First make sure that the FireWire cards are powered correctly.
The IEEE1394 bus requires a separate, floating 24 Vdc (12-24 Vdc) supply connected to Connector X42
(NOT connected to the same 24Vdc supply connected to X13)
To see where the problem may be coming from,
monitor the BUSS RESETS, MY BUSS RESETS and the BAD MESSAGE parameter.
Monitor these at each drive while the drive is powered up but not in the RUN mode.
Thus, the IGBT's are not firing and generating noise.
If the MY BUSS RESETS is increasing, there is noise on the Firewire from some outside source.
If the BUSS RESETS & BAD MESSAGE are increasing it could be a bad Firewire card or Firewire cable.
If the parameter numbers are not increasing, it would appear that the hardware is good.
Now RUN the drive and the motor.
Thus, there will be power going to the motor and the motor leads which can noise.
Monitor BUSS RESETS & MY BUSS RESETS. Are they increasing?
If so noise from the IGBT's are getting into the Firewire.
Maybe from the motor leads not being wired or grounded properly?
Is the motor cable shielded? On both ends? Is it loose?
Run 1 drive at a time to see if the noise or drive can be isolated.
This is a lot to absorb, but there is no easy answer.
In a good operating system, once the Firewire powers up and gets done handshaking with all of the modules, the BUSS RESETS, MY BUSS RESETS and the BAD MESSAGE should not be increasing. There will be numbers for these parameters but once they get done handshaking they should stabilize and not increase.
As far as the flashing amber LED, if the color is not in the list, it usually means the card is off in the weeds.
A flashing amber LED MAY mean that the Buss is continually resetting
If there are a lot of Buss Resets and My Buss Resets on all the drives, that is not good.
That would definitely indicate a problem somewhere.
The numbers should be no more than a couple of hundreds (if even that) and not increasing.
ASK:
How old is the system?
When was it started up?
Has it ever worked correctly?
When did the Firewire issues start occurring?
What changes were made recently?
