- Data Logger -

The logger is the interface mechanism between Data Manager and its data sources. A data source may be either a piece of plant equipment connected to the computer via a serial communications port, or a piece of data resident in another application or indeed another machine on a network. Since there are many possible types of plant equipment available from a range of manufacturers, Data Manager provides optional drivers to cope with the different serial protocols used. The logger transfers data between the real world and Data Manager by means of Tags. A tag may hold a single piece of data and this may be either a number or a string. Numbers may be scaled as required (engineered) before being used by Data Manager. Tag data is acquired by the logger at regular intervals called the sample time. If required the logger will record tag data onto the computer hard disk for later display on a chart. The logger also provides a mechanism for data to be sent back to the plant equipment. This allows full interaction between the operator and the connected plant.

Port Set-up

This dialog box is used to set up a communications port to be used to obtain data from plant instruments.

Physical Port
Select the communications port to be used by clicking on the appropriate button. This must correspond to a communications port resident on the system.

Protocol
Select the required protocol for the port. Alternative protocols are an optional extra and this feature will not be present on all systems.

Advanced (On certain protocols only)
Press this button to specify advanced driver specific features.

Port Name
Enter the name by which the port should be known.

Baud Rate
Click on the appropriate button to select the communications speed. This must correspond to the settings within the control system instruments connected to this port.

Timeout
This parameter tells the logger how long to wait for a reply when talking to a control instrument on this port. When this time has elapsed, the logger assumes that the request was not received by the control system and will try again. Enter the timeout required in seconds.

Notes:
For OMRON protocol the minimum recommended timeout is 0.3 seconds.

Retries
When a communication request fails or times out. The logger will retry the request a number of times before reporting a failure. Enter the number of additional attempts the logger is allowed to communicate with the plant.

Hint:
The values of Timeout and Retries should be made as small as is possible while still ensuring correct operation. Long timeouts and large numbers of tries will slow down the data throughput of the logger.

Sample checkbox
Check this box if the tags on this port are to be sampled at regular intervals. This is the usual setting and sampling should only be turned off temporarily for diagnostic purposes. Note that sampling may also be controlled on a tag by tag basis in the Tag Definition dialog.

Record checkbox
Check this box if the tags on this port are to be recorded at regular intervals. This is the usual setting and recording should only be turned off temporarily for diagnostic purposes.

Error Beep checkbox
Check this box if the logger is required to 'beep' whenever a communications request fails.

Select Tag

The top portion of the window contains a list of tags. The types of tag that are listed in this window are controlled by the Filter group below. Check the boxes next to the types of tag that are required in the list. Previously 'Deleted' tags may be displayed in this box by checking the Deleted Tags box. Deleted tags are displayed with an asterisk next to the tag name. This is possible since tags are not actually removed from the tag list when they are 'deleted' they are just marked as inactive.

Edit button
Press this button to edit the currently selected tag. The Tag Definition dialog will appear.

Delete button
Press this button to delete the currently selected tag or tags. The system will ask for confirmation before deleting them.

UnDelete button
Press this button to undelete the currently selected tag or tags. The system will ask for confirmation before undeleting them. If the name of a deleted tag corresponds to that of another tag the deleted tag may not be restored.

Copy button
Press this button to generate an array of copies of the selected tag. The Copy Tag Dialog box will appear.

Name Format
Enter the new name required for the copied tags. Use a # sign to indicate that a number should be inserted.

E.g.
To create 10 new tags (called V11 to V20 ) from the tag name V10. The user should enter the name format as V##. As the new tags are created the ## part of the name format is replaced by a two digit number.

Name increment
Enter the number to be added to the tag name for each successive copy.

Addr increment
Enter the number to be added to the tag address for each successive copy.

Param increment
Enter the number to be added to the tag parameter code for each successive copy.

Index increment
Enter the number to be added to the tag index for each successive copy.

Number of Tags to generate
Enter the number of additional tags that you require to create.

Generate button
Press this button to generate the new tags as defined.

Save button
Press this button to save your tag list changes to file. The tag list is NOT automatically saved at any stage so if you wish to keep your modifications you MUST save them by pressing this button.

