Monitoring and Alarming System for Blue M furnace

[brian1]

Please help me...

The Blue M furnace has a temperature controller(MIC 6000) attached to it, The temperature from the furnace is taken using a thermocouple, my project is to continuously monitor and set up an alarm when the temperature.

About the Furnace and the controller:

1) Ramp time is 1 hour and ramp up is up to 300 degrees celsius

2) Soak time is 45 minutes and soak at 300 degrees.

3) Ramp down cycle for 2 hours and ramp down to 50 degrees.

Objectives:

1) Continuously monitor the furnace temperature on computer as a temperature Vs Time graph, even when the temperature is OFF

2) Set up alarm system. The alarm should be enabled only at the soak period cycle and disabled in all other stages.

My questions are:

Whether is this project  doable in Labview and if it is possible, what are the hardware and software required for this project and also can you please give me an idea or help me in doing this project. I am new to Labview, I didnot even have the software rightnow but I can learn it if this project is doable.

 Hope you can help me in this issue.

[CKap]

Hello Brian,

Roughly speaking this project should be possible in LabVIEW. But before we make a definitive decision, we would need more information from you. My question/suggestion for you are as below:

1. How is this temperature controller connected to your computer? Is it through a serial port? If it is, the what is the communication protocol that it uses? Is it RS-232, RS-485 or Modbus?

2. Would it be possible for you to provide us with a link to its product manual on the web? This way we can pull up its information and see if we have instrument drivers available for it.

3. Call one of our technical sales reps. These guys can understand your requirements in detail and then recommend you appropriately.

4. If you are looking to learn LabVIEW then you can download its evaluation version from here and then go through a free training session available here.

Regards,

Chetan K

Application Engineer

National Instruments

[brian1]

Chetan..

Thanks for the immediate reply, The temperature is not yet connected to the computer, We dont want give any connections to the controller, The furnace has thermocouple and we want to take the temperature readings from the thermocouple display it on the computer.

And do the remaining processes as explained above.

can you please help me out in this issue, I started learning Labview and if you can give me an idea (logic) how to start on this project and what are the required hardware and software, I will get them and start working on it.

Please help me..

This is the link for the manual of the ontroller in case you need it: http://www.partlow.com/uploadedFiles/Downloads/MIC6000_DS705.pdf

I tried calling the sales representative and the line was busy all the time. I can contact you personally through phone or by email... this is an emergency...

Thank you

Brian

[Brian_Beal]

Is there a reason you don't want to hook up to the controller?  If your controller has the communications option, then it would be rather easy.  If you want to use other hardware, then I would recommend a USB thermocouple input device from NI or Measurement Computing.  The issue would be knowing when your cycle starts.  You could always trigger your alarm enable when the temperature reads 300, then keep it enabled for the soak time.  All of this really isn't good practice, and it would be best to let the controller handle alarm functions.  Is there a reason why you wouldn't want to have the alarm enabled during the ramps?  It's been a while since I used a MIC6000, but you might be able to configure alarms per segment. 

[brian1]

Hi Brian,

The reasons we dont want to use the controllers are:

1)The controller is very old and it doesn't have the technical support for that device

2)The Furnace doesnt have a cooling unit, so the alarm is ON in all the stages and also the furnace has 3 modes- Purge, heat and cool. so I tried configuring the alarm in the controller but due to purge mode, there is a very large variation between the setpoint temperature and process value temperature and so the alarm is ON in all the stages.

That is the reason we dont want to use the controller input. 

So if I go for USB thermocouple input device, what are the other hardware & software we require.

I worked out on the tutorial Chetan had sent me but didn't find anything related to the triggering and time delay, Can you tell me how to enable the alarm only in the soak stage.

Thank you very much for your time

[Brian_Beal]

First, I am going to recommend getting a new controller.  A Eurotherm 3504 or 2404 will do everything you want, and you can get it with Modbus comms.  There are Labview drivers for that.  If you don't want to go that route, then here goes:

I have used this before with Labview: http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/cbiproduct_new.asp?dept_id=480&pf_id=1692&mscssid=TAU....  It would only read temperatures, and has no built in logic.  You will only need thermocouple wire or thermocouple extension wire to connect it to your existing controller.  You can piggyback off the controller T/C terminals.

You could write a program in Labview that graphs temperatures and/or writes them to a text file.  You could have the program wait for the temperature to reach 300 degrees, then enable your alarm logic.  Store the time that this occurs into memory or a file.  Disable the alarm function after the soak time has elapsed.

What to you want to happen when an alarm occurs?  Send an email? Flash something on the screen? Trigger some external device.

[brian1]

Thanks Brian,

Yesterday I worked out on the Labview tutorial and was able to figure out how to read the DC voltage peak to peak in certain range, hope that would be the same for the temperature, if it is the same I want to find out how should I do the logic part for enabling alarm after the temperature reaches 300 degrees celsius, can you be more specific.. please.

For the alarm I want to trigger an external device or we need some sort of sound signal to alert the staff on the floor.

 Thank you one again

[Jarrod_B.]

Hello Brian,

In terms of the hardware, if all you need to do is take readings from a thermocouple, I would recommend the USB-9211A (an NI 9211 module in a USB carrier).  If you also need to generate a digital trigger signal based on some alarm condition, I would recommend using a CompactDAQ chassis with an NI 9211 module for thermocouple measurements and a digital module for digital output.  There are a few options to consider for the digital output, but if you need to generate a 0-5 V TTL signal, the NI 9401 would probably be your best bet.

On the software side, you will program your application using the VI's and/or functions provided by the NI-DAQmx driver.  The best place to learn about NI-DAQmx is the Getting Started portal.  Start out by looking at Basic Programming with NI-DAQmx and then Using the DAQ Assistant.  This should help you to understand how to program your application.

Good luck with this project, and let us know if you have any further questions!

Best regards,

[brian1]

Thank You very much

I think I have everything I wanted, I will try working on the NIDAQmx and try to work on the code and then email you back.

But if you have the code, can you provide the code if possible because the deadline to meet in only 1 month ahead and I just started learning. Currently I want the code if any one can provide me.

Thank you very much

[MickeyD]

Hey Brian,

There are several shipping examples that come with LabVIEW.  If you open LabVIEW on the initial dialog screen in the bottom right you can go to find examples.  Then you can go to Hardware Input and Output and under DAQmx find several examples of how to take Temperature Data.  You could also just search for Temperature in the example finder.  You can also get to the example finder if you have a VI open by going to the help menu and selecting find examples.  The pre built examples will show how to acquire the temperature data and also how to output a digital line.  These examples are all working, so you should be able to combine them to get the application you need.  Let me know if you have trouble finding the exmaples or getting them to run.

Have a great day,

Michael D
Applications Engineer
National Instruments