5069-OBV8S fault lights: what they mean, and why a fixed output stays off

The call usually goes like this. A couple of points on a 5069-OBV8S are lit red, the electrician found the problem and fixed it, and the output still won't come back on. Or the spare outputs nobody ever wired are blinking red, and somebody wants the card replaced.

Usually neither one is a dead module. This card is pickier about what counts as a load than the standard 5069 output cards, and it pulses outputs you thought were steady. Worse, a lot of its faults latch until you take the output through a safe state on purpose. Here's how I read the lights, what clears each fault, and which firmware decides what you're allowed to turn off.

Three sets of lights on the 5069-OBV8S

MOD STATUS and SA up top, sixteen point lights down the side. Sixteen for eight outputs, because each channel has a P terminal (sourcing) and an N terminal (sinking), and each one gets its own light. So when someone tells me output 3 is red, I ask which one. P or N.

The SA light confuses people most. The card takes no current from the SA bus, its outputs run on LA+ and LA-. But it watches the SA voltage, and if the bus is too low or too high, the SA light goes red and every point reports a field power loss, with a perfectly good 24 V on LA. I've watched people meter LA, find it fine and order a module. Meter SA too. The card also has to sit on a DC SA bus, so a rack that mixes AC and DC needs a 5069-FPD between them.

MOD STATUS has two states you only see on safety modules. They're in the table, the rest of its states work like on any Compact 5000 card.

Light	State	What it means	First move
MOD STATUS	Flashing green	No connection, or connected but the initial safety Time Coordination hasn't finished	Check the module in Studio 5000
MOD STATUS	Flashing red and green	UNID not commissioned	Commission the UNID
SA	Off	No SA, SA below range, status unknown, or SA cut during a safety-critical fault	Check the SA source
SA	Steady green	SA in range	Nothing
SA	Steady red	SA off, low or high	Meter SA, fix the supply
Point	Off	Output off, not configured or not enabled, or no module power	Nothing, unless it should be on
Point	Steady yellow	Output on, and a load was seen while it was off	Nothing
Point	Flashing red	No Load with the output off, or a short circuit	See the fault table
Point	Flashing red and yellow	No Load seen while off, never fixed, output now on	Find the open or the light load
Point	Steady red	Field power loss, overload, short to ground, or a hardware fault	Fix it. Nothing found, cycle power. Still red, replace

 

Sixteen point lights for eight outputs. Every channel gets a P light and an N light, and LA+ and LA- have none.

Flashing red, steady red, and what clears each one

Flashing red on a point means No Load or a short. Steady red is the heavier list. The color tells you where to look, not how to clear it, and clearing is where this card really differs from standard I/O.

Fault	Trips when	Point light	Tag or diagnostic	Clears with
No Load	Under 10 mA, output off 250 ms or more	Flashing red	I.Ptxx.NoLoad	Fix the load, or uncheck the diagnostic (firmware 2.011 and later)
Short to 24 V DC	Output wire touches 24 V	Flashing red, sometimes dark	I.Ptxx.ShortCircuit, or Internal Fault in Sourcing	Remove the short, cycle module power
Short to ground	Output on, wired straight to 0 V	Steady red, or dark	Short Circuit to Ground	Remove it, command off, wait 10 s or the latch time, whichever is longer
Overload	1.5 A or more with the output on	Steady red	Overload Fault	Fix the load, command off, same wait
Field power loss	LA missing, or SA bus out of range	Steady red on every point	I.Ptxx.FieldPowerOff	Restore power. Commanded-on outputs return about 100 ms later
Internal fault	Wiring conditions (see below) or hardware	Steady red	I.Ptxx.Fault and InternalFault	Fix the wiring. If it's clean, cycle power, then replace

 

Thermal shutoff rides along with overload. The channel overheats, switches off, and stays off after it cools until you reset it. And with shorts, don't trust the light alone. Depending on the mode and the output's state a shorted point can flash, go steady red or go dark, so read the tags.

No Load: why spare and light-load outputs blink

This one fills my phone. Standard Compact 5000 DC output cards ship with No Load off and trip under 0.5 mA. The 5069-OBV8S flips both: on by default, 10 mA threshold. Anything drawing less while the output sits off for 250 ms gets flagged, healthy output or not.

That's why unwired spares blink. So do points driving signal-level loads, a safety relay input, another controller's input card, a small pilot relay. Plenty of those sit under 10 mA. And it only looks while the output is off. A wire that breaks while it's on goes unnoticed until the output switches off.

