Red Lion HMI troubles

I have two Honeywell 900 15" Control Stations that are having different problems.


HMI#1. The HMI gets to a black screen with white writing that reads, "900 Control Station Runtime
Release Build 448
Copyright 1993-2017 Red Lion Controls In."


It has a solid green light.


There is no ability to communicate with it via ethernet or USB. Pressing the button combinations to clear the database or change the IP do nothing. It is running off a 100W 24 VDC power supply that is outputting 24V while the hmi is powered.


HMI#2. The HMI works except that it has stopped recognizing the CompactFlash card. It is not recording data and when I go to the menu to look for logs it shows no file directories and when I try to read the card status it says there is no card.


The CF cards for both HMIs work fine when plugged into a PC. HMI 2 was working fine up until it stopped logging data on 5/23 for some reason.


Any help with either issue would be appreciated.

You have two units that abruptly started malfunctioning in the same way ?

I'm a little confused by the symptom set. Does the HMI progress beyond the splash screen, or freeze there ?

You describe the CompactFlash data logging as being the only broken feature ("works except for") but also say that the unit doesn't respond to USB, Ethernet, or keypresses to clear the database.

The last resort for firmware/OS problems with Red Lion terminals is generally to buy/make an RS-232 cable and see if you can re-load the firmware via that method.

#1 and #2 are two different HMIs. Each have separate problems. HMI #1 has the problems listed under #1 and HMI #2 has the problems listed under #2. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clearer.



#1 was a spare that was brought in to replace #2 only to find that it won't boot.


Also, the compact flash cards were supplied with the displays.

Ah... it's perfectly clear once I read it the way you wrote it !

My guesses are that HMI #1 has a corrupted OS, and that HMI #2 has a failed CF card slot.

Try to load the firmware onto HMI#1 via the RS-232 serial port. Be careful building the cable, and be patient doing the download.

Try to reformat the CF card in FAT16 format on HMI #2, or swap cards between them, but I think it's probable that the card host socket is toast, rather than the card.

FYI, as of January 2018, Red Lion now does out-of-warranty repairs on the Honeywell labeled CS900's directly, without Honeywell or a Honeywell distributor involvement.

From the Jan 2018 announcement:
-------------- xx --------------

Honeywell has made changes to the charged repair process for out-of-warranty Control Stations which was earlier handled by Juarez factory.

Under the new process, customers can directly approach the vendor (Red Lion) to get the parts repaired by paying the standard charge prescribed by the vendor.

The steps for the repair process is mentioned below Visit the Red Lion weblink to raise an SO request:

2. Once the details are filled and SO request submitted, Customer Service will contact you for credit card information in the event that any repair fees are incurred against the repair.

3. For any technical support or help required in filling up the SO form you contact Red Lion support directly: Email [email protected] or call 877-432-9908
----------------- end --------------

I assume you get a repaired unit back which is a blank-slate, so you'll need to restore the operational configuration.

I have had symptoms described in #2 simply by using a bad CF card. One batch of 5 cards I bought all had the same symptoms you describe. Putting a new CF card in the HMI cleared up the problem. Those problems didn't occur right away, only after logging for a few days did the card seem to have issues. I tossed those 5 cards in the trash after the 2nd one did the same thing and I solved it the same way. I, too, could read those log files with my laptop, but the HMI didn't like them...they were some cheap brand I got off newegg...maybe the write cycle time was too slow on them? I didn't get that far into it since a $20 Sandisk CF card solved it for me both times.

Also, I learned to add an indicator to a configuration page that would allow me to query the CF card status. When the card has a problem, I would get a "0% free space" returned from the script that reads the card free memory. Now I include that query button and indicator on all my HMI programs.

I have had symptoms similar to what you described in #1 caused by a network storm. Long story short, once the network problems were fixed, the HMI was fine. I could unplug its CAT5 cable then power cycle it and get it to respond, but as soon as I plugged the cable back in, it would reboot and hang at the Boot screen and become unresponsive again. It was a G3 10" IIRC.

Interesting that you've had CF card failures.

Were the CF cards standard office grade CF cards?

Honeywell sells an 'expensive' industrial version CF card for this service, a card that has 4 times the storage as the label states. I'm told that a card program manages the storage, blocking out bad 'sectors' and using other available space. Slide from Honeywell:

danw said:

Interesting that you've had CF card failures.

Were the CF cards standard office grade CF cards?

Honeywell sells an 'expensive' industrial version CF card for this service, a card that has 4 times the storage as the label states. I'm told that a card program manages the storage, blocking out bad 'sectors' and using other available space.

Click to expand...

I have only had that trouble those two times (in the span of a week) and it was on systems with quite a bit of logging being done. I have always used relatively inexpensive office grade memory cards.

I try to buy 2GB cards so that they are already formatted FAT16, but have had to use up to 16GB cards and format them first. Anything bigger that 16GB can't be formatted FAT16 and won't work.

One of those cheap Transcend cards I bought off Newegg is installed and working fine in a CR1000 HMI, but is only used for image backup (no logging).

I just realized that all my talk about CF cards...I was dealing with SD cards in graphite and CR series HMIs, NOT CF cards. The symptoms were the same, though, so the cause might still be the same. My apologies for this brain f*rt.