Fault and Alarm Behavior

The fault and alarm handling functionality addresses both the need for a large and ever-expanding number of specific faults and alarms, the need for programmable actions, and the need for timely reporting of those faults and alarms to the controller. Additionally, no compromises are made to restrict the resolution of the reported faults and alarms, so that the controller always has access to the unique axis condition and a meaningful diagnosis. Numerous Fault and Alarm-related attributes can be included in the fixed portion of the cyclic Device-to-Controller Connection so the controller can monitor the condition of the axis in real time, without cumbersome polling.

The CIP Axis Status attribute contains bits to indicate whether an alarm condition is present. The CIP Axis State enumeration indicates when the axis has a major fault, which could be a regular runtime CIP Axis Fault, Safety Fault, or an Initialization Fault. The Axis Fault Code and related attributes are used to report the specific fault condition, time stamp, and fault action to the controller for the purposes of building a fault log.

Axis Test Mode

Axis Test Mode Enabled axes using Controller Loopback do not support Motion Device Axis Object Faults or Alarms. Faults that are within the Controller scope can be generated.