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Managing and Optimizing WIOC Network

Hi,

It is great that a forum exists to create many opportunities to discuss about Emerson products.

I am currently figuring out a good way to manage WIOC network so all the field wireless devices have good, reliable connections.

Specifically, there are 2 WIOC simplex cards, each connected to 86 4320 Wireless Position Monitors, and each position monitor bursts 6 variables every 60 seconds. (Message 0: position, time stamp 0, Message 1: battery life, temperature, time stamp 1, and supply voltage. Message 2 is diabled)

With this configuration, I'm finding that there are few number of position monitors disconnecting and re-connecting to WIOC from time to time, causing intermittent IO_BAD alarms showing up on operator screen.

I believe I've drilled down in DeltaV Diagnostics, AMS Device Manager, and AMS Wireless SNAP-ON applications to find any WIOC wireless network performance parameters I can monitor on, but I have yet to find any useful ones.

Worst issue is, currently I am unable to configure any position monitor's burst message configuration (message 0, 1, 2) using AMS Device Manager at all. All the application return is a blank dialog message with "Finish" button, even though I haven't even got to see the parameter list yet.

Wireless Network Capacity Estimator web page indicates I have populated 86% of the network capacity for a WIOC. However, the note that only one variable per device being transferred is assumed is making me worried that purchasing additional WIOC is going to be needed.

I sincerely ask for everyone in this forum for constructive comments with possible workarounds or troubleshooting tips.

Thank you.

1 Reply

  • It will be very good to better understand your setup to check the reasons behind this issue you are experiencing. I'd start by checking some of the software version you are currently running such as: DeltaV software, AMS, Fisher 4320 device revision, and etc. A copy of your configuration and WIOC backup file would help a lot understanding the situation in better terms. Even though the WIOC backup can directly tell us the WirelessHART network performance conditions, a copy of the report generated by Wireless SNAP-ON can tell how good this network is, specially with 86 instruments connected to each system.
    In order to provide a better understanding of this scenario, I'd kindly recommend you to register the case using 'AskPSS@Emerson.com' so that we can allocate the proper channels within Emerson to better support your issue.

    I hope this message can help initiating the support accordingly,

    Regards,

    Alexandre Peixoto
    Emerson Process Management
    Industrial Wireless Marketing Manager
    email: alexander.peixoto@emerson.com