LCN I/O Spares Management - LCN Hardware View

LCN Hardware View

The LCN Hardware View is the primary workspace for LCN I/O Spares Management. It displays the TPS/LCN network topology - LCN, UCNs, and the nodes on each UCN - as a navigable diagram. For any xPM controller (PM, APM, or HPM) it shows the controller's I/O Modules and their individual slots, and lets engineers open the Slot Reservation dialog for any spare slot.

Opening the LCN Hardware View

1. Open a configuration asset collection that contains imported LCN data. If LCN data has not been imported yet, click Import LCN Files (key tip: IF) to import the LCN LVRLOG.RE and NCF.XX data files.

2. Select the LCN Hardware tab in the main Control Architect workspace. The LCN Hardware View ribbon tab becomes active.

3. The diagram shows the LCN, its UCNs, and the nodes on each UCN.

4. Click an xPM controller node (PM, APM, or HPM). The I/O Module Rack View opens beside the diagram and lists the I/O Modules of that controller.

Note Only PM, APM, and HPM nodes support I/O spare management. Other LCN and UCN node types are shown in the diagram for reference only.

The Ribbon Toolbar

The context-sensitive LCN Hardware View ribbon tab appears whenever the LCN Hardware View has focus. It contains the following groups:

LCN Hardware View Group

Button	Key Tip	Purpose
Import LCN Files	IF	Imports the LCN LVRLOG.RE and NCF.XX data files.
Rescan xPM I/O Assignments	RX	Rebuilds the xPM I/O slot assignment index for the current collection from the stored configuration assets, without re-importing source files. See Spare Slot Detection below.
Edit Layout	EM	Toggles edit mode so diagram nodes can be re-positioned.
Print Chart Views	PD	Prints the selected Chart View to PDF.

Reconcile Group

Button	Key Tip	Purpose
Reconcile I/O Reservations	RI	Compares all IOSparesDb records against the current xPM hardware topology and flags discrepancies. See Reconcile I/O Reservations.
Stale Reservations...	SR	Opens the Stale Reservation Report dialog. See Stale Reservation Report.

Export Group

Button	Key Tip	Purpose
Export Reserved I/O status to Excel...	EX	Exports IOSparesDb slot reservation records to two Excel workbooks. See Export Reserved I/O to Excel.
Export All Hardware I/O Channels...	EH	Exports every xPM I/O Module slot in the collection to a single Excel workbook cross-referenced with reservation data. See Export All Hardware I/O Channels.

Access Control Group

Button	Key Tip	Purpose
Manage I/O Users...	AU	Opens the User Administration dialog. Visible but grayed out for non-SuperAdmin users. See User Administration.
Publish Topology...	PT	Publishes the xPM I/O topology (controllers, modules, slots, and their spare/assigned state) to IOSparesDb for remote access. The status bar reports the number of modules and channels published.
Refresh My Access	RA	Reloads your user account and role from IOSparesDb. See Roles and Access Control.

Navigating the Hardware View

The diagram is organized in a tree hierarchy:

LCN at the top level.
UCNs connected beneath the LCN.
xPM Controllers (PM, APM, HPM) and other nodes on each UCN.
I/O Modules displayed in the I/O Module Rack View for the selected controller.
Slots displayed in the I/O Channel View for the selected module.

I/O Module Rack View

The header shows the controller name and node number, a RDT badge when the controller is redundant, and a summary of the module and spare slot counts. Each row represents one I/O Module:

Column	Description
Module	The I/O Module number (MODNUM).
Type	A colored badge showing the I/O type (AI, AO, DI, or DO).
Card	The IOP card type (e.g. HLAI, LLMUX, AO_16, DISOE).
Utilization	A bar showing how many of the module's slots are assigned, spare, and reserved.

I/O Channel View

Click a module row in the rack view to display its slots in the I/O Channel View:

Column	Description
Ch#	The 1-based slot number within the module (SLOTNUM).
Type	A colored badge showing the slot's signal type.
Tag	The tag of the point assigned to the slot, if any.
Description	The description of the assigned point.
Container	The container of the assigned point. Click to navigate to it.
Status	Assigned, Spare, Reserved, or Stale. Click the status badge to open the Slot Reservation dialog for that slot.

Hover over a slot row to see a tooltip with the slot number, signal type, tag, description, network (NTWKNUM) and node (NODENUM), unit, and - when a reservation exists - the reservation details.

Supported I/O Module Types

Card Type	I/O Type	Slots
HLAI	AI	16
LLAI	AI	8
LLMUX	AI	32
STIM	AI	16
AO	AO	8
AO_16	AO	16
DI	DI	32
DISOE	DI	32
DO	DO	16

Note Serial Interface (SI) cards have no reservable I/O slots and are excluded from spare management.

Spare Slot Detection

Unlike PKS, an xPM I/O Module's configuration does not list which of its slots are in use. Control Architect determines this by scanning every point configuration in the collection and matching its NTWKNUM, NODENUM, MODNUM, and SLOTNUM parameters to a module slot. Any slot not assigned to a point is shown as Spare and can be reserved.

Because this scan can take time on large systems, the result is stored and reused the next time the view is opened. Click Rescan xPM I/O Assignments (key tip: RX) to rebuild it - for example, after loading a new configuration snapshot. After you confirm the prompt, progress is reported as Processed n of N configuration asset(s), n assignment(s) found..., and the status bar shows the number of assignments re-scanned when complete.

Resizing the Hardware View Panes

The LCN Hardware View is divided into three side-by-side panes: the Network Diagram on the left, the I/O Module Rack View in the center, and the I/O Channel View on the right. Drag the splitter between the Network Diagram and the I/O Module Rack View to trade width between those two panes. Drag the splitter between the I/O Module Rack View and the I/O Channel View to grow or shrink the I/O Channel View. Pane widths are saved automatically and restored the next time the view is opened.

Stale Reservation Highlighting

Module rows in the rack view, and slot rows in the channel view, are marked with an orange left border when they carry a Stale reservation record. The module tooltip also shows Has a stale reservation. This gives a quick visual indication that the module requires attention without requiring the engineer to open each slot individually.

Tip After importing a new configuration snapshot, run Rescan xPM I/O Assignments followed by Reconcile I/O Reservations to automatically identify and flag stale reservations across the collection.