“Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up”

So here’s a shameless plug for a great YouTube video that’s about to go viral.

For use with our Electronic Marshalling, we’ve released the CHARM Diagnostic App for the iPhone for interpreting and diagnosing the LED lights on CIOC Characterization Modules.  Using either the built in camera or manual detection, the color and blink rate of the CHARM’s LED is translated into useful diagnostic information.

In addition, wiring schematics for all 21 available CHARM types can be called up to ensure proper wiring and aid in troubleshooting.

We spared no expense in getting some top Hollywood talent to promote this new app – you can check out the video here.

Oscar balloting will start after the first of the year, but we're hoping to take home a “Duncan”

Get More Descriptive with your Alarms in DeltaV v12

Sometimes it’s easier to get your point across with less; other times you wish you had more time or room to explain yourself.  Submitting an abstract for Emerson Exchange is like that – you end up having to be creative to get your point across in the limited number of characters you’re allotted.

One place you hate to be limited is in your alarms.  The more information you can provide your operators, the better they’ll be able to respond.  Back in version 11 of DeltaV, we added Alarm Help functionality, to capture and display detailed information about an alarm, what to do when the alarm comes in, and what might happen if no action is taken.

And while you can get this detailed information for any individual alarm, it would be nice if there was more information available when you look at the Alarm Banner, the Alarm Summary display, or Process History View.

So in version 12 of DeltaV, we’ve added a new feature called Alarm Descriptions.  You’ll find the Alarm Description field on the Advanced tab when configuring an alarm in a control or SIS module:

When you configure an Alarm Description, the text you enter gets concatenated with the module description for use in the Alarm Banner:

Alarm Banner without a configured Alarm Description

Alarm Banner with a configured Alarm Description 

In the Alarm List screen, the Description field will contain the module description or the new Alarm Description, if one exists:

Alarm List without a configured Alarm Description

Background

Typically a control module would contain process information associated with a single process signal or control loop.  In this case, using DeltaV Alarm Types can provide an acceptable level of detail associated with an alarm.  While this may be adequate for single analog control or monitor type control modules, additional descriptive information for discrete types of alarms and SIS SIF modules are necessary.

The description shown in the alarm banner and alarm list is associated with the module itself, not the process variables used within the module.  Because this information can be critical for the operator to troubleshoot an interlock or safety trip, engineering workarounds have been developed.  These include adding additional Alarms Types or new, separate modules to the system whose sole purpose is to provide more descriptive information to the operator when one of these events occurs.

Alarm Descriptions remove the need to create these extra components and all the work associated with them while providing the operator with the additional information he needs.  Now if I could just get additional information into my abstract submission…

DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 4

We’ve given a helping hand to Books On Line in Version 12.  Never fear, you’ll still be able to launch BOL right from the task bar in DeltaV Explorer, just like you always have.

The first change you’ll notice is when you right click on something like a function block.  Prior to v12, you’d see a menu like this one with one of the choices being What’s this?

In v12, we’ve replace the words “What’s this?” with “Help”.  Not a big deal at all, and rest assured Help and What’s this? are going to get you to all the information you need. 

Prior to v12, What’s this? used to bring up these mini help dialogs:

What’s we’ve done in v12 is to combine the mini help dialogs into BOL as the first page of a larger section:

We’re using the same compiled HTML code to convert the mini helps into the rest of Books On Line, centralizing all the help information within DeltaV.  Access to the more detailed information is easily available from the links at the bottom of the topic overview.

One other change is the location of the compiled HTML files – they’re no longer in a BOL folder on the C:\DeltaV drive of your DeltaV machine.  They’re located in a Hlp folder in the same location.  You can still copy this folder off and drop it onto your laptop’s hard drive for easy access to Books On Line wherever you are.

There’s a chance that after you copy BOL over to your PC, you might get a screen that looks like this when you double click on the masterbol.chm file:

If so, take a look at the properties of the masterbo.chm file:

Go ahead and click on the “Unblock” button and things should work just fine.  Also, you’ll most likely have to put the BOL folder on your local PC, since you won’t be able to launch compiled HTML files over a network share.  Thanks to Scott Thompson at RE Mason for these .chm tips.

DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 3

My buddy Klaus Erni, the DeltaV Hardware Product Marketing Manager, has a couple of smaller, but pretty neat projects associated with the V12 release of DeltaV.

The first is a fiber optic connection option for our Wireless IO Card (WIOC) – the Fiber Optic IOP.  With this little gizmo plugged into the WIOC carrier, you’re no longer constrained to the 100m limit of copper CAT5 and can really extend the distance for locating your DeltaV wireless field device access point.

His second project is the new the 24 VDC Power CHARM.  This one’s kind of interesting – the purpose of this CHARM is to supply 24 volts to 4 wire transmitters like a MicroMotion.  It now gives folks a simple alternative for wiring up these 4 wire devices without the need for a lot of extra stuff in rack room panels or field enclosures.

