Monitoring and Alarming System for Blue M furnace

[brian1]

Yes, we are using the windows environment, I found this T/C DAQ--USB TC

http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/cbiproduct_new.asp?dept_id=480&pf_id=1692

Can I use this for out Data acquisition. Then, What should I do next, What else hardware do I need ...

[The voltage Vs temperature reading I gave you are from our controller].

Coming to the programming part how do I enable the alrm after 300 degrees and disable it after soak time, I am not able to use the if loop and it is bcoming very hard for me to figure out.

Thank you very much

[Brian_Beal]

I would use the Measurement Computing USB DAQ, since it also has 8 digital I/O that you can use for your alarms.  You will need some kind of relay to drive your alarm.  I typically use OPTO22 stuff.

Its not that I don't want to help you, but you seem to be at ground zero on this stuff.  I won't be able to go into detail on everything.  You may want to consider hiring someone to do this project, or waiting until you know Labview better and have researched the hardware.

[brian1]

I will try working out on this and contact you as soon as I get familiar with this software.

Thanks for the support.

[MickeyD]

Hi Brian,

Hi Brian,

How do I enable the alarm after the temperature reaches 300 degrees and disable the alarm after the soak period, can you explain this in detail.

Thank you

Nandan

This is going to require you know how to communicate with your controller.  The protocol is Parlow ASCII, which you can learn on their page here. 

Partlow RS485 Communications Manual

If you understand how to setup those commands, then you could use the basic serial read and write to control the device and will be able to get your thermocouple measurements.

It would be far easier to use the USB 9211, especially if you already have LabVIEW.  My question though is if you record the thermocouples with the USB device are you not still going to need to control the Partlow control device to make an alarm?  You could use your PC to make the alarm with LabVIEW instead if you like.  I think I am somewhat confused about what the MIC 6000 is supposed to do for you.

When you measured the voltage readings did you just physically write down the values?, or did you have the controller load them into excell, because if it communicates with excell then you must have some idea how to communicate with it. 

If you do not need to have communication between the controller and the computer, then the USB DAQ will record your temperatures for you, and then you can set the soak times to whatever you need in software.
The key is figuring out what determines you soak stage, then we can have the LabVIEW program that is continously doing data acquisition only creating an alarm during the soak stage.  The thread has gone back and forth a bit so if you described the soak stage earlier I am sorry, but it seems like if the TC goes to 300 that starts the stage?

Inside your loop you can place a case structure which will only execute based on a given condition.  It will take a bit a thought, but we could definitely set up the structure to run during the soak stage, and inside the case structure we would execute the code to start the alarm.

You could certainly do this using any of the USB DAQ devices you will need a PC somewhere to control the device, but what kind of alarm do you need to start?

Thanks,

Michael D
Applications Engineering

[MickeyD]

Brian,

There were a couple posts made while I was writing my response the key piece you seem to be missing is the case structure. The case structure is the part of the Temperature Demo VI that has the Analysis in it.  If you simply took the temperature outputs from your DAQ reading and made a condition that would be true when you wanted the Alarm to be going then you would be good to go.  A simple true false case structure would cover all of this.  I will be glad to give you some assistance with this, but there are numerous places online that can give you explanations of how case structures work, including the LabVIEW help, which has several useful documents on it. 

Again you can certainly do this, but let me know what you need the controller to do so I can figure out what you need to think about doing to proceed.

Have a great afternoon,

Michael D
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[brian1]

Thank You Michael,

We can use the alarm from the computer as you said  and comming to the communication, what would you prefer, we want the reliable way to follow for our furnace.

Coming to the programming we thought of enabling the alarm when the temperature reaches 300 degrees and disable it after the soak period(45 minutes), any ways what would you prefer to do. Meanwhile if you can send me some examples including case structures and a similar type examples, can you please send me.

Since I am very busy with my course waork and my internship(other work on the sort floor ) I am not able to figure this out quickly. Please help me in resolving this issue.

Brian

[Brian F.]

Hello brian1.

There is a great article at that explains the functionality of case statements.  Case statements can be used anywhere that you want some block of code to execute if it meets a specific condition.  Thus, case statements can be found in most programs. 

I would recommend creating some very basic examples in LabVIEW using case structures so you can get familiar with them.  Also, I would recommend creating a program that successfully takes a measurement of the temperature furnace.  Once you get an accurate temperature reading, creating some basic code to turn an LED on if the value is greater than 300 would help your application. 

Taking small steps in a program will certainly make a more complex program more managable to implement. 

Have a great day!

Brian F

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[brian1]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the informatio and for the exdample, i will study it  and get back to you.

[brian1]

Hi Brian,

We have the UBD9211 now with us, I am able to monitor the temperature and set the range for the temperature but the only thing I am not able to do is enable the alarm(LED) in the soak period, the alarm is on all the time, even when the temperature is rising fron initial temperature 20 to 300 degrees, can you help.....

Nandan Patibandla

[brian1]

sorry its is not UBD9211, it is NI USB 9211