New event recorder tools for automation systems

Event data collection is crucial in safety and critical control applications. GE Fanuc's SOE tools can capture both the first event and the sequence of events that occur in the system during a shutdown or a trip sequence to help users document when events have occurred. Providing accurate detection, recording and storing of events, as well as leveraging accurate time stamps, these tools enable users to analyse when change of states occurred in the process and the precise order of occurrence, down to the millisecond.

Karl Pickan, Product Manager OEM for GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Europe, says: "SOE solutions are suitable for any application where change-of-state data improves the ability to view, analyse and optimise process sequence and effectiveness. And, regardless of geographic location, users worldwide have the same time reference with our SOE solutions' precise, universal time recording."

Available as a downloadable package, GE Fanuc's SOE offerings are fully documented software for the company's award-winning PACSystems RX3i and RX7i controllers. These tools consist of PACSystems application code, a Windows application for Proficy Historian or Microsoft SQL data collection, instructions, and example analysis screens for the Proficy Real-Time Information Portal.

Three SOE packages are currently available:

PACSystems RX7i Embedded SOE - Sequence of Event Recording for the PACSystems RX7i utilising a VME digital event capture board, a time synchronisation board and on-board mirrored event buffering. Each change-of-state input can be configured to be time-stamped with millisecond accuracy. The time-stamped information is moved into the SOE module buffer and mirrored buffer and is cyclically transferred to the PACSystem's SOE buffer. In turn, this information is periodically transferred over Ethernet to the historian collector, which immediately stores the SOE data in the Proficy Historian database.

PACSystems RX3i Soft SOE - Software-based Sequence of Events Recording for the PACSystems RX3i controller. This configurable tool utilises standard RX3i input modules with events buffered in the PACSystem's memory. The RX3i CPU scans the I/O modules every millisecond; all configured SOE points are stored in an SOE buffer, which is periodically transferred over Ethernet to the historian collector. The historian collector then immediately stores the SOE data in the Proficy Historian database.

PACSystems RX3i ENIU with SOE - Software-based Sequence of Event Recording for the PACSystems RX3i controller remote Ethernet I/O racks utilising RX3i SOE software technology. The RX3i ENIU scans the I/O modules every millisecond; all configured SOE points are stored in the ENIU SOE buffer. Very fast point changes that would normally not be seen by the head controller can now be captured and stored in the ENIU. Each event is annunciated to the head controller in the I/O exchange and frequently transferred over Ethernet to the historian collector, which accumulates the data from all of the ENIUs and stores it directly in the Proficy Historian database. This configurable tool supports standard modules and event buffering in the remote racks, including transient event annunciation. It is also supported in the PACSystems high-availability control architectures including Proficy Process Systems.

The PACSystems Sequence of Events software tools are available as a free download at www.gefanuc.com/support/appliedsolutions.