The PI
Manual Logger is a client tool
to manually enter PI data.
It runs on PCs and selected PDAs.
This tool is useful
to collect data when instruments are not wired.
This may be the case in a plant
or unit that has older analog
instruments and the cost of new cables
and instrumentation is too high.
It is also useful for inspection
type of data, or to collect
extra readings in a unit or plant
for short periods of time such
as a month or two when a
system instrumentation does not allow to collect
the data. Certain data
such as lab readings, water
tide levels and tank gauges
may only need to be collected once a
shift, once a day, or once a week.
Let me
give you a tour of the Manual Logger
PC User Interface.
When you open Manual Logger, the Welcome
Window comes up. From here
you can go to
Manage Tools and see the
tools that are available
in Manual Logger. In this case,
there is only one tool called Experiment
Results. If we open that
tool by double-clicking on it,
we come
to this window where we have information
on the tool.
The pane on the
left will provide information on the tool
such as the Tool Name, the Description,
Access Groups,
and Notes.
The pane in the center will provide information
on the Tag Configuration
such as the Tag Names,
a Comment Tag or
Operator Instructions.
We can also see
Tag Entry Options,
Data Validation such
as Lower and Upper Limits,
and actions that need to be taken
when these limits are violated.
The pane on the right
provides information on the Tags
for which we are collecting
information in this tool. In this case,
there is only one Tag, ExpRes,
for Experiment Results.
I also like to show you
the Manual Logger
Mobile Interface,
and for that I have here a
Pocket PC Emulator which I will be using
to show you how the user
interface looks like and how it behaves
in the Pocket PC.
When using the Mobile
Manual Logger I have all of the
same options that I have in the
PC version. I can collect data
on my tag, I have
a place for annotations
or to include comments,
and I also have an option
to look at
previous results
or previous data-points on the
data that I collected.