Owners Manual HF Online Data Acquisition System 3170 Metro Parkway Fort Myers, FL 33916-7597 Phone: 239-337-2116 Fax: 239-332-7643 Email: info@hfscientific.com Catalog No. 22838 Rev 2.
Table of Contents 1.0 System Set Up ..............................................................................................1 1.1 Minimum Hardware Requirements for Lookout ............................1 1.2 Testing TCP/IP.................................................................................1 2.0 Software Installation ...................................................................................2 2.1 Installing National Instruments Lookout ........................................2 2.
1.0 System Set Up The data acquisition system is based on the Lookout HMI/SCADA (Human Machine Interface / Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system manufactured by National Instruments, Austin, Texas. Lookout is a PC based software that operates on Windows 9x / NT/2000/Me/XP operating systems. 1.1 Minimum Hardware Requirements for Lookout The following are the minimum computer requirements Pentium Class PC running at 90 MHz. • 32 MB RAM (recommend 64 MB) • 200 MB free hard disk space.
2.0 Software Installation There are four steps to installing HF Online. These steps are: • Installing National Instruments Lookout • Installing HF Online Files • Setup Lookout for HF Online • Setup Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator 2.1 Installing National Instruments Lookout Before installing, make sure that all other applications that may be currently using ODBC are shut down. Such applications include spreadsheets, word processors and database programs.
2.2 Installing the HF Online Files This is the actual program that runs on the Lookout platform. These files are included on a separate CD labeled HF Online Software. Create a new folder named HF Scientific Files under the National Instruments directory. Copy the 13 files from the CD under the folder HF scientific files to this new folder. Highlight all the files in the HF Scientific Files folder and right click. Go to Properties. Uncheck the box for Read Only.
Fig. 2-1 2.3.2 Startup From the pull down menus, select Options>> Startup… Refer to Fig. 2-2 and 2-3 Fig. 2-2 Ref 22838 (8/02) Rev 2.
Highlight the file in the Startup Process Files box and then click on the Remove button. Now click the Add button. Navigate to the HF Scientific Files folder.. Three files will appear in an Open File dialog box. The files are hfserver.l4p hfclient.l4p hfreport.l4p Highlight these files and click on the Open button. Click on the OK button to exit out of Startup. Fig.
2.3.3 Serial Port Note: skip this step for runtime versions of Lookout. The system will default to COM 1. If another COM port is needed contact HF Scientific inc. The lookout SCADA system will be communicating with the network of turbidimeters through one of the available RS232 COM ports. The COM port being used (user needs to determine which port is to be used. The SCADA system process files are configured to use COM1.
2.3.4 Security Set Up and User Accounts (optional) The Lookout HMI/SCADA system is capable of up to ten levels of security. The turbidity data SCADA system is configured with the following security levels: Security Level 0 1 2 3 10 Description No access. Browse and print reports only. Level 1 plus alarm acknowledge, change scale on bar chart and trends, change SQL report start/end times and sample intervals.
Fig. 2-5 Fig. 2-6 Important: Exit Lookout. From the Windows taskbar click on Start>>Shut Down… Select the Restart radio button, and then press OK. The system will now restart and the changes made, will be effective. Ref 22838 (8/02) Rev 2.
2.4 Setting Up ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) Lookout uses a historical database called Citadel for logging all the turbidity process data. The Citadel database includes an ODBC driver, which enables other applications to directly retrieve data from Citadel using SQL (Structured Query Language) queries. It is necessary to set up ODBC in the server node PC (please refer to the next section for an explanation of server and client node PCs).
Click on the Add button. The following dialog box appears (Fig. 2-8). Fig. 2-8 Select National Instruments Citadel 4 Database from the list and click on the Finish button. In the resulting pop up dialog box (refer to Fig. 2-9), fill in the Data Source Name, Description and Database Path fields: Data Source Name: Lookout4 The Data Source Name must be different from any other ODBC Data Source Names. Description: Lookout Citadel Database.
Fig. 2-9 Click OK in the Setup dialog box. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box (Refer to Fig.2-7), select the File DSN tab. In the resulting pop up dialog box (see Fig. 2-10) click on the Add button. Fig 2-10 Ref 22838 (8/02) Rev 2.
In the Create New Data Source pop up window select the National Instruments Citadel 4 Database (refer to Fig. 2-8) and click on the Next button. Enter the Data Source Name as Lookout4.dsn and click on the Next button (refer to Fig. 2-11). Fig. 2-11 In the resulting dialog box (refer to Fig. 2-12) click on the Finish Button. Fig. 2-12 Ref 22838 (8/02) Rev 2.
In the dialog pop up (refer to Fig. 2-13) enter the Database Path as Z:\ Program Files\National Instruments\Lookout\database where Z represents the drive in which Lookout is installed. Also check the Convert special characters option and then click on the OK button on the Setup box followed by the OK button in the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box. Fig. 2-13 Ref 22838 (8/02) Rev 2.
2.5 Lookout Registration and Licensing The PC that is to be connected to the turbidimeter network through one of it’s COM ports is called the SERVER node, while all other PC’s on a network which will be operating on the SCADA system are called CLIENT nodes. In the case of a single PC operation, the PC will act as both the server as well as the client node. Licensing in Lookout is done using Keycodes that are supplied by National Instruments.
