Distributed Control Systems

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Thread Starter

Elias Edv

Hi everybody,

I've been working with process automation for the past 5 years now, and I´m lucky enough to have found a profession that really love! The good relationship and common interests of the few people that work in this field is really unique. During my time as an automation technician I've got to work with many different projects and I think I now have a general understanding of many of the fields subjects, all except one!

And now as I work my way though technical college I want to take on this subject once in for all! I want to create and configure "my own" DCS, but because i've never really worked with this in the past i need some help. I want to set up a fairly common system, but the cost can´t be to high. The whole idea with the project is to get a more complete understanding of the world of control-systems so it has to have all the common functions that you find in an industrial system. Have you seen anyone doing something similar or have information that can help me during the engineering phase of the project, I would be very grateful.

Please excuse my poor english,
Best regards,
EE
 
Hello.... I've been doing this for many years.

Since my eyes where at my knees. What I find works best, is the study of micro-processor operations.

What's a DCS? a bundle of micro controllers.
 
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PLC Engineer

Better. DCS isn't Just a micro controller. I used to be an Embedded systems design engineer before entering the DCS industry.

My concerns were similar. I could create Micro-controller based Embedded systems circuits with fraction of a cost(one part of a thousand). But when it comes to industrial scenarios, the embedded system by itself seems very fragile.

Its not that you may not be able to build a DCS like system with your normal micro-controllers.

Ultimately, it is a control system that you develop for a control tower in plants, where the operator has a one-stop control over the whole plant, which is robust and reliable.

Another thing, you cant convince anybody in the large scale industry to go for just Micro controller based circuits instead of the DCS because of the trust it has earned over decades. The Investment on such plants are too much to experiment on. This is where the saying "Time is Money" comes to play. When they think of the down time that can be caused due to a faulty micro-controller and the financial loss that may occur, they'll think to rather spend that much for a DCS.

By the way, the concern was where to start on building a DCS? I believe you should be focusing on Hybrid PLCs rather than DCSs alone. The age of DCS is at its verge of extinction. We need something that is more robust and easily applicable to smaller plants / systems. Not to mention the cost factor as well.

Allen - Bradley has successfully designed such hybrid systems that can be configured like a DCS, but the size and complexity is of a PLC. I Guess that's where you could start.

The reliability and redundancy factors are areas you could focus on research. An Remote I/O system (Conditioning systems for miles of operation area), a Process manager module etc.

> Hello.... I've been doing this for many years.

> Since my eyes where at my knees. What I find works best, is the study of micro-processor operations.

> What's a DCS? a bundle of micro controllers.
 
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