Re: VIOM locking up

["rectorydp" <dpullen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

James

I have found that the VIOMs can "crash" VERY occasionally. My
first
VIOM worked faultlessly for about 18 months and then had a
"crash".
The VIOM didn't stop working but I lost the ability to control over
the serial interface. Commands didn't operate correctly and responses
were corrupted. A power cycle sorted things out.

I currently have 4 VIOMs in full-time operation and I have probably
had about 2 or 3 "crashes" in the last year. It is worth using a
good
quality regulated psu. I found that a cheaper psu that I was using
temporarily made the VIOM more prone to a "crash". I did have
some
discussion with Roy at Phaedrus about this subject and the psu was
thought to be the most likely candidate. He did offer to replace the
VIOM immediately whilst allowing me to run the two in parallel.
Bearing in mind this was after 18 months of faultless operation, I
thought it was a rather exceptional offer!

I would agree that you don't want critical functions on crash-prone
products, however, I do not think this is the case with the VIOM. I
have now made sure that all my VIOMs are on good qulity psu's and
implemented a heartbeat over the serial interface in case something
does go wrong. An automatic power cycle after a couple of missed
heartbeats has always worked.

HTH

David

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "James Mitchelmore" <james@m...>
wrote:
>
> I know there are a number of folks on the list running VIOMs for
central
> heating control, etc.
>
> Has anyone had any experience of them locking up and not accepting any
> inputs/ switching outputs?
>
> Mine has just done exactly that, a quick power cycle sorted it, but
I'm
> a bit concerned that something fairly basic, but fundamental to my
> system, has the potential to `crash'.
>
> Regards
>
> James
>
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