Visual TD Communication Server
Visual TD Communication Server
Visual TD Communication Server
Visual T&D
Communication Server
Option
© 2011 Cooper Power Systems, LLC – All rights reserved.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
GUI-00115-00035 T, version 5
Contents
Introduction 1
Logical Architecture 3
Overview .............................................................................................................................3
Real-Time Data Exchange ...................................................................................................4
Master Protocol Components...............................................................................................4
Communication Components ..............................................................................................4
Data Concentrator ................................................................................................................4
This document outlines the procedure for setting up the Visual T&D Communication Server.
Overview
The Communication Server is an optional component of Visual T&D, which allows you to
connect substation devices to your computer without having to go through an SMP Gateway or an
OPC server. This is illustrated in the figure below:
SITE
CONFIGURATION
ACQUISITION,
CONTROL,
SMP DATA
RTU / PLC / IED SMP ALARM LAN / WAN
CLIENT SERVER
PROCESSING,
LOGGING NETWORK
CLIENT
COMMUNICATION
RTU / PLC / IED
SERVER
LOCAL
CLIENT
DATA
LOG
Figure 1 Visual T&D with the Communication Server Option - Logical Architecture
The Visual T&D Communication Server, which resides on your PC, is based on SMP technology.
It acts as a master station in that it polls the substation devices for data and sends control requests
originating from Visual T&D. As illustrated in Figure 2, page 5, there is one master protocol
component for each device. At the heart of the Communication Server is the Real-Time Data
Exchange (RTDX). The master protocol component retrieves the values of the device's data points
and puts them in the RTDX. Visual T&D retrieves the data from the RTDX and makes it available
to you through its user interface.
Communication Components
A communications component processes the messages exchanged between a master protocol
component and a device. These messages can be transmitted using various communication
methods. For instance, the MODBUS protocol can be used on a TCP/IP network or on an RS-232
serial link.
Data Concentrator
The Communication Server acts as a data concentrator or device multiplexer. It simultaneously
supports a specific number of master components, based on your product license. Each component
has its own communications link and its own protocol, and communicates with one device. All the
data retrieved from the devices is stored in the RTDX, where it becomes available to Visual T&D.
Visual T&D has no knowledge of the devices; it only sees data points. However, a prefix is added
to the name of each data point in order to distinguish data points with the same name, on different
devices.
VISUAL SUBSTATION
COMMUNICATION SERVER
The data points are automatically imported into Visual T&D when you close SMP Config.
The sections that follow give you instructions for creating a new configuration and setting up
Visual T&D with the Communication Server. If you require additional information, refer to the
following documents:
In the Visual T&D Explorer window, click Tools on the menu bar, and then click New Site.
In the New Site Configuration dialog, specify a name for your installation, and click Next.
Object Description
Data points prefix Specifies a prefix to be appended to the name of every data point on the
communication server. It is not necessary to enter a prefix. Prefixes ensure that
data point names are unique across the system. If the communication server is
your only data source, then you do not need to enter a prefix. If, on the contrary,
you have several data sources, you will probably want to enter a prefix for the
Device time is in This box normally has a checkmark, as the communication server uses UTC
UTC (GMT) time by default. However, if you have set up the communication server with
local time, remove the checkmark. The box located below the checkbox will
then become available, and you can use the drop-down list to specify the time
zone.
Configure… Opens the communication server editor (SMP Config), so that you can
configure the protocols and the data points to be acquired by the communication
server.
You can configure the protocols and data points for the devices that will be connected to the
communication server now, or you can simply add the communication server as a data source now
and do the configuration later.
If you are ready to do the configuration now, click the Configure button to open
SMP Config, and then jump to the description of the SMP Config dialog under "Editing the
communication server configuration", page 9.
If you are not ready to configure the communication server, click OK.
The communication server is added as a data source for your new site, as shown below.
Click Next.
A dialog appears, showing two options: loading the new site configuration now or loading it later.
Visual T&D Explorer loads the new configuration file, and then displays the Alarms & Events
view. The loading of your configuration file is displayed on the Events page.
The Site view opens on the Data Sources page, showing the communication server as the data
source.
Click Edit.
In the Communication Server Properties dialog, click Configure.
SMP Config starts up, and its window shows a tree structure of the newly added site
configuration.
If you open the Master Protocols branch, you can see that the tree structure offers you a fixed set
of protocols. These represent the protocols currently supported by your product license.
