01Note the exact number and which axes are missing
The alarm number from the FSSB group and the list of axes that never come ready are your starting data. If consecutive axes in the chain order are missing, the problem is at the first missing one or in the link before it. If one isolated axis in the middle is missing, it is more likely to be that device.
02Ask what was done beforehand
Electrical work, an amplifier change, a parameter restore or a job inside the cabinet the day before explain most cases. An FSSB alarm appearing out of nowhere on a machine nobody has touched is far less common than one appearing the day after the cabinet was opened.
03Do a full power cycle, respecting the sequence
Power down by the procedure, wait for the time the builder specifies and power up. Bus recognition happens at start-up, so if one amplifier was slow to power up last time, a clean restart may sort it. If it comes back the same, it is a hard fault.
04Do not touch the fibre optic cables
FSSB fibre is not unplugged or repositioned with the equipment energised, and it is not handled without the cleanliness and care it needs. Bending it below its minimum radius ruins it permanently. If you suspect the fibre, it is a maintenance job with the machine locked out.
05Let maintenance read the amplifier LEDs
Every amplifier has status indicators showing whether it has supply, whether it sees the bus and whether it has detected its own fault. Reading them means opening the cabinet, so it is electrical maintenance work. It is by far the information that pinpoints the break in the chain fastest.
06If hardware was changed, review the axis configuration
Assigning axes to the bus is a machine-specific configuration. If an amplifier was replaced with one of a different size or axis count, or a backup from another machine was restored, the configuration may no longer match. It is corrected using the builder's documentation and with a backup taken first, by maintenance.