The process variable comes in on a normal, HART input CHARM, and the device is powered by the 24 VDC Power CHARM.  You can install the Power CHARM right next to the HART CHARM or locate a group of Power CHARMs in a separate baseplate.

You don’t have to configure anything in DeltaV for the Power CHARM to work, but you can if you want and reference diagnostic information about the power being supplied to the transmitter.

DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 2

One of our projects in Version 12 is our Licensing Revamp.  We’ve made counting IO licenses and managing them much easier.

The first thing we’ve done is gotten consistent in counting Device Signal Tags (DST’s) across all our supported bus technologies.  In previous versions of DeltaV, a single Foundation Fieldbus device counted as a single DST; it didn’t matter how many signals came in on that device, it only counted as one DST.

We’ve extended that methodology to our other supported busses – DeviceNet and Profibus.  Each field device on these bus segments will count as a single DST.  So if you’ve got a drive or motor from an MCC coming in via DeviceNet with multiple signals (start, stop, running, current, etc), it'll only count as a single DST.

Probably the licensing change I’m most excited about is how we’re handling serial IO.  In the past, folks would bring multiple registers from a serial dataset into one module in DeltaV (we called them “landing modules”).  In the landing modules, we’d convert the register IO references into parameters that then got picked up by other modules in the system.  This allowed us to keep the DST count down when dealing with large amounts of serial data.

In Version 12, we’ve eliminated the need to use landing modules by just counting a single DST per serial dataset.  So whether you’re bringing in 50 or 100 integer registers into a single dataset, it will only count as one DST, no matter how many different modules reference the registers from the dataset.

Eliminating the landing modules eliminates a lot of unneeded complexity – your control modules reference serial IO just like they would reference other IO types.  Engineering and troubleshooting are simplified and controller loading is reduced by not having all those landing modules.

And to better help keep track of licensing, we’ve created an I/O License Demand utility.

You’ll be able to see how all your I/O effect your license usage before you ever have to download a controller.  And it won’t matter what type of licensing dongle you have attached to your system, the I/O License Demand utility will still give you the right information.

DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 1

One of my New Year’s resolutions (and performance review goals) was to start blogging more frequently, so I thought I’d put together a series of posts about some of the new and enhanced features in the upcoming release of DeltaV, Version 12.  SIS Electronic Marshalling, Virtualization, and Batch Analytics are three big features, but I thought I'd start by covering some of the smaller, but important updates.

We’ve started taking orders for V12 and delivery is expected later this year.  So what can you expect?  Let’s start off with Microsoft OS version support.

In V12, both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 will be supported.  Not only are they both supported, they can coexist on the same DeltaV system.  Now for folks putting in a new V12 system, this isn’t that big a deal – all the workstations and servers will be the 64 bit version of the operating systems.

But customers with V11 systems that are thinking about upgrading to V12 won’t have to worry about including an OS change along with the rest of their upgrade plans.  Their 32 bit OS versions will work just fine with V12.  And down the road, if they need to expand, 64 bit OS machines can be added and will work just fine with their 32 bit cousins.

Virtualization is a Reality at Emerson Exchange

Virtualization hits the big time at this year’s Emerson Global User Exchange in Anaheim, CA, October 8^th to the 12^th.

First up are the workshops, covering a variety of topics “all things virtual”:

9-1773 – Virtualization Technology and Virus Detection

3-1760 – SLC and CSV Concepts for System Virtualization

5-1160 – Syncade Virtualization

5-1847 – DeltaV Virtualization – Product Update

Next, John Caldwell and I will be hosting a technology forum on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons entitled “Virtualization in Process Control – Advancements and Developing Trends”.  We'll have Emerson's Mark Nixon and Dirk Thiele along with Derek Pound from Microsoft as our guest speakers.

Then be sure to visit the Technology Exhibits Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings and stop by the virtualization booths for some hands on time.

Finally, stick around on Friday morning and catch the “Virtualization for DeltaV” Meet the Experts session.  John, Dirk, Brian Crandall, and I will be there to answer your questions and provide insight into the upcoming V12 virtualization projects.

See you in Anaheim!

We Interrupt This Blog Post to Bring You This Important Blog Post

I've been back in Texas since October, getting acclimated to all things uniquely Texan, like great BBQ and killer margaritas. I’m also working on my Texas-speak (y’all).  While I’m back in the live music capital of the world, I’m still not sure I’m ready to go out two-stepping, but I knew it was time to start blogging again.

I was in the middle of putting together by my first blog post in over 4 months (the topic was tracking operator display access – stay tuned) when I ran into a hiccup.  The good news is the problem was resolved within a day, but there were some “sinking feeling” moments that brought into question any decision to work in a high tech industry.