Note: SMP Config is used to edit the configuration of all products based on SMP
technology. Some configuration topics only apply to the SMP Gateway.
Note: The number of protocol instances you can add is dictated by your product
license. If you add more protocol instances than are provided by your license, the
Visual T&D Communication Server will fail to load the additional protocol
instances when it starts up.
You can use a template, which eases the task of configuring the master protocol instance by
automatically creating all the data points supported by the device. SMP Config provides
templates for a number of common substation devices.
If no template is available, you will need to manually create all the data points. If you are
configuring a number of devices of the same type, you can save the first device as a template
that you will then use to enter the other devices.
Once you have added a master protocol instance and created its data points (manually or via a
template), you can click on a particular data point type in the left pane and see the list of data
points and their parameters in the right pane, as shown below.
In the left pane, click on the plus sign next to Master Protocols, to display the list of master
protocols provided under your product license.
In the left pane, click on the plus sign next to Master Protocols, to display the list of master
protocols provided under your product license.
The new protocol instance is added in the left pane, under the protocol type you had selected. If
you click on the plus sign next to the protocol instance to expand the tree branch and click on any
item, SMP Config displays the corresponding protocol parameters. If you click on a physical data
point type in the left pane, the right pane will display an empty row since you will have to add the
physical data points manually.
In the left pane, click on General to display the list of general settings for the selected
protocol.
In the right pane, enter a device prefix if you added the master protocol instance manually.
This prefix will be appended to every I/O point name on the device, in order to ensure that all
the data point names in the system are unique. (If you added the protocol instance from a
template, you already supplied the prefix and the latter is displayed in the Device Prefix
column.)
Naming convention
Cooper Power S»ystems products assume that you are using a naming convention to identify the
data points on your site. Each data point in the system must be unique. However, you may have
several identical devices in your substation, to which you want to assign the same data point
names. In the example below, there are 3 devices of the same type that each have a data point
called "TRIP".
Maple Grove
VISUAL SUBSTATION
COMMUNICATION SERVER
REAL-TIME
DATA EXCHANGE
F1 F2 F3
DNP 3.0 DNP 3.0 DNP 3.0
MASTER MASTER MASTER
In order to distinguish the data points, Visual T&D uses the following convention:
In our example, the data source is the communication server, which is located in the Maple
Grove substation. We assigned a data point prefix of MapleGrove_ when we added the
communication server as a data source in Visual T&D Explorer. The device masters have
prefixes P441_F1, P441_F2 and P441_F3, to represent Alstom MiCOM P441 relays on
feeders 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Presuming that the separator is an underscore (see "Grouping
data points", in the Visual T&D Explorer User Guide, GUI-00115-00020 T), Visual T&D will
identify the 3 data points as:
MapleGrove_P441_F1_TRIP
MapleGrove_P441_F2_TRIP
MapleGrove_P441_F3_TRIP
A complete description of all settings is provided in the Cooper Power Systems document entitled
Master Protocol Common Concepts. Protocol-specific settings are described in individual
documents, such as Modicon Modbus Master Protocol.
The Adobe Reader/Acrobat program starts up and displays the document in a separate
window.
Protocol components support physical and logical data points of the following types:
Analog inputs
Binary inputs
Analog outputs
Binary outputs
A physical data point represents a real-life value, implemented on an external device. You need
to identify all the device data points, either manually or using a device template.
A logical data point is a value managed by the Visual T&D Communication Server. These data
points are built-in and cannot be modified, but they can be disabled.
Analog inputs are measured values. The system keeps two values for each analog measurement
obtained: a raw value, which is usually the value retrieved from the device, and a calculated value
expressed in engineering units, obtained using the following standard formula:
Binary inputs represent the state of a data point. The state is either ON or OFF.
Analog and binary outputs are initiated by the Visual T&D Communication Server, which sends
a control request originating from Visual T&D, to the master component involved.
The name of the data point, such as BUS_VA. SMP Config would automatically add the
communication server prefix (if you supplied one) and the device prefix to this name,
thereby generating the full name of the data point.
The scaling information required to convert the raw value to engineering units.
The Units and Description strings used to provide meaningful data displays.
A complete description of all settings is provided in the Cooper Power Ssytems document entitled
Master Protocol Common Concepts. Protocol specific settings are described in individual
documents, such as Modicon Modbus Master Protocol.
A serial link.
Through a TCP/IP network.
Note: The number of connections you can use is limited by the number of protocol
instances provided by your product license.
