Sunday, October 25, 2009

Scada Basics You Need To Know

By Shane Winson

Scada programs are being extensively used for controlling complex equipments and whole plants. From SCADA, we mean Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It is in use for various complex systems and uses highly advanced man machine interfaces.

These are managed via a central computer that can guide various devices connected to it. Many methods are used for communication between the master and the other devices. The most commonly used ones are Ethernet, radio links and modems. The data about various devices is gathered with the help of sensors.

In some cases there are instruments that have different types of data communication interfaces. In such cases, we can use converters for conversion of signals. All the information from various systems can then be viewed on the central location.

All the information is stored in the central database. It is where all parameters of various equipments are continuously tracked and controlled. These can be modified if a read / write permission is provided to them. All the equipments located near or far, will have them monitored this way.

The SCADA program handles two types of parameters i.e. analog and digital. These are monitored and stored. The SCADA software processes them and interprets them in the way it is programmed.

Then the results obtained after making calculations are interpreted graphically. These are then shown on the computer screen as bars and charts. All this helps SCADA maintain its supervisory control easily.

Some of the parameters received from various equipments are temperature, pressure and liquid level. The scada software can show the measurements and parameters in terms of graphical objects on the computer screen.

Additional software modules are available that will let you email or SMS yourself whenever a parameter passes a certain value. Thus SCADA systems can help maintain large scale plants having complex equipments.

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