October 2008 Cellwatch Newsletter
NDSL continues to grow and increase its global reach which means that adding Chinese to our range of languages for Cellwatch software was a pretty natural decision.
What's New?
NDSL continues to grow and increase its global reach which means that adding Chinese to our range of languages for Cellwatch software was a pretty natural decision.
Both the Chinese Cellwatch software and the Chinese ConfigBuilder program will be on the new hard drive image shipped with every system commencing January 2009. However training and telephone support will continue to be available in English. Similarly the Cellwatch manual will only be available in English and French for some time to come.
The Cellwatch software that we see today first made an appearance in 1999 in a form that we would still recognize. Since that time it has had a number of relatively infrequent facelifts. We embraced the French language in 2006 and the French user manual was made available this year.
Cellwatch software undergoes any sort of reissue, update or upgrade only every few years. It’s a case of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." Any modification to the program might take weeks or a few months but the testing and field trials associated with making sure that the product is reliable and 100% (or more) trustworthy takes months and sometimes years. NDSL has a reputation for well tried and tested products and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
So the big news this issue is no news at all. We are reissuing Cellwatch software soon, but there will be no significant functional changes to it, that is of course unless you happen to read jiantizì (???) or simplified Chinese.
The newly designed Cellwatch web site has easier navigation, expanded company and news information, and updated product and support pages.
www.cellwatch.com
Support Update
During the course of a battery maintenance visit, a plug may be left disconnected, resulting in an on screen error message. Fortunately, Cellwatch includes a convenient tool to help you quickly locate the break in your communications chain.
Sometimes, after battery maintenance, we get phone calls from customers that see a message on the screen with the words "Cellwatch Communication Error." Do you really know what this means? The message box tells us that we have lost communications with either a component or several components in the Cellwatch system.
CU 1 – Set Unit Address failed
The “Set Unit Address failed” is reported when Cellwatch has lost communications with the DCM’s. This can be caused by one of two issues: 1) a problem with the RS-485 communications or 2) something has broken the Fiber Optic Loop. A simple process can be followed to determine where the error lies.
There are six steps you can follow to determine where the error is and how to fix it.
- Open Diagnostics and press the ILA command
- Press the SUA command
- If “Units on this loop: #” appears, there are no issues between you and that CU
- If “Error No loop back”, press DIA (Diagnose RS-485)
- If “Fault in RS-485” check your wiring and repeat all steps when done
- If “RS-485 OK” then you have a break in your Fiber Optic connection
Faults in the RS-485
- Check your wiring on your RS-485 connection.
- Check the wiring diagrams in your manual or visit our application notes webpage (see below) for the latest diagrams.
- Check that there are no wire frays connecting the data lines or ground.
- Also, check to see if you have un-intentionally shorted out the CU by connecting +V in pin 4 with GND in pin 3 on the 4 pin connector.
Fiber Optic Issues
Fiber optic issues can be caused by several things; you will have to determine which it is by using the TFO command. Look to the manual reference on how to use it properly (pages 85 and 86). You could have:
- A mis-wired DCM, if they were removed to replace cells
- A broken or mis-wired fiber link, if they were removed to replace cells
- Or potentially a faulty DCM, if the DCM was not removed when the cells were replaced.
Application Notes website: http://www.cellwatch.com/appnotes
Latest manual: http://www.cellwatch.com/manuals/manual.pdf
Have questions about your battery data? Visit our support website, http://www.cellwatch.com/support/, to find out how you can help us, help you.