Your computer's COM1 and COM2 ports use RS-232 communication, so make sure your
communications interface is Asynchronous RS232 for these 2 ports.
Now, configure each serial port with the appropriate communication settings for the
connected device.
In the left pane, click on the plus sign next to Connections, to display all the supported
connection types.
In the right pane, enter the settings for the selected serial port.
The required settings are usually provided in the device manufacturer's reference manual:
Make sure the Link Type setting contains the correct communications interface:
RS232 or RS485.
Choose the device communication settings: baud rate, byte size, parity and number
of stop bits, such as 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit.
Choose the device hardware handshaking mode. Since most devices do not use
handshaking, you should keep the default values: RTS to Always On, DTR to
Always On, and CTS to Ignore.
Click on TCP/IP Masters in the left pane, to display the list of defined connections.
Enter the settings for the new TCP/IP connection in an empty row of the grid:
In the right pane, for each master protocol instance under Master Connection Usage, put a
checkmark for the appropriate connection. The list will show the COM ports and any TCP/IP
master connections you have defined.
If your configuration contains any errors, warning and error messages will appear in the Messages
pane, in the lower right-hand portion of the application window.
Correct any errors and repeat the process until the configuration is error-free or contains only
warning messages.
Note: Do not click Save As. Visual T&D Explorer assigned a configuration file name
when you created your site. If you now save the configuration under a different
name, you will lose all your configuration settings when you return to Visual T&D
Explorer.
Now that you have finished the configuration process, close SMP Config.
In Visual T&D Explorer, click OK to close the Communication Server Properties dialog.
Visual T&D Explorer retrieves your configuration settings and updates your local copy of the
site configuration.
In the Visual T&D Explorer View menu, click Communication Server, and then click
Logs.
The following log files contain information that you will find useful for the configuration of your
Visual T&D Communication Server:
The Startup log records all the steps that the Communication Server performed when it last
started. The log indicates which configuration file was loaded and which protocol components
were configured and started. You should consult the startup log each time you change the
configuration of the Communication Server, in order to detect any configuration problems.
The Control log records the steps that the Communication Server performed in response to a
control request from Visual T&D.
The other log files contain information that can help you and our technical support team in
identifying problems. You will find useful information on the subject in the "Troubleshooting"
section of the SMP Gateway User Manual, GUI-00316-00001 T.
Any line containing at least one of the specified keywords will be highlighted.
See the SMP Gateway User Manual, GUI-00316-00001 T, for details on using SMP Log.
SMP Trace can record the events you are tracing to a text file on your PC.
In the Visual T&D Explorer View menu, click Communication Server, and then click
Traces.
If you click on a folder, everything within the folder is automatically selected. Whether you click
on a folder or an individual item, gray checkmarks will appear above the item you clicked, all the
way up to the top-level folder.
Using SMP Trace, you can view a detailed trace of all system activity. The following traces
provide information that you will find useful during the configuration of your Visual T&D
Communication Server.
Master Protocol traces display the high-level information exchanges that occur between the
Communication Server and the other system components to which it is connected. These
application-level traces are similar to those provided by a protocol analyzer. They describe the
requests sent to a device and the values retrieved.
Connection traces display the data being exchanged between the Communication Server and
a device. These low-level traces describe, in hexadecimal format, the byte stream sent and
received from a device.
Any line containing at least one of the specified keywords will be highlighted.
See the SMP Gateway User Manual, GUI-00316-00001 T, for details on using SMP Trace. You
will also find useful information in the "Troubleshooting" section of that manual.
In the Visual T&D Explorer View menu, click Communication Server, and then click
Statistics.
In the left pane, click on the item for which you want to view the statistics.
The statistics are displayed in the right pane and you can see them change dynamically.
The following items provide information on the system activity, which you will find useful for the
configuration of your Visual T&D Communication Server:
The Connections folder contains counters and statistics about the performance of the
communication components. The Network (TCPIP) folder contains the list of all network
connections. The Serial (Asynchronous) folder contains the list of serial ports. The items in
these folders provide an easy way to monitor the communication status of the Visual T&D
Communication Server. For example, you can look at the Receive counter and Transmit
counter values to determine whether the Communication Server is exchanging data with a
connected device.
The System folder contains counters and statistics about the operation of the Visual T&D
Communication Server software.
See the SMP Gateway User Manual, GUI-00316-00001 T, for details on using SMP Stats. You
will also find useful information in the "Troubleshooting" section of that manual.