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EBITrack 400 Asset User Guide - August 2022

EBITrack 400 Asset User Guide - August 2022

Technical Overview

EBITrack 400 receivers are monitored by collecting data from their diagnostic link, which reports the status of the device once per second. Several items are reported back, each of which are recorded in a Centrix channel. The following channels are of particular interest for RCM:

  • IAVE: The average in-frequencey-band current. This should be high while the track section is clear and effectively zero when the track section is occupied. Many classes will affect the IAVE measurement, appearing as unexpected peaks or generally elevated current while a track section is occupied.

  • ITOT: The total current seen by the receiver (including in-frequency-band current). Excessive ITOT current can indicate fault conditions relating to traction current, failing tuning circuits and so on.

  • ITHR: The threshold current for this device. When IAVE drops below ITHR, the device reports the track section as occupied and vice versa.

  • ERR: This channel reports any fault code emitted by the device

Centrix analyses each track occupation to find anomalous track current (IAVE) measurements. When an anomalous occupation is detected, it is assigned a tag depending on the type of anomaly, and the health score for the device is dropped accordingly. A series of anomalous occupations will result in a 0% health score, indicating the track section requires immediate maintenance. The types of tags which can be applied to occupations are described below

Tag Types

TC_HIGH_CURRENT: Applied to occupations with generalised high occupation current.

TC_UNSTABLE_OCCUPATION_CURRENT: Applied to occupations with unstable occupation current (i.e. with unusual peaks or spikes mid occupation).

TC_SHORT_OCCUPATION: Applied to (apparent) occupations which are very short i.e. track flicks.

TC_LONG_OCCUPATION: Applied to (apparent) occupations which are very long.

TC_POOR_DATA: Applied to occupations where the quality of data is poor - can be due to datalogger misconfiguration.

The rules which are used to decide how these tags are applied can be adjusted from their defaults in the edit asset page (see below).

Health Score

A health score (between 0% and 100%) is assigned to the asset each time an occupation is observed. The health score is based on the proportion and type of tag applied to recent occupations. As a rule of thumb, if more than 20% of occupations are anomalous the health score will drop below 50%, indicating a maintenance intervention should be scheduled.

Creating or editing an asset

To create or edit an EBITtrack 400 asset begin by navigating to the asset list, using the menu on the top left of the Centrix front-end.

 

Use the create asset control on the top left to define a new asset, or search for a pre-existing asset by name, and edit using the pencil control on the right of the list entry.

If you’re creating a new asset, you’ll be asked to select the asset type, in this case an EBITrack 400 receiver.

You will then be presented with the asset create/edit display.

At the top, you will need to enter an asset name, and confirm the default asset parameters are acceptable. The asset parameters are as follows:

Asset Parameters

Parameter Name

Description

Asset Name

The name of the asset

Site

The site on which the asset is located

Max % sample above occupied

The maximum percentage of the occupation data samples where the track occupation current is high before the occupation is treated as anomalous and a “high current” label is applied.

Max state transitions

The maximum number of times the occupation current can cross above the occupation current threshold before it is treated as anomalous and an “unstable occupation current” label is applied.

Clear current threshold

Defines the clear current threshold (the current threshold above which the track section is considered clear), as a percentage of the typical observed clear current.

Occupied current threshold

Defines the occupied current threshold (the current threshold below which the track section is considered occupied), as a percentage of the typical clear current.

Maximum score

An internal Centrix counter. Defines the proportion of recent occupations which, if identified as anomalous, cause the health score to drop to zero. A lower number will cause the health score to drop faster and vice versa.

Ellipse ID

The asset’s Ellipse ID number

Good occupation weight

The relative weight of a good (i.e. non-anomalous) occupation when the health score is calculated. A higher weight will cause the health score to recover faster after anomalous occupations are observed and vice versa.

Track circuit length

The length of the track circuit section, in meters.

Anomalous occupation weight

The relative weight of a bad (i.e. anomalous) occupation when the health score is calculated. A higher weight will cause the health score to drop faster after anomalous occupations are observed and vice versa.

