Running hours counter with ION Framework

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

Our customer is requesting some custom features on an ION7400 meter. One of the applications is a running hours counter for an engine where digital input is monitored (one pulse per second when engine is on, no pulses when it's off). 

For me the first though was that this could be achieved with the same principle as WAGES monitoring in (Port S1 -> Counter -> Periodic Timer + Data recorder) so that running time is counted in seconds and then modified to hours or hours / 10^4. Would there be alternative solution?

However, as they are installed in retrofit locations, there is a need to manually change the running hours number to an user specified value when meter is installed. Customer was requesting that this could be done via meter's display. Is this possible? Alternative option could be via ION Setup or internal webpages. PME / Designer might be a bit too heavy in this case.

There is also a request for custom Modbus tables to make the installation easier to background systems. One of the features is alive indicator. How this can be achieved with ION meters. I think there was some value read by PME to show if communications are working or not but I can't remember what it was.

[RobGraham]

I think your method is probably the best with the counter module.  You can set the multiplier to a value less than 1 to scale the seconds down to hours.  You can also set the Preset register to the starting hours value that you are looking for.

The only alternative I see is converting the digital status to a Numeric value and integrating it, then using the Divisor register for scaling.  The output of the integrator module can be written directly in ION Setup to preset it.  I'm not sure this has any advantages, however.

To your last question, unless something has changed, the front panel buttons on the 8000 and 7400 are not available for configuration.  There are rough directions in the user manual for creating a custom web page.  It's also possible to create a custom ION Setup Assistant.  However, both of these options are rather time-consuming in themselves.  Unless this procedure will be done many times by many different people, I would recommend just writing a very precise set of instructions for Advanced ION Setup.

Alternately, if the customer has PME installed, it's quite simple to modify the standard device diagram to add a control object for configuration.

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Anonymous user ,

The option from Rob is a good one. The power of ION is that there is usually more than 1 way to do things. For example you could feed the count value as well as external numeric to arithmetic module. The external numeric module holds the original running hours.  The ART module calculates the new hours (or count module has pulse weight as Rob suggested) and then adds the second input to get the new total hours. 

When you are asking about the customer Modbus Table I am not 100% sure I understand what you are looking for. Are you looking to change the default modbus mapping in the meter to match what was in the replacement device before? If so, you might be able to do something like this but devil is in the details, how much data, what kinds of data types etc.

The meter has a set point module "Pwr Up" perhaps this could be used as alive indicator but this is just a guess as I am not sure what you are looking to indicate.

PME communications uses a poll to determine if meter is still communicating with the system. The value read by PME depended on the alarm configuration, typically it was something like device type.

Regards,

Charles

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for your and Rob's solution. Using an external numeric for original hour value would work here really well. Setting this value could be done in the first phase via ION Setup but I assume that a simplified solution is required as meters are part of global projects and commissioned by persons with different skill levels.

Actually Modbus map document from the replaceable device says that engine running seconds are also calculated as well as hours and hours/1000. How does the counter module behave when it's going to reach it's maximum value? From ION reference manual it seems that the highest count (up or down) is ±1 x 1099 and the module updates the Accumulatr output register every time the Count input is pulsed, up to a value of 16,777,216. How should I notice this when doing the programming?

In this project we're promoting ION series meters as a substitute to VAMP V260/V96 power monitoring units that are reaching their end of life. Custom Modbus mapping is required to match original values as meters are connected to a control system (Modbus values are about the same as with Protection relay P3U30). There are still some cross-checks to be done regarding data types etc. Most of the required values are basic power meter measurements but then there's some extra stuff like value of energy delivered/received in original format and divided by 10^4 or 10^8, alive indicators etc.

[RobGraham]

Unfortunately, I don't have personal experience with hitting the maximum output.  If you're concerned with rollover and you're going to use an Arithmetic module to perform the calculation anyway, I would probably just set Roll Value to a reasonable amount, like 10,000,000, then feed the Rollover pulse to another counter module.  You can then run both of these counters into an Arithmetic module to combine them into a single reasonable value.

[Charles_Murison · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous user 

Sadly, there is no way to preset a value on the counter module except using the Preset setup register then resetting the module. The danger in doing this is that if the module is reset or rolls over at a later date, the count output will reset to this predefined value. Also, any change to the input links or setup registers will reset the module so it is not possible to define this preset, pulse the reset, then change the preset value.

The option to use Arithmetic modules is likely the best option at this point. I know it is less than ideal but can work. Given the requirement to have engine run time in seconds (perhaps confirm if value expected is 0-60 or 0-X where X is the highest number possible for the modbus register format), you will likely need to use ART module to calculate hours from the given number of seconds. Only 1 more formula to calculate result/1000

The count module has a recommendation to have the rollover set to 16777216 or below. This is due to 32 bit floating point precision. Usually easier to have this happen at a specific point like X days or X hours or X seconds. When the count reaches the rollover, the output "Rollover" is pulsed and the accumulation is reset to preset value. (This rollover is why having something in the preset setup register is not advised.)

