PI DATALINK 2013 INSTALL KIT SOFTWARE
PI DATALINK 2013 INSTALL KIT WINDOWS

The project to develop the system for the TomвЂ™s Creek preparation plant was primarily initiated to demonstrate both the major benefits of the new system along with how existing system shortcomings can be overcome with the additional functionality for plant performance evaluation.ДЇigure 7: Monthly summary report with DataLink add-in in Microsoft Excel.ДЄlthough up-front time to set up the Pi system and achieve constant, reliable communications between all pieces may take what appears to be a large amount of time, the system can provide crucial process control points in real time for efficiency evaluations and improvements.ДЄlpha Natural Resources is committed to expanding the Pi system to include all the preparation plants in order to have a company-wide system that provides accurate, reliable data for reporting and evaluation without the delay of normal reporting procedures.

Once initial setup is complete, the system is simple and straightforward to customize to adapt to userвЂ™s needs. OSISoft Pi has provided the mineral processing engineer a very powerful system that can be used to develop an intricate key performance monitoring and manipulation system.

The values of the tags can also be used to trigger events and notifications to be broadcast based on limits or on a scheduled basis using Pi Notifications. OSISoft also offers an add-in for Excel called Pi DataLink, which provides a text-based interface along with data manipulation of current and archived values stored in the Pi tag database.

PI DATALINK 2013 INSTALL KIT SOFTWARE

Pi ProcessBook is software used to build graphic user interfaces for HMIВ applications. Now that the tags are reading data in the central Pi server from the PLC through the remote server, the values need to be presented in a manner that maximizes understanding of the variable the values represent. Plant yield is a very common calculation performed in the PLC and transmitted to the HMI (humanвЂ“machine interface), but what if this isnвЂ™t an address that is easily known, or unavailable for transfer into the Pi system? The individual tags could be included in a performance equation in Pi. The equations can be mathematical, logical or a combination. Configuration of the server and Pi software installed on the server can be performed remotely from anywhere within the companyвЂ™s internal network.

PI DATALINK 2013 INSTALL KIT WINDOWS

The central Pi server consists of a virtual server running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard connected to the com-panyвЂ™s internal network via Ethernet. After data access is confirmed, the customized group of selected tags can be saved as a comma-delimited file, which makes creating tags in the Pi system on the central server much quicker and more efficient since all tags can be imported at once.ДЇigure 3: Screenshot of tag values in the Pi OPC client software. The Pi OPC Client software allows the user to navigate through the devices, in these cases the PLCs, select individual or multiple tags, and add them to a customized group for viewing. Once the tags have been created in KEPServerEX, the Pi OPC client software can be used to ensure that the Pi system can access the OPC database and read the values from the tags created in KEPServerEX (Figure 3). Normal transfer operations will begin at this point. The data is then processed through the queue and sent to the central server until the current data is transmitted. The data will continue through the OPC database until communications is restored. This service allows the data from the OPC database to be stored locally if communications with the central Pi server are lost. The point source (remote server OPC database) is defined so the central Pi server can be configured to accept data from the specific data points listed in the central database tags.ДЇigure 2 shows the general interface configuration options with the server descriptions and point source identifiers.ДЄnother important piece of the interface is the buffer service. This piece of software essentially allows the user to create and modify the service to handle the transfer of the data from the tags written in the OPC database from KEPServerEX. The Pi software comes with configuration utility software to set up and configure this interface. The next piece of the communications puzzle is the interface between the remote server and the central Pi server. Once the tags have been created and configured with the correct address from the PLC, the data can be viewed in real time with a built-in OPC Quick Client to ensure proper setup and configuration of the data tags.ДЇigure 2: Screenshot of general interface configuration in the Pi interface configuration utility software.

The spreadsheet is a time saver for setting up the addresses and provides a reference document for future updates.

Pi datalink 2013 install kit