So on my laptop I’ve got a couple of virtual DeltaV machines.  One is a V11.3 build using Microsoft’s VirtualPC.  The other is a VMware image of a prerelease of V12.3.  I’ve got one of those speedy Dell Latitude laptops, but it was recommended to me to put my virtual images on a solid state drive (SSD) to improve performance.

Since DeltaV Standalone Simulate will be releasing soon on a SSD, and since my laptop has an Express Card slot, I decided to go out and get a SSD card.  Now I didn’t do an exhaustive search on the internet, but there weren't many choices of manufacturers (I found one).  And since size matters, I bought the biggest one I could find, a 96 GB model.

The first issue was less than stellar installation instructions.  I know you’re thinking “Bruce, just plug it in, how hard could that be?” but in reality, it was a little more complicated.  See that USB connection on the stick?  Well, turns out to get all the right drivers to load, you need to first connect the SSD to the computer via the USB cable.  Then plug the puppy into the EC slot.  Note in the following close up that when fully inserted, the drive sticks out just a bit – this is an issue.

Anyway, now I had a new H: drive with 96 GB (actually, 86 GB available) and I get my Server 2008, V12.3 image transferred to it.  I fire it up with VMware Player and I’m rocking and rolling.

In preparing for my post, I needed to load Word and Excel onto my virtual machine.  I got out my MS Office install CD, pressed the button on the CDROM drive to open it, and (can you guess where this is going) the top of the tray caught the bottom of the slightly extended SSD card and popped it out.

Removing a USB stick without using the “Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media” typically isn’t a problem.  But that’s not what’s going on here.  Basically what I’ve done is yank out the virtual machine’s hard drive under power.  Getting messages of a “serious I/O error” from the VMware Player had me wandering just how far back I was going to have to go to recover.

Luckily, dismounting and remounting the drive from Computer Management was all that I ended up having to do, but I had several tense hours before getting the problem resolved.  I won’t go as far as to say there’s a design flaw with the EC card slot or the SSD drive itself, but having to hold the SDD in place with one hand while pressing the eject button with the other hand is hokey.  I’m perfecting this new Texas two-handed two step technique to avoid future issues.  Just saying, y’all.

Carolina On My Mind

For those of you hoping to get a clever tidbit of control knowledge, you’ll just have to wait for my next post.

I’ll be changing jobs here in a couple of weeks; changing companies in fact. I’ll be heading to the center of Emerson Process Management universe in Austin, TX. I’ve been in the Carolinas for almost 12 years, and while I’m excited to take on new roles and responsibilities for Emerson, I’m going to miss colleagues and customers alike that I’ve gotten to know really well.

I’ve had the privilege to work on some pretty incredible projects and pursuits in 12 years that have been the inspiration for many of my posts. I’ll continue to draw upon my experiences and share the good and the bad.

On the lighter side, I can tell you flat out I am not gonna miss Carolina BBQ. My fear is I will OD on Rudy’s, Iron Works, and Pokey Joe’s my first week. And while I made this request back in August, I’ll ask again – please cool it down just a little, OK? Was it really 105 in Austin yesterday? It’s September!

If you’re headed to Nashville for EGUE, I’ll see you there. If not, watch this space for future control gems.

Cuts Like a Knife

Everyone’s had a Swiss Army knife at some point in their lives (I guess the North American version is the Leatherman Multi-tool - we always have to do things bigger, huh?). A Swiss Army knife with one or two screwdrivers, LED flashlight, a nail file, pliers and a toothpick is commonplace. I’ve seen models that had so many features, you couldn't find the blade.

I’ve known Bob Engel for at least 8 years now. Bob is Vice President of Informetric Systems (http://www.informetric.com/). InfoBatch is Informetric’s batch reporting package, and I’ve been sweet on InfoBatch ever since I first kicked its tires at the Emerson Exchange in Dallas back in 2004.

InfoBatch generates batch reports. And it does it very well. It allows you to connect to a multitude of data sources and aggregate them into a single, unified report. It doesn’t force you to replicate your data into yet another location (the “many versions of the truth” paradox). And if you don’t have another datastore to worry about, you don’t have to worry about all those pliers, toothpicks and nail files to manage it.

InfoBatch inherently understands the S88 model, from phases to recipes. It handles the concept of sub-phase triggers (for example, just show me a plot of a tank's temperature during the relevant portion of a phase). And it has connectors that understand the structure of the views from your data sources. Simple drop-down selections as opposed to flashlights and screwdrivers for managing custom SQL queries from software packages that don’t care if you’re creating batch end reports or your monthly bank statement.

Of course there has to be a shameless plug in one of my posts, so here it is: be sure and attend session 2-3041 at this year’s Emerson Global User Exchange, October 24th to 28th in Nashville. Bob and I will be presenting “Integrating Syncade S95 Orders, DeltaV S88 Batch Recipes and Continuous Data”. Please leave your knives at the door.