I was tasked with putting together equipment for a mobile temperature monitoring system for our oil rail cars.
Apparently, the crew that unloads them is needing a way to map heat zones within a railcar and engineering is specifying 8-12 Temperature points on a probe to a local remote (ground level) HMI.
I've found some instruments specifically for this purpose but according to engineering does not have enough measuring points. Also, they want it to be able to connect to our DCS for remote monitoring.
My best solution, so far, is to build some sort of cart with a PLC/HMI to a custom probe. All powered by a 24VDC battery system/charger as there is no nearby power system and the best I can do for connecting to DCS is using ModbusTCP to a nearby access point. that is on the other side of the rail system.
Any thoughts?
Apparently, the crew that unloads them is needing a way to map heat zones within a railcar and engineering is specifying 8-12 Temperature points on a probe to a local remote (ground level) HMI.
I've found some instruments specifically for this purpose but according to engineering does not have enough measuring points. Also, they want it to be able to connect to our DCS for remote monitoring.
My best solution, so far, is to build some sort of cart with a PLC/HMI to a custom probe. All powered by a 24VDC battery system/charger as there is no nearby power system and the best I can do for connecting to DCS is using ModbusTCP to a nearby access point. that is on the other side of the rail system.
Any thoughts?
