Ladder Level Alert Via Email Project
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Synopsis
The objective of this project is to provide logic and instrumentation that will notify the pitevent for the site and consequently notify PSMFC personnel that a site has dewatered or watered up. This will be accomplished by using a ultra-sonic level transmitters to monitor the level of the ladders on a periodic basis. This information will then be radioed via a wireless node in close proximity to each level transmitter to a gateway which will toggle inputs on a small PLC that is capable of sending email.
Pictures
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After
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Current Project Status
Troy 09:51, 27 December 2007 (PST)Installation complete and has been running for a week as of today. Documentation is complete as of today. The following is to provide information.
- The Nodes are polled ever 128 seconds and if there is no 'answer' after 4 polling cycles the gateway will set a bit in the PLC which will in turn email the ICH pit event that communication has been lost on what ever Node has lost communication.
- The analog signal for each level transmitter is wired into the PLC. The LT's are calibrated 0-20mA. O mA being ~ 1 foot from the face of the LT and 20 mA being ~ 12'2" for the south ladder and 12'8" for the north ladder (from the face of the LT). If the LT's are disconnected the Node associated with the LT will default the reading to 0 mA. If the ladder was to flood the LT would read less than 6 mA so the high alarm level or LT disconnected limit is set at 6 mA. If the level drops below 18 mA the likely hood of fish traffic is slim so the low level alarm has been set at 18 mA.
- When the ladder is de-watered these readings and the calibration will be verified. Some adjustments may take place at that time. The measurements used to set up the calibration and subsequent alarming was taken from drawings. Actual measurements are needed to verify the accuracy of the LT's.
Troy 13:07, 27 November 2007 (PST) Waiting on parts, construction of back panels to start tomorrow.
Troy 12:36, 16 November 2007 (PST) A one week test was completed yesterday. There were some communication losses during the test but these can be attributed to the fact the Node was not placed in an optimal location in that it's 'line of site' was obscured by expanded metal hand railing that ran perpendicular to it. In the final installation the antenna will be raised above the hand railing. During site testing early on this proved to be affective.
All email issues from behind the firewall were resolved 10/25/2007 once permission from the COE was granted and some tweaking done by COE employees.
Equipment order was place 11/15/2007 with Branom Instruments and Columbia Electric Supply.
Troy 11:53, 10 October 2007 (PDT)Called Mark Plummer to see if he had heard back from IT concerning the FAR he submitted last week. He has not and will look into it for us.
Troy 09:26, 1 October 2007 (PDT) Contacted Chris Sampire (503.808.5212) to find out if we can send email from behind the COE firewall. He directed me to do the following.
- Ask our POC to submit a FAR (Firewall Action Request) to Tom Seiner (WW District)
- The FAR should include the:
- Source IP (.4)
- Destination IP (psmfc mailserver)
- Port protocol (TCP Port 25)
- The FAR should include the:
I then did the following:
- I attempted to contact Cary Rahn(509.527.7564) but he is out this week.
- I attempted to contact Mark Plummer (509.543.3208) but he is out today.
Once a I can get one of the above mentioned people to submit a FAR and if we are granted permission to send email from behind the COE firewall and attempt will be made to do a site survey with someone from ICH (possibly Laurie Newsome)to see if the radio equipment interferes with anything the COE is trying to do.
As of 09/27/2007 the PLC has been programmed to send email and testing is being done from the office network. The radio's and LT have been taken to ICH and MC1/MC2 to see how they affect the in water antennas. No affect was noticed on the antennas at either site. A site survey was conducted at McNary and the results were promising. Radio communication was established across the dam from outside MC1's pittag room to outside MC2's pittag room using only the factory supplied omni antennas. Communications were better when the node was place on MC2's upper ladder above the in water antennas.
Troy 07:56, 20 September 2007 (PDT) Currently have a MicroLogix 1100 in hand and programming has started. The MicroLogix 1100 will be used to send an email when the water level changes.
A site survey has been conducted with factory reps and it has been determined that their equipment will communicated across the dam.
Loaner equipment should be available to PSMFC by 09/21/2007. This equipment will be used to verify that none of the radio equipment nor the level transmitter will interfere with the pittag equipment. Once this has been determined coordination with the COE will be required to ensure that the radio equipment doesn't interfere with any of their equipment.
Issues
Recommendations for Future Enhancements
Journal
Troy 08:02, 20 September 2007 (PDT) Met with Craig Cheney and Joe Coates yesterday at ICH. We were able to communicate from the south shore to the north shore with no packets dropped if we kept the node above the hand rail. We had a Omni antenna on the south shore and a factory supplied (short whip) antenna on the north shore. A location for each level transmitter was picked out as well as a location for the Omni antenna. A route for the antenna cable was selected as well(follow the HVAC liquid lines from the traffic deck to the pittag room). Interestingly enough with the Omni antenna placed on the south ladder deck or the traffic deck directly above the pittag room 0 packets were lost in the pittag room with both doors closed.
Meeting Minutes
LINKS
Pertinent links
