We have at our facility an ABB Power Generation Portal (PGP) HMI, which is an upgrade from a Bailey Conductor VMS (OIS 43), thus uses converted SODG displays. Whilst the upgrade performs better than satisfactorily, the displays still look and feel like conventional OIS / MCS displays where the only dynamics are colour changes for various LS’s or analogue values, bar graphs and trends...
What we'd like to do is to add animation to things such as motors and pumps to more positively indicate their run / stop state, as at present we only have red for running, green for stopped. This is OK for most plant operators, however can be a bit confusing (possibly dangerous) for someone new who has been working with displays in a previous job, where the exact opposite applied...
When using the generic dynamic editing dialogues used in the PGP graphics editor, the only animation available is 'Blink' - Y or N. One cannot even adjust the rate of blink or pulse length, therefore everything will simply blink at the same time.
There is however, scripting available in any object as well, the only problem is one must know what to type into the script dialogue!
I and everyone else I have approached about this do not have any idea what is supposed to go in there!
The manuals I have available are the 'free issue' pdf's that are shipped with the software product and basically tell us that one can create animation scripts using a language that is “similar to the C language” (that is quoted directly from the manual)!
It then lists some things like operators, mathematical functions, commands, variables and many others, but NOWHERE does it tell the reader HOW to use the various components in a typical script that will actually do something.
It appears that the author assumes that anyone reading the manual is an advanced programmer (like himself) and just ‘knows’ what it all means, thus no further explanation required...
I have had considerable experience using the scripting in Conductor NT and PPB graphics, however this interface is not even similar!
I must admit I have no idea what is needed - i.e. whether or not I would still need to use the ‘generic’ dynamics configuration dialogues when using script, or whether everything can be done entirely with the script; whatever that happens to be??
Can anyone out there help?
Thanks in advance.
Anthony - Collinsville Power Station, QLD Australia
portert [at] transfieldservices.com
What we'd like to do is to add animation to things such as motors and pumps to more positively indicate their run / stop state, as at present we only have red for running, green for stopped. This is OK for most plant operators, however can be a bit confusing (possibly dangerous) for someone new who has been working with displays in a previous job, where the exact opposite applied...
When using the generic dynamic editing dialogues used in the PGP graphics editor, the only animation available is 'Blink' - Y or N. One cannot even adjust the rate of blink or pulse length, therefore everything will simply blink at the same time.
There is however, scripting available in any object as well, the only problem is one must know what to type into the script dialogue!
I and everyone else I have approached about this do not have any idea what is supposed to go in there!
The manuals I have available are the 'free issue' pdf's that are shipped with the software product and basically tell us that one can create animation scripts using a language that is “similar to the C language” (that is quoted directly from the manual)!
It then lists some things like operators, mathematical functions, commands, variables and many others, but NOWHERE does it tell the reader HOW to use the various components in a typical script that will actually do something.
It appears that the author assumes that anyone reading the manual is an advanced programmer (like himself) and just ‘knows’ what it all means, thus no further explanation required...
I have had considerable experience using the scripting in Conductor NT and PPB graphics, however this interface is not even similar!
I must admit I have no idea what is needed - i.e. whether or not I would still need to use the ‘generic’ dynamics configuration dialogues when using script, or whether everything can be done entirely with the script; whatever that happens to be??
Can anyone out there help?
Thanks in advance.
Anthony - Collinsville Power Station, QLD Australia
portert [at] transfieldservices.com
