applications: a) LCNPMemReader and b) NodeMonitor.

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LCN Diagnosis tool – Main menu

The LCN Diagnosis tool help in diagnosing the LCN cable problems. However, when there is
a noise in the network due to breakage of cable or when there is a termination problem, the
tool might process invalid data. How ever the tool identifies the invalid nodes.

The main menu contains 8 options which shall be used based on the error conditions for
troubleshooting. The following table describes the use of the menu’s.

Main Menu: The main menu has 8 options to select

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When, Why and Which option to be used
The following table illustrates when and why to use the menu options of the LCN Diagnosis
tool.
When…
There are multiple Media Dead
occurring on the network
Cable A is in suspect
Cable B is in suspect
There are multiple masters in
the network which causes the
swap
The Token Pass Sequence
Fails, there is a noise on the
LCN, and the Media Dead error
occurs
LCN Diagnostics Tool Specification and Technical Data
And to…
Filter the source and the
destination address
Capture frames on Cable A
irrespective of Cable A/B being
active cable
Capture frames on Cable B
irrespective of Cable A/B being
active cable
Measure the LCN bandwidth
utilization for a selected period
of time interval.
View the cable switch and the
node that caused the cable
switch
Record all the token pass
frames and to look for errors
such as Media Dead
Diagnose the low level
problems at an early stage
April 2010
Use…
The Monitor Token Pass
frames on Cable A and Cable B
menu option to diagnose only
the online Media Dead on the
active cable.
The Monitor Token Pass
frames on Cable A menu option
to identify the active nodes on
Cable A.
The Monitor Token Pass
frames on Cable B menu option
to identify the active nodes on
Cable B.
The Bandwidth Utilization menu
option.
The Monitor cable in use menu
option to analyse the cable
swap.
Note: The Media Dead on the
active cable is also detected.
The Monitor errors menu
option.
The Active nodes on Cable A
and B menu option.
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PC Archiving tool
The PC Archiving tool is part of the LCN Diagnosis tool and helps to investigate the LCN transaction
anomalies in detail. The tool can be run on a GUS/EST. The tool archives the token pass frame
transactions and the errors occurring in the network. The archived frames are available for later
diagnosis.
The PC Archiving tool has the following tools.
• Data Capture / LCNPMemReader Tool
• Stand Alone Analysis Tool / Node Monitor Tool

Data Capture / LCNPMemReader

The LCNPMem Reader tool is a standalone online tool that runs on GUS, to assist with offline
diagnosis of LCN cable transaction anomalies.
The LCNPMem Reader tool can be used for capturing the LCN cable transaction. The custom LCN
personality loaded into the system, logs the token pass details into the LCNP4e board memory. This
information must be transferred to a computer for further analysis. The LCNPMem Reader tool reads
the data from the LCNP4e board memory (logged by the LCN personality). The tool generates a text
file that will be used for further analysis.

Stand Alone Analysis Tool / Node Monitor Tool

The Node Monitor tool processes the text files generated by the LCNPMem Reader tool. The tool then
provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows the user to analyze the data and generate
reports. The reports are of different types:
• Node report
• Error report
• Excel report
• Summary report
The reports can be analyzed further to fix the problem in the LCN network. The tool supplements to the
existing fault information reported by the LCN Diagnostic Tool.

The tool might display the invalid node numbers due to the noise in the network. The invalid node
numbers can be removed from the display using the Filter option in the tool. Therefore, the tool reports
only the active nodes.

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Fig: Node Summary of Analyzed data

Fig: Summary report for the captured data

LCN Diagnostics Tool Specification and Technical Data