Reviewer Details
Name: Rodney Sandwith
Position/designation: product manager
Company: Lodox Systems
Telephone: 011 444 9118
E-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Vendor: Adroit Technologies
Contact person: Megan Davidson
Product name and version: Adroit scada HMI Version 4.2
Telephone: 011 781 3513
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.adroit.co.za
General
Q: What industry (eg, mining, food and beverage, automotive etc) is the scada being applied in? Describe the application briefly?
A: Medical imaging equipment. Full body digital X-ray scanning in under 13 seconds, a South African first.
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: Lodox Systems (R. Sandwith)
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: About 30 000 but this product cannot be compared with a normal process plant. Here there were several beta phases preceding full commercialisation.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg, remote-dial-up, e-mail etc)?
A: Remote dial-up, local service centres.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on the system? Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: Licences are purchased depending on the customer's needs.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog? Digital? Maximum possible?
A: 130 true I/O points plus 150 OLE agents (Max 150).
Q: What operating system is the scada running on (eg, Windows NT, Unix etc)?
A: Windows 2000 Professional.
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture? Open standards, wide range of drivers, the ability to upgrade, etc? Please elaborate.
A: Open standards, scripting ability, database access, local SA support.
Q: Is the system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, does the configuration allow simple remote monitoring, or is it configured to allow full remote control? If not, what level of intranet/Internet control does the scada allow for future use?
A: The scada allows full remote control for future use although this feature is not used due to the HIPPA rules applicable to patient privacy in hospitals. Some limited service ability is contemplated and is possible using this scada.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: None although the capability is there.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process - eg, did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
A: All images were developed in house. Medical applications are not common or standardised in terms of symbols/libraries.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: Quite wide, covering mostly process plant components.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg, embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images etc).
A: Yes, our 'confirming' X-ray image is displayed directly on the scada.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software? Describe.
A: Yes, many in-house applications specifically developed for X-ray image acquisition and processing were integrated and run together with the system in the background. Image processing is particularly processor intensive. No problems were noted.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe.
A: Yes full VB or Java scripts can interact directly with the scada/agent server.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: Yes. Certain information is logged as part of our compliance requirement as well as for our fault tracking.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: Not used.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: Not used.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg, SAP, Baan)
Not used.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system? What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another (ie, ease of use, support from the vendor, upgrade path, redundancy features etc)?
A: Fast track test bed which was flexible enough to cope with our machine design evolution from prototype to full commercial production. This led to a user interface ideally suited to be changed on site to cater for the needs of our 'early adopter' users. Having had experience with Adroit in the past, I knew that it was a stable platform without any unexpected problems and excellent (local) vendor support when the need arose.
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