In the oil and gas industry, flow computers and devices from different vendors store historical EFM (Electronic Flow Measurement) data that is used for analysis, custody transfer and production optimization.  ABB Totalflow flow computers are frequently used EFM devices for both gas and liquid EFM applications.

In this video blog, I'll show you how to get started using our ABB Totalflow driver to connect and gather real-time and EFM data from Totalflow meters for Wonderware applications.

Today’s automation professional is tasked not only with continuous improvement of the automated processes he or she is responsible for, but also doing it with less resources and a lower budget. Labor is expensive and over-tasked.

With all of the core business tasks an engineer faces today, they simply may not have the time to sift through the all of the options available in the marketplace for gathering “business intelligence”.

A key buzz term used in the front office of many companies, business intelligence needs on the automation side of an enterprise are centered around Industrial applications. While business intelligence tools are great at dealing with counts and currencies, automation processes need that and more.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the three main reasons to have a business intelligence solution and, also, the three key ways that Dream Report delivers nicely on the greater needs of hybrid industrial/business data analytics requirements to provide business intelligence for making key decisions regarding a process to save time, money and expenses.

If you haven't received one of my emails or heard from a colleague about our latest TOP Server release, you may not have heard about the key new features in the TOP Server V6.5 release.

In this post, I'm going to go through the top 5 key features released in V6.5 in more detail and how they benefit you as a TOP Server user.

For the past few releases, OmniServer has had a powerful usability enhancement that you may not be aware of - a Topic Wizard – which was designed to increase your efficiency and the ease of getting started when you're working with OmniServer to integrate your non-standard process devices.

For new users, the new Topic Wizard in OmniServer Version 3 and above should feel very intuitive and lessen the learning curve if you've never touched an OmniServer before. Even for existing users, the wizard is very user-friendly and users will likely appreciate the time-savings made possible by being able to step through a wizard to configure your communications.

In this video, I step you through the very easy process to configure your OmniServer to communicate with your non-standard devices using the Topic Wizard.

It is well known and accepted that, to manage a process, we need to measure the results of that process.  If we start measuring the production output of a machine, the people responsible for running and maintaining that machine are more likely to pay attention and take the necessary decisions to improve its performance.

Every business with any focus on continuous improvement has some system that works for them and has evolved as they have traveled their journey. Some use paper, some use paper and spreadsheets, others use custom solutions, and others use some form of off-the-shelf software.

For over 20 years we’ve helped users get the digital data they have into these various systems, but in the process of doing that, we’ve heard some things from them and seen some patterns we will share in this blog post.

OmniServer Wedges are included with OmniServer Professional Edition.  Wedges are built-in components providing additional useful capabilities that expand the functionality of OmniServer beyond its core connectivity and data parsing abilities for non-standard devices.

The OmniServer Database Wedge allows you to log your device data to any ODBC-compliant database, including SQL, with a highly configurable format and flexible conditions.  And this ability is built into OmniServer, eliminating the need for separate external components or applications.

In this video blog, I'll show you how to get started using the OmniServer Database Wedge to easily log process data based on specified conditions, making it possible to monitor trends in your process and easily report on your process data or troubleshoot any issues that are discovered.

In the oil and gas industry, flow computers and devices from different vendors store historical EFM (Electronic Flow Measurement) data that is used for analysis, custody transfer and production optimization.  Emerson / Fisher ROC flow computers are frequently used EFM devices for both gas and liquid EFM applications.

In this video blog, I'll show you how to get started using our Fisher ROC Suite to connect and gather real-time and EFM data from ROC meters for Wonderware applications.

If you’ve been following our blog series on custom error detection, you’ll remember that OmniServer provides a large number of pre-defined Error Detection Codes (EDC) for use in different protocols for non-standard device communication.  And, again, it’s not uncommon to find an EDC from a vendor that is not pre-defined due to some specialized handling by the device manufacturer.

As we covered in our previous posts on creating a custom checksum and LRC, OmniServer gives you the ability to build custom EDCs in an OmniServer protocol to handle these situations.  This post, the final of three on custom Error Detection Codes, covers the basics steps to creating a custom CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) in an OmniServer protocol.

Common in the oil and gas industry, flow computers and devices store historical EFM (Electronic Flow Measurement) data used for analysis, custody transfer and production optimization.  Enron Modbus, which is a version of the open Modbus protocol, is a frequently used communication protocol by many EFM devices including but not limited to Schneider SCADAPack, ThermoScientific AutoPilot, Cameron NuFlo Scanners and many others.

In this video blog, I'll show you how to get started using our Enron Modbus driver to connect and gather real-time and EFM data from Enron Modbus devices from Wonderware applications.

OmniServer Wedges, included with OmniServer Professional Edition, are built-in components providing powerful, supplemental capabilities that expand the functionality of OmniServer beyond its core connectivity and data parsing abilities for non-standard devices.

The OmniServer File Wedge allows you to log your device data to any text file, including CSV, with a highly configurable format and flexible conditions.  And this ability is built into OmniServer, eliminating the need for separate external components.

In this video blog, I'll show you how to get started using the OmniServer File Wedge to easily log process data based on specified conditions, making it possible to monitor trends in your process and easily troubleshoot any issues that are discovered.