This
August 2004 issue
Foxcub Fibre Optic
converters.
A NEW range of converters is
available for RS-232, RS485 and
Abbey's Intermodule Bus connection,
in either glass or plastic fibre
versions. These are rapidly
becoming the standard to interface
communications over distance or
where electrical noise is an issue.
For further details call
for a brochure or email
for a pdf.
PDA Display
A new PDA interface application
is available for Powerlink and
Topcat RTUs. This
allows local display and control
of I/O at a site using a Palm
OS PDA. It is connected
to the Powerlink maintenance port
and lists status condition and
analog values in Engineering units.
We developed this product as a
display for the Swampfox pump
station controller, but it is
equally applicable to Powerlink
and Topcat RTUs.
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Mobile Interrogator
-WebAlarm
Abbey Systems have recently installed,
on a water & wastewater customer
site, a replacement for our MIU/MDT
products. The new product
is called WebAlarm and allows
customers to interrogate their
Powerlink SCADA data via a GPRS
or CDMA cellphone with suitable
screen and web browser.
Using the cellphone web browser,
users log onto a dynamically updated
web page for their alarms, statuses
& analog measurements.
Alarms can be acknowledged and
sites can be viewed for the last
polled values. Users can
also request a poll update for
a
particular site.
Alarms are displayed in a similar
way to the SCADA Master.
The time, alarm name and status
of the alarm are displayed.
Sites can be selected from an
updated site name list or by tapping
in the site number.
A scroll bar makes selection easy
and allows all alarms or sites
to be displayed on a single page.
The first system has been installed
using the PalmOne Treo 600 handset.
Other manufacturers are beginning
to release products into this
growing
market segment.
If you are interested call us
and we'll allow you access to
our demo system from your ordinary
desktop web browser.
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Nelson Electricity
In the last two months Abbey
Systems have commissioned a turnkey
project for the replacement of
Nelson Electricity's SCADA, Load
Management System and Injection
Controller at Nelsons Haven Rd
substation. In addition
to monitoring and control of the
Haven Rd sub, the new system communicates
with legacy Qtech Datran RTUs
still in the field and allows
all alarms to be sent and acknowledged
via SMS.
WEL Networks
Abbey Systems' Hamilton distributor,
Control Systems, has recently
completed conversion of 30 existing
Topcat RTUs from Conitel 2020
to DNP3 slave communications protocol.
The reason for the upgrade
was the Conitel network, as installed
at WEL, didn't support unsolicited
messages. The project
involved the design, installation
and commissioning of a new digital
radio network for WEL and the
replacement of radios and firmware
in the Topcat RTU. There
were significant savings
for the customer by upgrading
instead of completely replacing
the RTUs.
Network Tasman
Late 2003 Abbey Systems completed
the commissioning of Annesbrooke
Substation for Network Tasman.
The new substation has a combination
of SEL protection relays, DRMCC
transformer management relays
and discrete I/O.
It currently communicates using
DNP3 slave via a 2 wire line to
Tasman's Richmond Control Centre
but in the near future will be
connected via a new Fibre Optic
network Tasman is currently commissioning.
Tongariro - Rangipo
prison
The Department of Corrections
recently installed and
commissioned a Powerlink SCADA
system at their Rangipo prison
in the central North Island.
When the costs to replace an aging
cable between the local reservoir
& pump station were weighed
against those of installing a
Powerlink Lite SCADA system to
cover both the water & sewerage
pump stations, the benefits of
the latter proposal were
soon apparent.
The system uses Abbey's Powerlink
Lite software, which includes
a bundled Telemetry Mimic graphics
package and software to send alarms
to cellphones.
It has been configured for easy
future expansion to allow other
pump sites in the area to be monitored
and controlled as the need arises.
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Ozarks Power Authority
The Ozark Power Authority is
located in Fayetteville, Arkansas,
USA and serves
a rural hinterland in the western
Ozark mountains ("Dukes of Hazzard"
country). Because of the
mountainous terrain, communications
is a problem and Ozarks needed
a system which could reliably
operate over a trunking radio
system to get the desired coverage
for their feeder automation. Abbey
Systems was able to supply just
what was wanted and we anticipate
expansion to include substations
and neighbouring power authorities.
Yingkou Transmission
Substation, China
Yingkou in north eastern China
is home to the largest RTU ever
supplied by Abbey Systems and
comprises 45 Powerlink RTU modules.
It has a hot standby
system which will switch RTU CPU
modules and communications circuits
in case of RTU CPU failure. It
also has 30 AC analog input modules
which enable it to read current,
voltage, Q etc directly from the
C.T. without the need for a transducer.
This system has the capability
to communicate to two different
master units with two different
I/O tables.
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Enermet Powerlink
In the last 12 months Abbey Systems
have supplied Enermet Powerlink
Injection Controllers to Enermet
for Vector Networks, Northpower,
Orion, and to a growing number
of Australian customers where
it's marketed as the EPL.
The Enermet enhancements allow
simultaneous injection synchronisation
across multiple sites to control
spillover, under frequency detection
/shedding and an ephemeris clock
for streetlight switching.
Enermet Powerlink can be purchased
from Enermet or through
Abbey Systems Ltd.
Swampfox
We are experiencing delays in
the full production release of
the new Swampfox pump station
controller. The manufacturing
run is complete - this includes
PCBs, extrusions, labels, etc
and we have been able to iron
out some wrinkles in the hardware
design and manufacture.
The delay is caused by software.
Originally we planned on two parallel
streams of software development.
The first and quickest was to
simply port existing Microlink
and Powerlink software into the
Swampfox. Simultaneously we were
restructuring and re-writing the
whole application from the bottom
up in order to have a platform
to build on for the future.
The first task was almost complete
(excepting radio comms); however,
a management decision was made
to abandon the quick and easy
path and focus all our resources
on the thorough re-structure.
There were a number of reasons
behind this - compatibility between
versions being a major issue and
the need for a solid product with
the fullest capability possible.
This software is nearly ready
and will be released along with
the production Swampfoxes shortly.
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Modulink final
orders!
Final orders for Modulink RTU
modules close on 31 August
2004. That's only
4 weeks away. If you need those
spare I/O modules, Terminator
blocks or Communicators to backup
your system, now is the time to
order them.
Email or phone Cathy for an order
form.
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New Powerlink V3.7.1
beta release
A new version of Powerlink software
is in beta release at several
customer sites. The new version
is required to support the following
options if purchased
by customers.
WebAlarm option.
Improved support for USB printers
(log printers).
Support for storing of digital
output and analog output operations
in the event file and ability
to report on these outputs using
the report generator.
Alarm audible silence
button.
While updates to Powerlink software
will be supplied to customers
under the terms of their support
contracts, some of the features,
such as "WebAlarm" require additional
software modules and engineering
not supplied as part of
these contracts.
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XP Pro Operating
System
Effective immediately, new Powerlink
SCADA system PCs will be delivered
with Microsoft XP Professional
operating system. This
has come about because Windows
2000 (W2K) is no longer available
from our PC supplier pre-installed.
For existing W2K users we recommend
SP2 or SP3 only. Do not
install W2K SP4. This is
untested by us but has networking
changes, which we do not recommend
using with Powerlink.
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TM Dialin screen
improvements
If you currently use TM/Powerlink
to dial in to your Powerlink SCADA
Master some recent screen improvements
we've made could well be of interest
to you.
The updated TM Dialin screen
better shows the status of the
modem and update procedure occurring
during the initial dialin procedure.
These improvements can be implemented
on your system for a small fee.
Please enquire.
Copyright © 2004 Abbey Systems
Ltd and its licensors. All rights
reserved.
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