New button
Press this button to create a new tag. A blank Tag Definition dialog will appear.

Export button
Press this button to export the currently selected tags to a file. This file may then be later imported into another project.

Import button
Press this button to import some additional tags from a file previously created in another project by the export function.

Print button
Press this button to print out the current tag list.

Tag Definition (Default Dialog shown)

Note: This dialog can look different for different protocols.

Tag Name
Enter a name for the tag. This name must be unique and be 8 characters or less in length.

ID
(For information only). Shows the unique tag identifying number.

Description
Enter an optional description for the tag.

Parameter Type group
This group is used to select the type of tag.

• Dummy
  Check this button to make the tag a dummy tag. A dummy tag is a tag which obtains its data from internal sources only.

• Real
  Check this button to make the tag obtain its data from a serial communications port. As Data Manager supports many different serial drivers, the resources in this group are driver dependant see the section applicable to the specific driver.

  Port
  Select the port to be used for data collection. The driver type will be displayed next to the port name.

  Current Protocols Include:
  FGH Standard Protocol
  FGH Listen Only Protocol
  Modbus RTU Protocol
  West Protocol
  ANSI X3 Protocol
  AB SLC500 Protocol
  Omron SysMac Protocol
  Mitsubishi FX series PLCs
  Mitsubishi A and FX series PLCs
  Modem support allowing connection to remote plant via telephone lines
  Sartorius SBI Protocol

• DDE
  Check this button to make the tag obtain its data from another windows application via DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). The user must enter a valid DDE address for this type of tag.

  DDE address.
  Enter the DDE address for the data. This address is in the standard format :-
   
  =<servername>|<topic name>!<item name>
   

  servername
  This is generally the name of the application which is to provide the required data eg Excel or Access.
  topic name
  This identifies the type of transaction required.
  item name
  This name uniquely identifies the item of data required.

  E.g. for Microsoft Excel, the DDE address
  =excel | c:\sheet.xls ! r1c1
  would obtain the data from cell A1 on a spreadsheet called c:\sheet.xls.
   
  Retrieving data from remote applications via a local area network.
  Ensure that the file c:\windows\netdde.exe (or a shortcut to it) is present in the Startup directory of all machines which participate in the DDE transfer.
   
  On the machine which is to act as the server, use the DDEShare program to create a DDE share for the required server application.
   
  When using DDE to obtain data from an application running on a different machine on a network
   
  =<machine name>\NDDE$|<dde share name>|<item name>
   
  machine name
  The network machine identifying name. This is the machine name as provided in the Network applet of the Windows control panel and may include spaces eg “\\Autoclave1”. Note the double backslash at the start of the name. This name must be followed by the network DDE identifier \NDDE$.
  dde share name
  The name given to the DDE share set up on the source machine. Eg DM$.
  item name
  This name uniquely identifies the item of data required.
   
  E.g. To retrieve data from a tag called setpoint on another network machine running Data Manager.
  Assuming that the DDE share was set up on a remote machine \\Autoclave1 using the share name DM$
  The DDE string would be.
  =\\Autoclave1\NDDE$|DM$!setpoint

• Network
  Network tags are used to retrieve data from remote machines which are also running DataManager.
  Network tags use the Windows Socket (Winsock) mechanism to access data from other machines on a network. They may be used to retrieve numeric or string (text) data as required.

  To specify a network tag the user needs to know the name (or IP address) of the machine on which the data resides and the name of the DataManager tag or internal variable which holds the data.

  The network address is specified in the Tag Definition dialog in the general form.
  ‘\\servername\itemname’

  servername
  This is generally the registered network name of the machine to which you wish to connect. Alternatively the IP address of the machine may be entered directly.

  item name
  This name uniquely identifies the source of the data on the remote machine and may be a tag name or global internal variable.

  eg
  The network address.
  ‘\\production\\tempsp’

  Would obtain its data from a remote machine called production which is also running DataManager and has a tag called tempsp.

  Alternatively the address
  ‘\\182.265.254.512\pressmv’

  Would obtain its data from a remote machine with IP address 182.265.254.512 and a tag name of pressmv.