3.0 Data Acquisition 3.1 Overview The turbidity data acquisition system is designed to sequentially collect data from a series of the HF Scientific turbidimeters. The data acquisition system can be configured to monitor up to 32 turbidimeters on the RS485/232 network. 3.2 Summary Panel Fig 3-1 The summary panel is the main user interface to the SCADA system. From this panel the user can configure, monitor and access the report generation utility. The summary panel (refer to Fig.
The current status of the unit (Auto, Set-Up, Calibrate or OOS). OOS refers to out of service. In addition to the above information, the summary panel provides the following functionality. Please note that the availability of the listed functions to a given user depends on his/her security level (if used). The minimum security level in order to access the function is indicated.
3.3 Faceplate Panel Fig. 3-2 The Faceplate Panel is accessed using the View Device push button on the Summary panel or by clicking on any of the individual device summary displays on the Summary panel. This panel provides the following information for each device: Device Mode: The modes indicated are as follows: Mode Unknown Calibrate Set-Up Auto Description Computer has not yet talked to device to determine the mode. Device mode is “Calibrate”. Device mode is “Set-Up”. Device mode is “Auto”.
Normal Computer is talking to device. Alarm Status: The Alarm Status field will display one of the following values: Alarm Status Description Hi Alarm Device value is greater than the computer based Hi Alarm limit. HiHi Alarm Device value is greater than the computer based HiHi Alarm limit. Alarm 1 Device Alarm Status is “Alarm 1”. Alarm 2 Device Alarm Status is “Alarm 2”. Normal Turbidity value is within normal range. Disabled Limit alarming is not selected.
3.5 Edit Device Dialog Box Fig. 3-3 The Edit Device panel is used for configuring each device. The panel is accessed from the Summary panel using the Edit Device push button (Note that the Edit Device push button has a security level of 9). The panel has the following features: Choose Device Number: This is a text entry box in which the user enters the address of the device that is to be configured. The valid range of values is 1 - 32.
Decimal Places: This text entry box is used to specify the number of decimal places in which the HF turbidimeter has been configured to report the turbidity value. Note: This value must agree with the number of decimal place on the turbidimeter and vice versa. Engineering Units: This text entry box is used to specify the engineering units that will appear with the turbidity value readings on the Summary panel and the Faceplate panel.
3.6 System Panel The System Panel (refer to Fig 3-4) is associated with the server process (one that is communicating with the turbidimeters). This panel is a master panel and should be used only for diagnostic and trouble shooting purposes. The SCADA system user has access to most of the information and device configuration parameters from the Summary/Faceplate/Edit Device panels and hence these features will not be discussed in this section.
Auto Poll Enable: This check box is used to enable the automatic polling of the devices. If unchecked, Lookout will not poll any devices and hence the turbidity values will not be updated. Single Poll: This feature is to be used for testing or trouble shooting a specific device. To use this feature, the user would disable (uncheck) the Auto Poll Enable check box, enter the device number to be tested/diagnosed in the Address text entry box and then click on the Poll Now push button.
4.0 Report Generation 4.1 Overview The SCADA system allows the user to generate query-based reports from the historical data that is collected by the Citadel database. The system can also be set up to log data in .csv (comma separated values) format files which can be opened directly in any spreadsheet programs such as Excel. The .csv files can also be converted into Access database files.
Fig. 4-1 4.3 Printouts To perform a printout, the following information needs to be filled out. Make sure that all the information in Time Range and Interval and Database Source has been completed. 4.3.1 Time Range and Interval The Start Time, Stop Time and Sample Interval constitute the criteria for the SQL query based on which the report is generated. This information will have to be completed prior to each new query. Start Time: The date and time FROM which the report should start.
is that as indicated earlier, the report has only 31 rows. Hence if the number of records based on the start and stop times and the sample interval is greater than 31, all records after the 31st would not be shown on the report. For example if: Start Time = 10/25/02 12:00:00 Stop Time I = 10/25/02 14:00:00 and Sample Interval = 00:02:00 (2 minutes) the number of records would be 60. However, since only 31 records can be displayed, the report would only show data from 12:00:00 through 13:02:00.
4.3.4 Page 1 Panel The Page 1 panel (refer to Fig. 4-2) is the template of the first page for the report. When the SQL query is executed, the rows and columns of the table are populated with the records retrieved by the SQL query. The column headers are the userdefined subtitles as discussed earlier in this chapter. This panel displays the first 16 columns and all 31 rows of the report.
4.4 Database/Spreadsheet In addition to the Citadel historical database it is also possible to log data separately in a .csv format file (also called spreadsheet logging), which can be opened directly using any spreadsheet program, such as Excel. The user has the option of enabling/disabling this logging function as well as a choice of where the data will be logged. The user can also specify the logging interval. 4.4.
However, the buffer is not unlimited in size and if the spreadsheet file is left open indefinitely, the buffer could overflow causing loss of data. It is therefore good practice to close the spreadsheet file immediately after use. Another item to keep in mind regarding the spreadsheet files is that these files will open directly in Excel.
5.0 Appendix Lookout File Types A Lookout process comprises of four files: Process (.l4p), State (.lst), Source Code (.lks) and Security (.lka). These files are created automatically in the application development cycle. All of the above files have the same user defined file name (e.g. hfserver) but with file extension as indicated above. A brief description of each file type and its function: Process File: A process file is a compiled file that contains the Lookout process that we want to run.
