Managing faults
(Original Document)
At a Glance
The monitoring of faults is essential in the area of position control due to the inherent risks with moving parts.
The checks are carried out internally and automatically by the module.
Types of fault
The module detects 4 types of faults:
NOTE: The monitoring of some faults at axis level can be enabled or disabled by the axes control parameters. These control parameters can be adjusted in the adjustment screen.
In STOP mode (OFF), the monitoring of application faults is disabled
Levels of gravity
Faults are classified into 2 levels of gravity:
NOTE: in the case of opening the emergency stop input, or of disabling the translator ENABLE = 0(%Qr.m.c.10), the deceleration phase is not carried out and the stop is immediate. However, the appearance of step failure information is not considered to be a blocking fault, and is simply signaled to the application.
Programming faults
Faults can be displayed, fixed and acknowledged from the debug screen, but it can be useful in operation to be able to drive the moving part and fix faults from a console. For this end, the application has all the necessary information and commands.
Signaling faults
The module offers a lot of information in the form of status bits and words, which can be accessed via the Control Expert program. These bits allow faults to be handled hierarchically:
Levels of signaling
2 levels of signaling are provided:
First level: general information
Bit
Fault
MOD_ERROR (%Ir.m.c.ERR)
Channel fault
AX_OK (%Ir.m.c.3)
No blocking fault (with stop of moving part) is detected
AX_FLT (%Ir.m.c.2)
Fault (groups all the faults together)
HD_ERR (%Ir.m.c.4)
External hardware fault
AX_ERR (%Ir.m.c.5)
Application fault
CMD_NOK (%Ir.m.c.6)
Command refused
Second level: detailed information
Module and axis fault status words CH_FLT(%MWr.m.c.2) and AX_STS(%MWr.m.c.3). These words are obtained via explicit exchange requests described in language objects.
NOTE: On encountering a blocking fault, we advise you to stop the development of the sequential processing to which the axis is associated and to fix the fault by driving the moving part in manual mode. The correction of the fault must be followed by an acknowledgement of the fault.
Fault acknowledgment
When a fault appears:
When the fault disappears, all the fault bits remain in their status. The fault is stored until the acknowledgement is obtained, by setting the ACK_FLT bit (%Qr.m.c.9) to 1 (or re-initializing the module). The acknowledgement must be carried out after the fault has gone (except for soft stop faults)
If several faults are detected, the acknowledgement order only works on the faults that have effectively disappeared. The faults still present must be acknowledged again after they have disappeared.
NOTE: The acknowledgement of a fault can also be carried out on initialization of the PLC, or when a correct new command is accepted in the case of a command refused fault.
Summary table for the different types of faults
The following table summarizes the different types of fault and the associated bits:
Channel fault
(MOD_ERROR bit: %Ir.m.c.ERR)
Process faults (AX_FLT bit: %Ir.m.c.2)
AX_OK: %Ir.m.c.3 (No blocking fault detected)
Command refused (CMD_NOK bit: %Ir.m.c.6)
External hardware (HD_ERR bit: %Ir.m.c.4)
Application (AX_ERR bit: %Ir.m.c.5)
  • Internal
  • Communication
  • Configuration
  • Configuration or adjustment
  • Emergency stop
  • Translator
  • 24 Volt supply
  • Brake output short circuit
  • Soft stops
Coding of the fault in the word CMD_FLT: %MWr.m.c.7
(*) These faults are non blocking faults and have no influence on the AX_OK bit.
Description of the channel faults
The MOD_ERROR bit groups all the faults at channel level:
NOTE: The words %MW require a READ_STS command in order to be updated.