Field Notice: FN - 63471 - Compact EGC Single and Dual Amplifier–A93270/A93280 - BIOS/Firmware Upgrade Recommended

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
1.0	19-Jan-12	Initial Release
10.0	09-Oct-17	Migration to new field notice system
10.1	19-Apr-18	Updated Product Heirarchy Affiliation

Products Affected

Affected Product ID	Comments
A93270.10240
A93270.10340
A93280.10240
A93280.10340

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvf34445	There were no defects filed with this field notice at the time of publication.

Problem Description

The Compact EGC Single and Dual Amplifier might occasionally produce an error in the measurement of the AC voltage (network power) which will only be noticeable when the amplifier is equipped with a transponder that communicates to a management system (for example,  ROSA EM and ROSA NMS). The management system will generate a false alarm since it receives an AC voltage measurement that is out of range of the minor or major alarm limits. The faulty measurement will only occur for a few minutes, and restore automatically until it occurs again. The interval between two faulty measurements depends on different elements and goes from a couple hours to several days/months. The overall performance of the amplifier as well as the end customer experience will not be affected.

Background

The measuring routing in the firmware has been modified to allow the amplifier's microprocessor to sample the AC voltage each 8 milliseconds instead of each 528 milliseconds. This improves the accuracy of the measurement and avoids the errors.

Problem Symptom

AC power voltage alarms that occasionally occur will be present for some minutes and then be cleared. In a typical deployment, this will occur in one unit at a time so there will be no correlation with other units in the network.

The problem mostly likely appears when the AC voltage is in the shape of a sine wave. Most AC power supplies deployed in HFC networks are quasi-square wave, and thus the problem will not be noticed.

The problem can also be influenced by changes in the environmental temperature. During long periods (months) the problem could go unnoticed, but a change in the environmental temperature can cause the problem to occur. Since this is caused by the tolerance on components, it is not possible to predict if it is at low or high temperature. Each unit can be different.

Workaround/Solution

This problem is resolved with a firmware upgrade using a firmware download kit which will be available to customers March of 2012 from the Cisco.com website.

In the meantime, units can be returned under the RMA process to be upgraded if the customer chooses. Note that the overall system and customer experience are not impacted by this issue and customers can choose to wait for the firmware upgrade available in March 2012.

The issue has been solved in these firmware versions:

• A93270 SW version: DEA_1.03.16 (SW file 7016991_D)
• A93280 SW version: SEA_1.00.10 (SW file 7018526_B)

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email
• By telephone

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