Diagnostics
Occasionally, things stop working – and this leaves you with the task of identifying the root cause.
Diagnostics for troubleshooting can help you avoid unnecessary downtime of your application and guide you through the troubleshooting. This is part of the LINAK® I/O™ interface and is one of several options you can add to your actuator to harvest the benefits of smart linear movement.
Below you get a summary of the 3 steps of troubleshooting you can obtain with Diagnostics. These can all be configured in our supporting configurator Actuator Connect™.
Actuators with IC Integrated Controller™ from LINAK® are flexible and can be adapted to special customer requirements and needs. Configure your actuator via the intuitive Actuator Connect™ configurator.
Download a free version of the latest Actuator Connect here.
1. Equip your actuator with a transparent connector and an LED
- for fast diagnostics by simple visual inspection
The actuator can be equipped with a transparent connector and an LED. This enables fast diagnostics by simple visual inspection.
The light from an LED placed on the print inside the actuator can be used to quickly determine whether the actuator is running as intended or shows a failure that needs to be looked at more closely.
In addition to creating a visual indicator of the current status, it can also be used to identify an actuator before pairing it with Bluetooth®.
When the actuator is fully operational, the LED will be green. If the colour changes, it might indicate an actuator malfunction.
2. Get error codes directly to your controller/PLC
- use a digital output for easy troubleshooting
LINAK understands the importance of uptime – and therefore an inoperative actuator must be fixed or replaced as fast as possible.
For applications where downtime is not an option, LINAK offers error codes as a digital output for easy troubleshooting. Several error codes can be read out on the digital output. During a 10-second time frame, the actuator will send a number of pulses to your controller (PLC), depending on the error type.
Easy troubleshooting of the system saves time and offers methods for problem-solving errors that would otherwise lead to unnecessary replacements.
Are you looking for more detailed information about error types and possible remedy? Look in our troubleshooting guide.
3. See the current status and a historic error log
- and identify error patterns with Actuator Connect
If the actuator encounters an error, it is possible to identify the exact cause that has triggered a stop. The available status and diagnostics data can help you reduce downtime.
With the error log, you get an overview of the last 5 errors that the actuator has encountered as well as their frequency. This is documented with a timestamp that can be compared with the total actuator running time.
This data can be used to identify a pattern/trend and therefore provide detailed information about a potentially frequent source of error.