Customer Solutions

Lookout Monitors Membrane Wastewater Purifier

Author(s):

Bill de Garis AScT, DG Instrumentation Ltd.

Industry:

Industrial Controls/ Devices/ Systems

Product:

Lookout

The Challenge:

Remotely Monitoring a Membrane Wastewater Purifier

The Solution:

Upgradeing the existing Lookout system to 400 I/O, rewritting the original simple Lookout code, and upgrading the graphics for coplete remote supervision of the new process

Introduction
TransLink, British Columbia’s regional transit authority, needed to extend its Lookout SCADA system to include a new Zenon membrane filtration system at their Port Coquitlam Bus maintenance plant. DG Instrumentation had configured a 50 I/O version of Lookout for TransLink three years previously. Because it was still running well, they decided to upgrade it, keeping the remote CMI TeleSafe remote terminal units (RTUs) in place.

The membrane filter is a state-of-the-art package system that circulates the liquid by the membrane and does not force it through directly. The circulating liquid gradually builds up contaminants as purified liquid passes naturally through the membrane to the sewer as clean water. When the contaminants build to a high level, the system removes the batch and disposes of it.

Design
Lookout has flexible and powerful graphic capabilities that use 3D graphics and deliver the ability to build realistic 2D views. Other attributes include:

• 3D software automatically shades and highlights objects and applies the correct perspective
• A change in equipment location during installation is simple to accommodate in 3D but requires extensive work redrawing in a 2D graphics package
• With 3D graphics, we can position the 2D view to give any view required. It even produces "walk throughs" of the plant.
  

Implementation
After the completion of the 3D model, we positioned the software cameras to give the required 2D view of the process. We then used these cameras to produce several 2D bitmap images for each Lookout screen - one view for the background image and one each for all the various color changes required to show the status of each object in the process.

We imported these bitmaps into Photoshop, cut them to the correct size, and saved them as individual small bitmaps. We then used these small bitmaps to produce the animations with Lookout Multistate Object so the Process Object, such as a pump or a valve, changes color when it turns on and off. Lookout made this animation very easy; and to the viewer, the effect is seamless - the objects change color or shape with no change in the background at all. We also produced a "walk through" of the plant using the Lookout Animator Object. We could display a total of 13 screens (frames) with the 64 MB of RAM available. These were full true-color screens, 1024 x 768.

Results
We installed the computer at the remote plant on a temporary basis for startup. Translinks Environmental Coordinator, Peter Borgmann, said, "Lookout was an incredible aid to troubleshooting and startup." TransLink used a 486 PC combined with a run-time version of Lookout for remote site maintenance.
In addition to using the spreadsheet (.csv) files that Lookout generates every month for compliance purposes, Borgmann uses the Lookout SCADA system at his office to introduce new staff to the system and finds the 3D graphics very useful in showing them the membrane process. He also uses the animated schematic view to show people how the process works in real-time without having to leave the office, but the bottom line is Lookout trends. Borgmann said, "I use the office unit on a daily basis to make sure everything is running properly, and when there are glitches, the trends are a fantastic diagnostic tool." At DG Instrumentation, we have used other SCADA and HMI software, but Lookout is by far the most reliable. It is powerful and easy to use.

For more information, contact:

Bill de Garis AScT,
DG Instrumentation Ltd.

2 McNair Bay Port Moody, BC Canada V3H 3N8

Tel: (604) 469-6015

E-mail: billyd@direct.ca

degaris.pdf

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