Operating instructions

SEA M300USERSGUIDE
SERVICEANDTROUBLESHOOTING  202
SERVICEANDTROUBLESHOOTING
Although unlikely, there may be occasions when the M300 or the underlying QNX system
experiences problems functioning and/or booting. The following troubleshooting procedures are
meant to guide the user through the most likely causes of common problems such as hard disk
failures, communication problems, boot failures, etc.
KNOWNPROBLEMS
The following is a list of currently known problems or issues with the M300 software.
1. Applications that use a large amount of memory can have a negative effect on the proxy duration
time when they exit. It is therefore recommended that the user restrain from using any
applications that might affect the M300 performance during real time acquisition mode.
2. While running M300 in acquisition mode, you might notice, once in a while, a longer value for
proxy duration time when you exit certain applications. Depending on the system frequency and
the load of acquisition events, this might cause a proxy not to be delivered once in a while (under
these circumstances only).
3. If it’s required to run another application when the M300 is running in acquisition mode, it is
recommended that the user minimize the application as opposed to closing it. This will not have
an effect on the M300 performance. When the M300 isn’t running anymore, the user can close
the unused minimized applications.
4. We generate an interrupt based on the system frequency. This interrupt is responsible for running
all the acquisition events. Since we can’t use floating point operations in the interrupt service
routine (ISR) and it is not recommended to do much work in the ISA (for performance reasons)
we fire a proxy (this is the suggested way to do this type of work). We have assigned this proxy the
highest priority possible and the kernel takes care of calling a routine. It is in this routine that we
perform all the acquisition events. So proxy latency and duration time are just as important as the
ISR latency and duration time.
5. SEA Applications that might have an effect on the proxy duration are RawView, ImageView and
SEATool.
6. The seadrive runs at priority 10. This can interfere with the M300. Don’t run seadrive at the
same time as M300.
7. The ‘cp’ (copy) runs at priority 10. This can interfere with the M300. Don’t perform a copy while
M300 is running.