On firmware 2.011 and later, with AOP 2.01 or later, clear Enable No Load Diagnostic on the Points page. A 1.011 module has no setting for it at all. Turn it off and a cut wire on that point goes unreported, so I only do it where the load really is that light.

For true spares I'd rather set Point Mode to Not Used, which keeps the light dark. Every point starts disabled in the module’s configuration anyway, so each one you use has to be configured. One catch: a Not Used point holds its Fault tag at 1, so don't wire every Fault bit into an alarm.

Steady red that won't clear: the safe-state reset

Here's what catches people coming from standard I/O. Fix a short on a standard Compact 5000 output card and the output restarts in whatever state the program commands. The 5069-OBV8S switches off on a fault and stays off until three things happen, in order:

1.    Remove the cause.

2.    Command the output to its safe state, normally the controller writing 0 to O.Ptxx.Data. A module reset, a power cycle, Program mode, a controller or safety task fault, a comms fault or an inhibited connection count too.

3.    Let the Output Error Latch Time run out, plus up to one more second. The red goes out and the output takes commands again.

Say a solenoid cable on point 4 gets crushed and shorts to ground. The electrician swaps the cable, the machine is still in Run, and the safety logic still asks for point 4 on, because nothing dropped that command. As far as the card knows, the output never went through a safe state. So it sits there steady red and the new cable gets blamed. Drop the command, wait ten seconds or the latch time if that's longer, bring it back.

Two exceptions. A short to 24 V DC needs a module power cycle, toggling the output won't clear it. And field power loss doesn't latch: bring LA back and anything still commanded on turns on by itself.

Remote racks add one more. An overload can break the connection to the adapter, and when it comes back, a point still commanded high turns back on even if the program never took it through a safe state. If that's not acceptable on your machine, handle it in the logic.

The reset order for a latched 5069-OBV8S fault. Skipping step 2 is why a repaired output stays red.

Test pulses on a 5069-OBV8S, and loads that don't like them

An output that's on isn't a steady 24 V once it's pulse tested. The card drops it for under 700 µs, with a period under 100 ms, and it needs two pulses in a row to call a short, so short detection takes up to 200 ms.

A contactor or solenoid coil usually rides through a gap that short. Electronic loads may not. A fast input on the receiving device can read each pulse as an off and drop out.

Point Mode Safety instead of Safety Pulse Test doesn't remove all of them either. The open wire test and the internal short circuit test can still pulse the output. A quiet output takes all three of these, and only in Sourcing mode:

·       Point Mode Safety or Not Used on every point in the group, nothing on Safety Pulse Test.

·       Enable No Load Diagnostic cleared, firmware 2.011 or later.

·       Disable Internal Short Circuit Detection checked on the Points page, firmware 3.011 or later with AOP 3.01.14 or later.

That last checkbox works per group: even points 0, 2, 4 and 6, or odd points 1, 3, 5 and 7. If any point in the group is on Safety Pulse Test, Studio 5000 warns you and offers to switch it to Safety. Switching the card to Bipolar doesn't help. The option only exists in Sourcing.

The part I'd want someone to tell me. Short circuit detection is required in functional safety applications, and the card's ratings assume Safety Pulse Test unless the wider safety system supplies the diagnostics. Turning pulses off is a risk assessment decision, and whoever owns the safety design should be the one making it.

Test pulses on a 5069-OBV8S output. A coil usually rides through them. A fast electronic input may not.

Sourcing or Bipolar: where the internal faults come from

Output Mode lives in the Module Definition, and it changes both the wiring and what the card lets you do.

	Sourcing	Bipolar
Load wiring	OUT x P to the load, load returns to LA-	Load across OUT x P and OUT x N, both wired
Point Operation Type	Single or dual. Pairs are 0-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7	None, each channel is already a P/N pair
Disable internal short circuit detection	Yes, firmware 3.011 and later, Point Mode Safety	No
Wiring that throws Internal Fault	Output on and shorted to 24 V DC, flagged across its group	Output off with a load across P and N, either side shorted to 0 V DC
SIL CL 3, PLe, Cat. 4 with Safety Pulse Test	Dual channel, or single with an IEC 60947 actuator and shielded cable or a cable trunk	Every channel

 

Internal Fault reads like a dead module. Often it's wiring. In Sourcing, a 24 V short on one point sets the fault on every point in its group, so the tags show several bad points when only one wire is.

