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My questions are regarding how to best combine Modbus data logging in a PC that is running another automation task.
Background:
We have a data acquisition system running on a computer that will be deployed in a power plant for our special sensors monitoring. The computer (Windows XP, dual LAN) has a few boards for data sampling that keep the PCI bus very busy. The whole process is running 24/7 by an automation script (autoit3) and sends the resulting data over the internet (FTP) for final analysis.
While collecting sensor data in the system we also need to know the operational conditions of the plant. Those will be provided by the power plant DCS (data collection system) which has a Modbus RTU TCP interface. The DCS is the master, and will be configured to send the data periodically (probably every 2 seconds or every minute) to a few Modbus registers (3xxxx) (about 10 parameters - tags).
for our final analysis we have to combine both data. the one coming from our system, and the operational data from the plant.
Questions:
I am trying to figure the simplest optimal way to configure the system. The first configuration I have in mind is of writing a program that will test the values of the Modbus registers every minute, and save them with a time stamp to a file and transfer over the internet every hour or so.
1. How much will this kind of program running in the background load the PCI or other resources of the computer? Since the other process is very heavy. I want to make sure it doesn’t blow things out of sync.
2. I guess there are a number of ways to write such a program and I am looking for a reasonable one? The tools that we already use are the Autoit for the gross automation, I have written Labview code to interface with a device on a COM port, we have some Matlab capability.
3. Modbus.org is offering a Modbus toolkit? Will that be of any help to me?
Another idea that comes to mind is perhaps to just buy another computer just for that. It will listen to the Modbus log it and FTP the data every hour.
4. Is there something like a ‘Modbus streamer’ out there that one can buy?
5. Any clues or examples from the forum that would be nice?
Thanks
Background:
We have a data acquisition system running on a computer that will be deployed in a power plant for our special sensors monitoring. The computer (Windows XP, dual LAN) has a few boards for data sampling that keep the PCI bus very busy. The whole process is running 24/7 by an automation script (autoit3) and sends the resulting data over the internet (FTP) for final analysis.
While collecting sensor data in the system we also need to know the operational conditions of the plant. Those will be provided by the power plant DCS (data collection system) which has a Modbus RTU TCP interface. The DCS is the master, and will be configured to send the data periodically (probably every 2 seconds or every minute) to a few Modbus registers (3xxxx) (about 10 parameters - tags).
for our final analysis we have to combine both data. the one coming from our system, and the operational data from the plant.
Questions:
I am trying to figure the simplest optimal way to configure the system. The first configuration I have in mind is of writing a program that will test the values of the Modbus registers every minute, and save them with a time stamp to a file and transfer over the internet every hour or so.
1. How much will this kind of program running in the background load the PCI or other resources of the computer? Since the other process is very heavy. I want to make sure it doesn’t blow things out of sync.
2. I guess there are a number of ways to write such a program and I am looking for a reasonable one? The tools that we already use are the Autoit for the gross automation, I have written Labview code to interface with a device on a COM port, we have some Matlab capability.
3. Modbus.org is offering a Modbus toolkit? Will that be of any help to me?
Another idea that comes to mind is perhaps to just buy another computer just for that. It will listen to the Modbus log it and FTP the data every hour.
4. Is there something like a ‘Modbus streamer’ out there that one can buy?
5. Any clues or examples from the forum that would be nice?
Thanks