Saturation score

The maximum number of recent anomalous occupations which will be counted when calculating the health score. A higher number will result in the health score taking longer to start rising from zero percent after a many anomalous occupations have been observed.

Minimum samples

The minimum number of data points recorded during an occupation for it to be analysed. If fewer samples are recorded, the occupation will receive a “bad data quality” label.

Min occupation duration in milliseconds

Occupations shorter in duration than this will be labelled as “short occupation” and be considered anomalous

Max occupation duration in milliseconds

Occupations longer in duration than this will be labelled as “long occupation” and be considered anomalous.

These asset parameters can be used to adjust the behaviour of the occupation labelling system and the health score calculation.

 

As shown above, asset-to-asset relations can be defined, for example linking adjacent track sections, points and crossings. The latitude and longitude of the asset can also be defined. At a future date, these parameters will be used to evaluate the impact of weather/environment on the asset and associate the performance of adjacent/joined assets.

Once all the fields are filled in or changed, the save changes control at the bottom of the page must be clicked to save changes.

Creating or editing alarms

Alarms for EBITrack 400s are based on an asset health score. The asset health score is a percentage, with 100% assigned to assets with no apparent faults, 0% assigned to assets with many anomalous occupations indicating a fault, and percentages in between reflecting to proportion of good to anomalous occupations. The health score can be viewed on the asset status page (shown in the section below) and is treated as a synthetic data channel on the asset in Centrix. Alarms can be raised when the asset health score is low.

Alarms for EBITrack 400 assets can be created and updated either in bulk using the alarm wizard, or individually. In both cases, begin by navigating to the alarm management page using the menu on the top left of the Centrix front-end.

To use the alarm wizard to create/update multiple alarms, use the create multiple alarms control in the top left. To create an individual alarm use the create new alarm control on the top left. To edit an existing alarm individually, find the alarm in the main list on the right, highlight it, and use the edit control.

Using the alarm wizard

After clicking the create multiple alarms control you will be presented with the following menu, which allows you to pick the alarm type to create. For EBITrack 400s, select the Track Circuit alarm option.

After selecting Track Circuit alarms you will be presented with the following page.

First highlight the box labelled Automatic.

Next, select the Alarm Sensitivity level on the bottom left. A high sensitivity alarm will provide earlier warnings about developing faults but at the cost of false alarms, whereas a low sensitivity will provide less timely notice of faults but with minimal false alarms.

Next, select the assets you want to create alarms for using the Select Assets control. The list can be filtered by site or group if needed.

The training data date range selectors do not need to be adjusted for EBITrack 400 alarms, as the relevant “learned” alarm parameters are updated automatically.

Once all the above items have been completed, use the Next control to generate/update the alarms.

You will then be presented with the alarm generation status page.

After a few moments, each asset will have an alarm generated for it. A green checkmark will appear next to each alarm in the list once the alarm calibration process is complete.

At the top of the page, you can edit the following items:

Item

Description

Labels

Alarms can be assigned a label, which can be considered as a mailing list. Alarm labels can be created and edited on the alarm label page. These are useful when you have a regular group of users which need to be notified of multiple types of alarm (see the section on alarm labels below).

Emails

As an alternative or addition to alarm labels, individual email addresses can be associated with the alarm here, if needed.

Severity

Defines the severity level of the alarms, which will be included in the alarm email and alarm status page.

Suppression period

After an alarm has been triggered, no further alarm will be triggered for the duration specified here. This can be used to prevent multiple alarms being raised for the same fault event.

 

If you click on the alarms in the list, you can assign additional alarm labels to individual alarms if needed and edit the Advanced Configuration options shown below.

These advanced options should normally be left at the default shown here, however if you wish to edit them, refer to the description of these parameters in the Creating and editing assets section above.

Creating and editing individual alarms

For more control over alarm creation, alarms can be created and calibrated individually, using the Create new alarm or Edit control on the alarm management page. When these controls are clicked you will be presented with the edit alarm page.

 

Here the following items can be specified