  To access internal variables the full internal variable name should be used complete with the # or $ header. For example ‘\\production\\#batch_number’ would get its data from the internal variable #batch_number.

  Please note that only global variables (not drawing or local variables) may be transferred using network tags.
  Once the tag network address has been set up the user should also specify an appropriate sample rate and record rate.

  Notes.
  DataManager uses the Winsock port number 11172 by default. If this port number conflicts with other applications then it may be changed as required by editing the [Winsock] port setting in the file FGHLOG.INI This file may be edited using Notepad or Wordpad. DataManager should be restarted for any changes to take affect.This setting should be changed on ALL DataManager systems on the network,

  DataManager samples network data at regular intervals. On slow or very busy networks the user may need to adjust the packet timeout and number of allowed retries for network messages. These setting may again be modified by the user in the [Winsock] group in FGHLOG.INI

  The system will attempt to reconnect to remote servers which have disconnected for some reason. There is a disconnection timeout delay of several seconds which prevents the system from spending all of its time trying to reconnect. This setting is available as the [Winsock] Reconnect after setting in FGHLOG.INI

Data Type group
This option is dependant on the selected driver. See driver specific information for further details.

Parameter Scaling
The user may apply a scaling to the raw tag data before the data is passed to the system. This applies only to numeric gates.

• Measured
  Specify two values of raw data.

• Engineered
  Specify two corresponding values of engineered data.

  for example. if the following values are used.
  

  Measured 1 = 0	Engineered 1 = 0
  Measured 2 = 1	Engineered 2 = 0.1

   This will have the affect of dividing the raw data value by 10 as acquired before saving as the tag data value.

Parameter Recording
The logger can record the tag value to disk for later historical replay on a chart if required.

• Never
  Check this box if it is not required to record the tag data.

• Changes Only
  Check this box to record the tag data if the value of the data changes by more than the amount specified in the tolerance box.

• Every
  Check this box to record the tag data at regular intervals. Enter the recording interval in seconds into the adjacent box.

Parameter Sampling
Real Tag data is read from the plant at regular intervals. The user should specify how often this data is sampled.

• If Shown checkbox
  If this box is checked the parameter will only be sampled if it is used in the currently displayed drawing. Otherwise it will NOT be sampled.

• Never
  Check this box if the data should NOT be sampled at regular intervals.

• Every
  Check this box to sample the tag data at regular intervals. Enter the sampling interval in seconds into the adjacent box.

Multiple Tag Monitor

The Multiple Tag Monitor window is used to monitor the current tag values.

This window shows information for each active tag in column format. The current value of the tag is shown on the far right. This may be asterisks if the value is currently unknown and the line colour will be red.

In the status bar a filter control can be found. Select and/or unselect the ports and types to filter the display window as required.

Use the vertical scroll bar to move up and down the list as required to view the tag(s) of interest.

This windows columns can also be sorted into ascending or decending order.

The sample and record setting for a tag or block of tags may be changed from here by multiple selecting the required tags and then clicking on the Sample or Record column headings.

Tag information may be modified from the Multiple Tag Monitor window by double clicking the mouse on the selected tags row or right clicking the mouse to access a pop-up menu. The Modify Tag dialog will then appear.

Press the Edit button to invoke the Tag Definition dialog.

The other features are for diagnostic purposes only.
Press the Read button to force the logger to take an immediate sample from the tag.
Enter a value and press the Write button to write the data to the tag.
Check the probe checkbox to cause the logger to display messages to this tag in the Tag Probes Window.

Remember to save the tag list from the Tag selector window if you require to keep any changes that you have made.

Tag Probe

This monitor is used to monitor messages passed between the logger and the plant instrument.

Show Errors checkbox
Check this box to show all messages which are in error.

Pause button
Press this button to pause the probe window. Press again to resume.

Internal Global Variables Inspector

This inspector is used to monitor the states of internal global variables. From these windows the selected variable value can be read or when double-clicked written to. (See also, language)

Shows the #IPOS[14] array expanded when double-clicked (see above)

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