Remote Operations Devices Ideas

The implementation and support of Ethernet/IP would be a great add on protocol for the SCADAPack 47x and 57x. This will allow for a great range of products supported where the client has an existing standard in place. This again ties in with DTM's where an EDS can easily be loaded and a DDT automatically created for integration.  ... View more

It's often quite difficult to tune DNP3 event deviation settings to ensure both a suitable resolution during normal operation, but also to maintain a suitably low network utilisation during busy periods, where the data is changing more rapidly.   What I believe would be incredibly useful in this regards would be a Maximum Event Frequency (in events per minute) or a Minimum Time Between Events against each object in the Basic settings of the object.   This could possibly also be combined with some form of 'swinging door' compression, so that it's not the absolute change in value from the last sample that we specify, but the allowable deviation from a straight line interpolation of the signal.  This is commonly used in historian systems.   The idea being that analog values are almost always linearly interpolated.  So a value of 0.0 at time t=0sec, and 11.0 at time t=10sec results in a straight line from 0.0 to 11.0, and over 10seconds. If the outstation sends these data points to the master, then that is fine, and we're done. However, if the RTU is buffering them for a little while, and we generate another data point at t=20sec, which is of value 20.0, then we may be able to 'throw out' the t=10sec point, if we're not interested in the fact that it differs by 1.0 from the straight line interpolation between the 0sec and 20sec data points.   The swinging door concept would also help to reduce stepped values turning into long ramps which is often a problem with DNP3. Since at a step change, we would typically get both a sample point immediately before the step, and one after the step when using the swinging door compression. ... View more

Hi,   When creating large configuration for the SCADAPack 5X and probably the SCADAPack 4X it is near impossible to download the configuration over a slow communication link such as a radio network consisting of Trio M450 or similar radios. This situation is worsened if the radio network has a high utilization. Currently if a sizeable configuration with logic needs to be downloaded over a serial connection of 9600bps it take upward of 25 minutes to download with a direct serial cable link and therefore the probability of failure over a radio network with 4800bps bandwidth is extremely high   A suggestion would be to allow for partial downloads to the SCADAPack. This would be suggested from Geo SCADA Expert as well as from Remote Connect.    A staged download might be suggested where changes on different parts of the configuration can be indicated and only those changes downloaded to the RTU. As an example if an analog tag is added or changed then only the addition of the tag is added or if the logic is changed then only the logic is transferred.    The same process can be followed with an upload which sufferers from the same problems as download. In this instance an upload can again be divided into different sections. Each section is downloaded and verified. Therefore if an upload should fail and sections have already been uploaded and completed. These are flagged as completed successfully and won't be uploaded again except if explicitly requested by the user.   Regards Teaan ... View more

The M580 makes use of DTM's to connect to Process drives, TesysT's etc. This allows for the use of IO Scanning registers on these devices through the use of Modbus Function Code 23 (might be incorrect code). I believe this is a key feature for quickly adding multiple Ethernet devices to the SCADAPack and help with advanced diagnostics on your Process network.  ... View more

To allow SP to load configuration upon startup when the SP is in Factory Clear mode. Similar to how it is implemented for Trio Radios. This will significantly improve deployment and maintenance of SPs in the field with no knowledge required of the software and cable connections. ... View more

We know Accutech product line, is a family of instruments reporting to a Base Radio and user ( PLC or SCADA ) can read each instrument information using 10 double word registers.  We can read temperature , pressure and also voltage or current to join into the accutech network any standard 4-20mA or 0-10V devices.  BUT imagine if we can integrate into the Accutech Network a Modbus slave ( or modbus TCP/P ) device.   Just only read or write 10 registers. We can incorporate in a wireless network many devices like Variable speed drives, other brands instrumentation , PLCs , Energy measurement.....   The hardware to implement  this idea exist already , is the BR20 or BR21,  the only job to do is modify the firmware to use the serial ports to read 10 registers from the modbus device and transmit that to the Accutech Base Radio as other Accutech instrument.  We will can convert to wireless any modbus device in the field or plant.  This idea has a grate potential in the market, also against competitors, they are unable to do that.    What do you think?  ... View more

I would like to suggest a change to the Controller Key feature found in Telepace Studio 5.4.2.  I originally submitted this as a bug but because the Controller Key feature prevents writes to the PLC ladder program it was referred to this forum.  In summary, changes can be saved to the project when the Telepace editor is exited, which could (under certain circumstances) lead to corruption.   It is true that the ladder program will not be sent to the PLC if the “WRITE” button is not pressed but I suggest two failure scenarios here.  Maybe a bit unlikely but I present them for review nonetheless:   First, unexpected changes could be saved to the project by a bad person; if the project is ever opened by an authorised user who actually needs to modify the project, and if all sheets are not checked thoroughly before writing/saving, the legit user could inadvertently commit the hacked changes along with the intended modifications.   Second, the “Controller Lock” tends to imply that the project is secure, at least in my mind.  I would prefer that project changes were “bundled” into the controller lock as well as the WRITE commits.   I respectfully suggest that edits to the project are discarded if the Controller Lock is enabled and the "Save changes?" dialog not displayed so that the hacker is not sure what is happening.  This would indicate that the Controller Lock feature not only controls the written PLC ladder program but the project as well, which is the same thing just in un-committed form.   I am recommending these two changes to the next possible release of the Telepace editor.  The changes would make the editing environment more secure than it already is.  Thank you for providing this forum to submit these types of ideas. ... View more

I recognize ongoing support of IsaGraf based ScadaPack 300-series Modbus RTUs is lower priority than new products/features, but the inability to embed source code onto RTUs for upload later in Workbench 6 is a real bummer, and a deal breaker for many of my end users who I'm still supporting in IsaGraf workbench 3.55 and WinXP 32-bit VMWare images.   Please consider restoring the ability to embed/upload source code on the older hardware. ... View more

The SCADAPack E-Series Modbus Scanner functionality allowed for Holding Registers and Input Registers to be used to store packed digital bits, and for these to still be exposed as DNP3 Binary Points without requiring any additional logic / custom code.  This was a native function of the E-Series Modbus Scanner.   In the x70, this functionality appears to have been lost, and now it is not possible to map digital bits in Input / Holding Registers into DNP3 Binary Points.   There are a large number of Modbus devices that present all of their data in the Holding Registers, and to have to use custom code in the x70 to map these to DNP3 points is very frustrating.  Even more so when the E-series RTUs did this without an issue.  It seems crazy that a new RTU family (x70) would be so far less functional than the RTU that it is advertised to replace.   In the Modbus Scanners dialog it should be possible to select Modbus Data Type: UINT and to select Object Type: Digital ... View more