Diagnostics

Asking why a machine stopped, reading the answer, checking it and confirming the cause.

The Diagnostics screen is where a stop is diagnosed. It opens on the latest stop with its prepared diagnosis, and it is where you ask your own questions.

Prepared diagnosis

When a stop or trip is recorded, BooleX runs a diagnosis at once, without anyone asking. The result is shown as Prepared diagnosis at the top of the screen, and on the asset page of every asset the holding or tripping interlock acts on. Hide the prepared answer folds it away. Nothing is pushed out of the edge PC: no e-mail and no message.

When a quick model is configured (quick in the model settings), BooleX first stores a fast answer within seconds of the stop, marked First look — being checked. It is made from the evidence gathered at the stop, with no further lookups, and its claims are cited and checked like any answer. When the full diagnosis is ready, it replaces the first look and the status changes to Checked. A first look never replaces a checked diagnosis. The integration API and the shift handover use checked diagnoses only.

If nothing has changed since the stored answer was made, BooleX shows the stored answer and says when it was produced, instead of asking the model again.

Ask a question

Type the question in the question box and press Ask.

• Type @ to complete an asset, tag, alarm or program name; the matching names show with their type.
• The starter prompts above the box are questions the site set for this asset (up to 5).
• With voice or photo input turned on, record the question or photograph the HMI alarm banner instead: see Photo and voice input.
• Names the floor uses ("the return pump") are resolved through the site glossary; the answer says which glossary terms it used.

While the answer is prepared, the Evidence trail shows each tool BooleX runs and how many sources it found. Draft causes stream in as the model writes, marked "draft, checking the sources…". Where the site has switched early candidates on, First candidates show within seconds instead, each with the sources that point at it, marked "being checked against the sources…". The checked answer replaces them.

Evidence card

Before the answer, the Evidence card shows what the plant data and code say on their own, within 2 seconds and with no language model: the stop time and the holding interlock, the first signs, the values at the event, any code change since the previous import, and the Last confirmed fix for the same interlock. It works when the model is busy or offline. See How BooleX works.

Read the answer

• Likely causes, ranked: the top three in full (the site can change the number), and every other cause the sources support under Other possibilities. Each has its cited statements, an Evidence from label (code, process data, alarm history, documents, work orders), the Values at the stop and now, and the Checks for a person to carry out, each with what confirms it and what rules it out.
• Wiring and drawings show the signal's path through terminals and cables where the drawing set was imported; Drawing sets disagree marks a mismatch between two sets.
• Spare parts shows matching parts and their stock, where a parts list or stock export was imported.
• Model replay shows, for a candidate on equipment with a validated model, whether the model supports the cause. See Behavioural models.
• Confirmed before shows earlier confirmed diagnoses of the same cause.
• Labels: AI-generated advice · read-only on every answer; Data quality when a value was bad or missing; Safety function involved with the site's safety procedure cited.

With focused agents switched on (experimental, off by default; see Architecture), the answer also shows:

• Confidence for each cause, high, medium or low, with its reasons. BooleX computes it from how many specialists agree, the kinds of evidence behind the cause, whether it held up when the specialists challenged each other, and the model replay where there is one. The model does not rate itself.
• The cause is not settled when the top cause is not of high confidence, with the check that confirms or rules out each cause.
• How this was reached: which specialist looked at what, and what each found, with its sources.
• Not investigated when a limit stopped the investigation early, naming what was left out.

Click any source ID to open it in the source viewer. A statement BooleX cannot support with a plant source is not shown. When no source supports an answer at all, BooleX says so and offers Log a knowledge gap.

Report a check result

Under each check, report whether it Confirms it or Rules it out. The result is recorded as a technician observation with your name and the time, and the candidates are re-ranked with it.

Confirm the cause

Under Confirm or reject, answer Which cause was it? with Confirm cause 1, 2 or 3, or None of these. Then record the Corrective action taken and Save corrective action.

A confirmed cause and its fix become a dx:// source: the next time the same interlock trips, the evidence card shows it as the last confirmed fix, and answers cite it.

• Work-order draft (CSV) turns the confirmed diagnosis into one row in the site's CMMS column layout, to import into the CMMS. BooleX never writes to the CMMS.
• Viewers can read answers but cannot confirm, report checks or save actions.

Rate the answer and escalate

• Useful or Not useful under each answer. Not useful asks what was wrong, what was missing and what the correct cause was; the feedback feeds the pilot measurements.
• Escalate this session downloads the whole session (questions, answers, sequence of events, the content of every cited source, feedback) as a PDF or JSON file for a 4M engineer. The site decides whether the file leaves the plant.

Platform alarms and early warnings

A red banner under the top bar shows a platform alarm (for example a clock offset or a refused OPC UA certificate): timestamps may be unreliable until it clears. See Troubleshooting. An Early warning (advisory) banner lists drifts and slow starts: see Early warnings.