Dear Experts,

For one of our ongoing project, i am having trouble establishing communication between DCS and a MS Excel application. DCS used is Yokogawa CS3000. There is an excel application for calculation of natural gas properties. This application uses gas composition to calculate the result. Real time value of gas composition is available in DCS. I want to bring gas composition in Excel, calculate the result in excel and finally send the result back to DCS.

OPC server functionality is not included in Yokogawa CS3000 package we have purchased. DCS is communicating with many third party systems on modbus TCP/IP.

My assumption is that, by writing some VB code, Yokogawa DCS can communicate with MS Excel application on modbus TCP/IP. Do i need any software/driver like Kepserver EX OPC server for this purpose?

 

Hello,

> OPC server functionality is not included in Yokogawa CS3000 package we have purchased. DCS is communicating with many third party systems on modbus TCP/IP <

So, you can use some available modbus tcp libraries, some of which are open-source such as MBlogic, to communicate to the DCS.

>My assumption is that, by writing some VB code, Yokogawa DCS can communicate with MS Excel application on modbus TCP/IP. <

If you google for "modbus tcp excel" you will find several commercial offerings.

> Do i need any software/driver like Kepserver EX OPC server for this
purpose? <

As far as I understand you do not want to use OPC in your system. So, no OPC server is required.

Besides, if you do not plan to expand the system in the future and if the calculations are not very complicated, you may also consider implementing the calculation directly in the DCS. That will avoid the communication and the-MS-Office-in-the-middle issue altogether.

Best Regards,
Andrey Romanenko
Ciengis - Advanced Process Control and Optimization

 

I think that Matrikon has a product that is meant for this. I don't know the name for it, but you should be able to find it on their web site.

Whatever brand you go for, you need to first check out whether you need Modbus/TCP server or Modbus/TCP client. That will depend on whether your Yokogawa is a Modbus/TCP client or server (or both). This can be confusing, because on the OPC side of the translation the OPC server is a server, but on the Modbus/TCP side, the OPC server might need to be a client or a server. The Yokogawa is probably a client, in which case the OPC server will need to be a Modbus/TCP server as well as being an OPC server. I hope that makes sense, because a lot of people find this to be very confusing.

I'm not sure why you are doing the calculations in a spreadsheet. If you want to just do the whole thing in a small stand alone program, I can give you some suggestions about how to do this fairly easily without purchasing anything.

 

Centum CS3000 it self have its own calculation function block...you can try to calculate by using C language in CALC function block..

 

Not sure on the exact project details/needs, or how many calculations that you are looking to do.

Matrikon does have a few options that are available to help with calulations. One is a powerful calculation tool called MatrikonOPC Real Time Data Calculator(trial download can be found herehttp://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-data-management/opc-realtime-calculator.aspx)

The application can import real-time values from any control system data source and then manipulate it using OPC Real Time Data Calculator's advanced mathematical and logic engine. The values can then be exported to external sources as real-time OPC outputs before it is transferred to a Historian.

Designed to be used at all process control levels, MatrikonOPC Calculator has an easy-to-use intuitive graphical user interface that allows full configuration of the calculation engine. Creating set logic sequences, user defined templates, or importing third party math libraries can be done with ease. The calculation engine is sophisticated enough to handle even the most complex process data calculations in real-time.

It would allows the flexibitity to move data into any real-time data source (back into the DCS, into a Historian, another PLC etc.) all using OPC.

The other option of course as mentioned above is MatrikonOPC2XL, ( http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-desktop-tools/opc-2xl.aspx )also available for a trial download.

 

CS-3000 is a DCS, and it has all the tools for process calculation, try CALCU blocks, or an SFC block, (because CALCU blocks are limited). I'm using an SFC to calculate the saturation pressure of a reactor. and it works ok. Using other software tool its not a good idea

 

I think I can help you with this, have you been able to find a solution?