GEM80-400
Product Overview
Issue 3 04/99
ALSPA GEM80-400 SERIES CONTROLLERS TECHNICAL MANUAL
Page xxix
The serial links should be easier to commission and maintain as each serial link,
including the Printer/Programming Port, has a dedicated pair of line activity
indicators. The serial link statistics have also been improved and now provide
more specific error information to the user.
The plant serial links may be connected directly to the processor module's front
panel or via a readily available passive termination rail. RS232 and RS485 level
serial port signals remove the need to use active termination panels, thus
reducing maintenance, installation space requirements and cost.
Access to all of the controller, plant and wiring may be made from the front of
the module. No access is required to the rear of the host rack when
commissioning the GEM
80-400 module. This should once again reduce
installation and maintenance costs.
7.2. Spares
The GEM
80-400 Processor Module will accept the 20K byte variants of the RAM
and EPROM sub-modules used by the GEM
80/131.
Spare GEM
80-400 Processor Modules for sites with a mix of Standard and
Enhanced Controllers may be supported by stocking the GEM
80-400 Processor
Module for the Enhanced Controller, which may be easily be converted to a
Standard Controller Processor Module by removing its screening panel.
The processor module's battery is the same type as that used on the GEM80/131
and is readily available from third parties.
The GEM80/160 Series Controllers will accept the same versions of IMAGEM,
STARNET, GEMLAN-D an d RAM Modules as the GEM80-400 Controllers.
7.3. Alphanumeric
Display
The GEM
80-400 Processor Module has a four-character alphanumeric display
mounted on the front panel. This is used to provide a local visual indication of
the state of the controller and reduces the need to use a programming tool for
routine maintenance.
The use of the "!" and "#" prefixes to identify user program detected errors and
system errors respectively, and the use of TEXT messages to identify the system
state should make it easy to rapidly identify the source of a particular problem
without needing to find and connect a GEM
80 programming tool. This should
both reduce plant downtime and improve fault reporting.
Errors detected by the user program may be output to the display by writing a
user supplied three digit decimal error code to F1 which will also cause a user
requested watchdog trip. Values greater than 999 will be displayed as "!???".
7.4. System
Log