'original format " may need a little more explaining. energy divided by 10^4 is easy with Arithmetic module, as is divided by 10^8 depending no what the expected format is. Having more knowledge around what the expected modbus formats are, and the expected ranges for the modbus values would also help.

Regards,

Charles

[Anonymous user]

Required Modbus values are as below. Most of them are pretty basic but some like state values might need more clarification from the customer side. I'm also wondering is it possible to get phase to earth voltage as a calculated value? Wiring installation is either delta or 3W-WYE (have to confirm).

Name	Access	Scaling	Setting for scaling	Address	Type
Events	R -	1  = 1	-	401996...402000	5 x 16-bit unsigned integer
Alive indicator	R -	1  = 1	-	402001	16-bit unsigned integer
DI	R -	1  = 1	-	402007	16-bit unsigned integer
DIs after DI16 for ModBus	R -	1  = 1	-	402008	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase current IL1	R -	1 A = 1	-	402009	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase current IL2	R -	1 A = 1	-	402010	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase current IL3	R -	1 A = 1	-	402011	16-bit unsigned integer
Io1 residual current	R -	1.00 A = 100	-	402012	16-bit unsigned integer
Line-to-line voltage U12	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402014	16-bit unsigned integer
Line-to-line voltage U23	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402015	16-bit unsigned integer
Line-to-line voltage U31	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402016	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase-to-earth voltage UL1	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402017	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase-to-earth voltage UL2	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402018	16-bit unsigned integer
Phase-to-earth voltage UL3	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402019	16-bit unsigned integer
Residual voltage	R -	1.0 % = 10	-	402020	16-bit unsigned integer
Frequency	R -	50.000 Hz = 5000	Frequency scaling	402021	16-bit unsigned integer
Active power	R -	1000 kW = 1000	Power scaling	402022	16-bit unsigned integer
Reactive power	R -	1000 kvar = 1000	Power scaling	402023	16-bit unsigned integer
Apparent power	R -	1000 kVA = 1000	Power scaling	402024	16-bit unsigned integer
Power factor	R -	1.00  = 100	PF and cos scaling	402025	16-bit signed integer
Energy Eexp	R -	1  = 1	-	402026	16-bit unsigned integer
Eexp/10^4	R -	10^4 = 1	-	402027	16-bit unsigned integer
Eexp/10^8	R -	10^8 = 1	-	402028	16-bit unsigned integer
Energy EqExp	R -	1  = 1	-	402029	16-bit unsigned integer
EqExp/10^4	R -	10^4 = 1	-	402030	16-bit unsigned integer
EqExp/10^8	R -	10^8 = 1	-	402031	16-bit unsigned integer
Energy Eimp	R -	1  = 1	-	402032	16-bit unsigned integer
Eimp/10^4	R -	10^4 = 1	-	402033	16-bit unsigned integer
Eimp/10^8	R -	10^8 = 1	-	402034	16-bit unsigned integer
Energy EqImp	R -	1  = 1	-	402035	16-bit unsigned integer
EqImp/10^4	R -	10^4 = 1	-	402036	16-bit unsigned integer
EqImp/10^8	R -	10^8 = 1	-	402037	16-bit unsigned integer
Tan phi	R -	1.000  = 1000	Tan phii scaling	402038	16-bit signed integer
Phase current IL	R -	1 A = 1	-	402039	16-bit unsigned integer
Average line voltage	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402040	16-bit unsigned integer
Average phase voltage	R -	1000 V = 1000	Voltage scaling	402041	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj1 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402042	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj2 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402043	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj3 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402044	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj4 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402045	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj5 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402046	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj6 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402047	16-bit unsigned integer
Remote/Local State	R W	REMOTE=0,LOCAL=1	-	402048	16-bit unsigned integer
Output relays	R -	1  = 1	-	402049	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj7 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402050	16-bit unsigned integer
Obj8 state	R -	Open=0,Close=1,Undef=2	-	402051	16-bit unsigned integer
Run hours/10^0 to ModBus	R -	1  = 1	-	402057	16-bit unsigned integer
Run hours/10^4 to ModBus	R -	1  = 1	-	402058	16-bit unsigned integer
Engine running seconds	R W	1 s = 1	-	402059	16-bit unsigned integer
Start counter	R W	1  = 1	-	402060	16-bit unsigned integer

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Anonymous user 

The Unsigned 16 bit numbers have a maximum of 2^16 -1 (65535), What a device does after this number can very per device. Most devices will roll over to 0. So this may or may not come into play.

The ION7400 meter does not have a VE terminal like the ION9000 meter does.