As of now in the plants process control, operators able to see the operator station/displays( userinterface to operate the plants) on the computers.Now my idea is... I want to see the operator station/displays on the PDA.
Give me some ideas regarding this.Basically I want to see the same operator station with the current status of the plant with some wireless network.
To be more clear,Instead of seeing the operator stations on the computers, with some other means I want to see on operator station on the PDA.
Please give me some ideas on this topic.

Thanks In Advance,
Kris

 

Hi Kris -

There's a number of companies that offer PDA HMI Interfaces who would be more than willing to offer you assistance and guidance.

ICONICS Pocket Genesis:
http://www.iconics.com

Indusoft Studio
http://www.indusoft.com

We offer OPC Servers with free OPC ActiveX controls for HMI development with Pocket PCs.
http://www.plcdriver.com/documents/cepocketpc/igpocketPCserver.pdf

If you would like to discuss your needs and goals please feel free to give
us a call.

Regards,
Chuck Karwoski
CimQuest INGEAR
610.935.8282

 

Hello

The Company Copa Data in Austria has a good working solution for process visualisation on a pda.
http://www.COPADATA.AT

 

This is a good question Kris. I am assuming that your DCS is a Unix based machine. And also the PDA is a Windows based machine. With this configuration, the easiest solution is Hummingbird Exceed software.

The PDA will be a problem due to limited processing power and memory. Also displays and data tend to be large. Wireless networking in an industrial environment with metal structures, electric fields etc tend to be marginal. Because of these limitations I would expect an uphill battle.

I would make two suggestions. Get a Linux PDA since XF86 can be run in a smaller footprint than MS Windows and is network aware. The remote X howto explains in detail how to display X over a network. Then I would draw up new operator screens that are not as "busy" as your current screens. This will limit the bandwidth and may make your PDA more responsive.

Hope this helps.

 

Check out http://www.citect.com

Have seen a demo of this working, very nice.

 

There are varous applications on the market of what you describe, they're usually called thin clients.

One example is Cimplicity's thin client for PDA:s. Other examples are using terminal services to remotely control the desktop computer from a PDA.

I myself am at the moment working on an own PDA solution for the firm I'm working for.

 

You can use remote control software such as NetOp. This allows you to have full control of one device from another. Supported devices include PCs and PDAs running almost every OS available. Since it supports TCP/IP you can run this on any wireless system. It is best to run this in UDP mode as TCP locks up if you go out of range, UDP will recover.

 

Sorry, but PDAs have much smaller screens and many fewer pixels - it simply can not be the same operator station. However, you can access the system with a PDA but it will be graphically much less rich and with much less information.

Not all operators are very young or have 20/20 vision!

Peter Clout
Vista Control Systems, Inc.
176 Central Park Square
Los Alamos, NM 87544-4031
(505) 662-2484
FAX (505) 662-3956
Cell (505) 450-7810
[email protected]
http://www.vista-control.com

 

Go to http://www.opencontrolsolutions.com, then select Products, Hyper SCADA Server. Once there click on Connection Options from the left menu for info related to using a PDA, and other handheld devices, as an operator interface (operator control station).

 

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your valuable and quick information.
Actually now we are using normal desktop machines (MS windows) to view the operator control stations. Now i got an idea that... giving the option to some senior level managers to view their plant status on their PDA when they are not in the plant. Basically I want to take the data from the exisiting operator control stations and I want to see on PDA screen (at least some important parameters of the plant from existing operator control station).
Could you Please elaborate your ideas and toughts
on this... You can a send a reply to [email protected]

Thanka in advance,
Kris

 

Hi Kris,

This is possible, but more infor is required:
- Do you have a system with operator Interface allready?
- Do you want Ethernet TCP/IP Radio Frequency communication?
- What are the distances (for repeaters)?
- What is the application (inteference and Eex)?
- Do you only want to view or also want to control?

Send me your details and I can come up with a suggestion.

Bart

 

Thanks for your quick info Bart. Here is my inputs for your questions..
If you are Ok, you can give -mail to my ID [email protected].

Already operator interfaces are available with the application setup on Win2K machines. My basic requirement is I want to see these operator interfaces on my PDA.Iam OK with any type of communication. Baically I want an idea on how to see on my PDA. I want to view as well as to control from my PDA. First assume that there will be web based operator control stations on my PC.With wire less communication I should be able to browse these web based operator stations on my PDA. Please give me your valuable suggestions.

You can use my personal mail ID also([email protected])

Thanks in Advance,
Murali

 

One consideration that I haven't seen anyone address is security. Once you start putting your data out over the airwaves, you've created an exploitable viewpoint into your controls network.

 

I do this kind of thing by running a RDP client on PDA devices. You can serve up just about anything on a windows or linux terminal server, and then look at the results in a terminal windown on your PDA. It's too bad the H/PC format PDA (like the HP Journada for instance) seems to have died. That works great for a remote HMI.