IFM communication module failure

[edward_lim_uon_]

Hello,

Has anyone encountered multiple IFM modules failure?

We have a customer with 16 IFM modules on 4 different switchboards that have stopped communicating with PME. Client is concerned with the reliability of these modules as they have about 250 of these modules. We tested by replacing the offline IFMs with functional IFMs from spare breakers in the same switchboard.

Upon further investigation, we found that the faulty IFMs stopped communicating after a power outage as the main ION7350 meter reported a loss of power.

The IFM modules are connected to ION7350 meter as gateway.

SWB A - 2 of 4 IFM faulty

SWB B - 4 of 9 IFM faulty

SWB C - 5 of 21 IFM faulty

SWB D - 4 of 21 IFM faulty

There are another 3 IFMs comms on 2 different switchboards that went offline recently and we are yet to test but ION7350 again reported power loss the time the IFM went offline.

Thanks,

Edward

One of the switchboards.

[edward_lim_uon_]

FYI, the IFM modules were not faulty.

Schneider global support advised that IFM modules with firmware version 1.1 may not retain the existing comm setting after a lost of aux power supply.

After upgrading the firmware to the latest version and re-configuring the com settings, IFM modules communication returned to normal.

[michael_franz]

We found that the IFM units in our lab would not function at "no parity."  We switched to Even parity and they worked.  That's all I got.

Thanks,

Michael