BCS-460 crashes

[rosier9]

My BCS-460 crashes after every 48 hours or so... makes long term datalogging very frustrating. It has done this with both firmware 3.2 and 3.3. I honestly don't remember if this was common before 3.2. The sample rate is set at 1 minute.

Thanks for any help
Brian

[ECC]

Hi Brian. Can you define 'crash'? Does it completely stop working, or do you just lose network connectivity? Its not always easy to tell the difference. Sounds like you are using it for long term temperature control, does it continue to hold the temperature and turn outputs on/off based on temperature inputs even when unaccessible? If its a hardware issue, obviously we'll fix or replace it. But that won't help your situation if it turns out to be a network issue.

Are you using a wireless bridge? Sometimes the BCS requires a static IP address to keep connectivity on certain bridges:
http://embeddedcc.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... leshooting

[rosier9]

I had been just using it for temperature data logging so I wasn't really able to verify any operation. I have setup an on/off process and will be able to tell more in a couple days! Thanks for the quick help!

[rosier9]

Ok, so the allotted time has passed. It appears that it's a network issue because the outputs are still functioning. It is currently hardwired into the network switch.

[BrianC]

I had a strange issue with my 460 today that I haven't experienced before.

I was about 1/2 way through the boil when my browser (Firefox 4.0.1) lost communication with the controller. I could ping the BCS fine (hardwired to the network switch). After a few tries, Firefox would not pull up the interface. IE would, but the text on the page (like the timers) were not updating. If I refreshed, I would get the latest data.

Everything the BCS was in control of was still functioning (just a solenoid valve for the burner at that point). I eventually restarted the controller, reset the countdown timer for where I was at in the boil, and moved on. About 10 minutes later it happened again. At that point, I was near the end of the boil so I just let it finish up, restarted the controller, then ran in manual mode for chilling. No problems there. I don't know if that is the type of behavior you are seeing, but very strange.

I'll kick off the boil process sometime and just let it run and see if it does it again.

[ECC]

Please try to assign it a static IP address. That should fix your problem.

[BrianC]

Please try to assign it a static IP address. That should fix your problem.

I should have noted in my case it is assigned a static IP w/3.3 firmware. I'll keep watching it to see if it happens again.

[rosier9]

Ahhh, I had a static IP setup on the router, I have re-added it to the ethernet page on the bcs-460. I bet that'll do it, I imagine the static IP gets written over when I re-flashed it... Thanks for the timely help with silly questions!