After 20+ years of great service from the systems in our
power plants, we are finally realizing there comes a time
when it would be better to replace/upgrade some of our systems
than to hope and pray we will find someone who can work on our stuff.
One piece of equipment that comes to mind is a temperature monitor.
Ours has 30 copper RTD inputs and the mfgr is no longer
making new ones nor are they supporting the one we have in service.
I have been leaning towards just getting a PLC to monitor the RTD's and alarm/trip on high temps.
Our operators/supervisors are used to having a "box" mounted on the panel of which you can just push a button and read the temperature.
It seems to me that you can just do the same thing with a PLC and some sort of view screen. But not everyone is convinced that making everything plc based is the best way to go.
With the ability of interfacing with just about any "thing" out there, How much is too much? I mean, it could get to the point to where the old and huge control panel get's thrown away and replaced with a view screen. Also, at what point do you start distributing your control functions rather than just putting all your eggs in one cpu?
Thanks in advance
power plants, we are finally realizing there comes a time
when it would be better to replace/upgrade some of our systems
than to hope and pray we will find someone who can work on our stuff.
One piece of equipment that comes to mind is a temperature monitor.
Ours has 30 copper RTD inputs and the mfgr is no longer
making new ones nor are they supporting the one we have in service.
I have been leaning towards just getting a PLC to monitor the RTD's and alarm/trip on high temps.
Our operators/supervisors are used to having a "box" mounted on the panel of which you can just push a button and read the temperature.
It seems to me that you can just do the same thing with a PLC and some sort of view screen. But not everyone is convinced that making everything plc based is the best way to go.
With the ability of interfacing with just about any "thing" out there, How much is too much? I mean, it could get to the point to where the old and huge control panel get's thrown away and replaced with a view screen. Also, at what point do you start distributing your control functions rather than just putting all your eggs in one cpu?
Thanks in advance