LA wants a 24 V SELV/PELV-listed supply. A Bipolar actuator that takes its own power from LA has to get it from the same supply as the module's LA+ and LA-. And if this card wires straight into an input module running off a different supply, tie SA- and LA- together. More than once I've seen an "internal fault" that was a floating 0 V and nothing else.

Single channel in Sourcing is only certified where the process safety time is 200 ms or more, or demand is 3 per minute or less. Dual channel needs the logic to drive both outputs of the pair together, and if one gets a module fault the other goes to its safe state too.

Sourcing returns the load to LA-. Bipolar puts the load across P and N of the same channel on the 5069-OBV8S.

The numbers I keep in my head for this card:

Spec	Value
LA voltage	18-32 V DC, 24 V nominal
Current per channel	1 A mounted horizontal, 0.7 A in other orientations
LA current per module	8 A horizontal, 5.6 A other orientations
Surge per point	1.5 A max
Minimum on-state current	10 mA
Width	1.5 slots, 36 mm
Terminal block	5069-RTB18-SPRING or 5069-RTB18-SCREW, sold separately

 

Firmware decides what you can switch off

Half the confusion about this card comes down to firmware.

Firmware	Released	What changed
1.011	April 2019	No Load can’t be disabled. Known issue: Overload errors on random channels
2.011	October 2020	Enable No Load Diagnostic checkbox, needs AOP 2.01. Random Overload errors fixed
3.011	October 2022	Disable Internal Short Circuit Detection on even or odd groups, needs AOP 3.01.14 or later. Fixes faults in pulse-sensitive field devices in Sourcing mode with Point Mode Safety

 

If an old card throws Overload on random channels and the loads check out, look at firmware first. On the controller side, Compact GuardLogix 5380 and GuardLogix 5580 need firmware 32.011 or later to run these modules at all. A Compact GuardLogix 5380 with a remote rack of six or more Compact 5000 safety modules on a heavily loaded network could also hit a major nonrecoverable fault after about four days. That one's fixed in controller firmware 32.012 and 33.011.

Keying on safety modules: Exact Match or Compatible Module. Disable Keying exists. I don't use it here.

Swapping a 5069-OBV8S without fighting the SNN

Safety modules can only be added with the project offline. A 5069-OBV8SK, the coated version, isn't in the module list, you add a 5069-OBV8S in its place.

Then the Safety Network Number. The controller sends the configuration only if the new module's DeviceID, the SNN combined with the slot, matches the original. A module carrying the original SNN is ready. So is an out-of-box one, but only while the safety task has no signature. With a signature, set the SNN manually from the General page, same as for a used spare that shows up with another machine's SNN. A used one can also still be owned by another configuration. Reset Ownership on the Safety page clears that, and if ownership shows Local, inhibit the connection first.

Configure Always is only for systems that don't rely on the whole CIP Safety system to hold SIL 3 during a swap. Neither the module nor its terminal block can come out under power. After the swap, toggle every output from the controller and confirm each one changes state.

FAQ

Why are the spare outputs on my 5069-OBV8S flashing red?

No Load. It's on by default and flags anything under 10 mA while the output is off, an empty terminal included. Set those points to Not Used, or clear Enable No Load Diagnostic if the module runs firmware 2.011 or later.

How do I reset a 5069-OBV8S output fault?

Fix the cause, drive the output's data to 0, and wait out the Output Error Latch Time plus up to a second. After an overload or a short to ground, give it at least 10 s. A 24 V DC short only clears with a module power cycle.

Can I turn off test pulses on the 5069-OBV8S?

Only with the card in Sourcing, Point Mode on Safety, No Load cleared and internal short circuit detection disabled for that even or odd group. That needs firmware 3.011 and AOP 3.01.14 or later. Treat it as a safety design change.

Does the 5069-OBV8S need SA power?

It draws none, the outputs run on LA. It still monitors the SA bus voltage, and it belongs on a DC SA bus. SA out of range shows up as a field power loss on every point.

Before you order a spare 5069-OBV8S

If every check above points at the card itself, a steady red that survives a power cycle with clean field wiring, IQElectro carries the 5069-OBV8S. It ships without a terminal block, so the 5069-RTB18-SPRING and 5069-RTB18-SCREW are listed on their own, and for a remote rack there's the 5069-AENTR adapter. Everything comes with our 2-year warranty. Before the spare goes in, check its firmware against what your project uses, and plan on the SNN step.