SCADA

The SCADA software developed by Controlstar Systems is useable by almost every of skill level, yet at the same time it provides the maximum assistance to personnel supporting a system.  To the operator the SCADA offers total control at the click of a mouse, with full historical information together with the current behaviour of whatever the Controlstar is monitoring or controlling. It provides this detailed view to the user, in the form of mimics, trend graphs, system events and critical alarms. When the SCADA is directly connected to the Controlstar®, all the activities are displayed instantly as they happen.

The movement between the views e.g., trends and alarms, is straight forward and assumes little expertise in computers short of the ability to switch it on, and to log in with a user name and password. After this the operation is very intuitive and is driven purely using the mouse.

Although none specialists can use the SCADA, there is a number of easily understood facilities that translate the Controlstar SCADA into a powerful tool for commissioning and maintenance personnel. These facilities are the ‘live’ display of the controls algorithm, the ability to tune elements of each algorithm, and a detailed diagnostic view that shows the state of both the input and output channels and each module. These channel displays also include terminal block number and/or instrument tag number.

Mimics

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The mimics section is subdivided into the mimic images themselves, the trend displays, and events or alarms.

Using the mimics view, the user is presented with a visual representation of the complete system with clear imagery depicting the current values, such as pressure, water levels, or current duty cycles.

Trend

Trend graphs show the changes in conditions over a period of time. Different data points can be plotted against each other to show how their change relates to other points. The user can select data within their choice of time period.

The trend zoom function allows users to focus down to view split second changes in any process being monitored.

Alarms

Alarm data is split into current, summary and historical alarms. The time the alarm was triggered, as well as when it was cleared is shown, and the user can login and acknowledge alarms to indicate to all users that the incident of the alarm has been noted. Colour coding the background is used to highlight the state of an alarm, with a red background being a new unacknowledged alarm, through to white being cleared and acknowledged alarm.

Control

Under the control section is a unique and powerful diagnostic and commissioning tool. The user is able to view the Control Algorithms; these appear exactly as they were viewed during the design stage in Fusion. When the SCADA is communicating with the Controlstar®, the interconnecting lines will show the logic state of the live algorithms, and these will reflect any changes in the monitored equipment and/or any corresponding actions of the Controlstar®. The analogue variables such as temperature, level, and pressure are also shown ‘live’ on the algorithms pages. By clicking on individual function block and control point, the user can make live changes to the Controlstar using the Change Parameter function. This facility allows timer delays etc to be modified, and is ideal for tuning a control program during commissioning or to compensate for an unforeseen operational change.

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