Do you use PC_GIM (General Input Unit)?

You guys have obviously been busy with all the other product releases so I have refrained from pushing the issue too much, but seeing that you've asked the question ...

You must have read my mind. I was just about to post a message with respect to finding out when the monitor function was going to be included in the Toolkit (I haven't checked out 1.1.5 to see if anything has changed.) I have previously emailed tech support and also post messages about the problems with the scaling and I don't know whether these have been fixed because I can't monitor the input to see what it is reading. I'd also like to display readings on C-Touch, however, as per a previous response I received, this is only possible as a % level reading at the moment and via the Measurement application on soon to be released devices (which I am guessing is the Colour C-Touch)

My application is for creating a weather station. At the moment I only measure wind speed via an anemometer (I'll add other bits and pieces once I get the anemometer working). I want to be able to display the data on my C-Touch screen, and to also control my pond fountain pump which I've connected to a C-BUS output unit. I want to shutdown the pump when the wind picks up, because if I don't it ends up emptying the pond of all its water! At the moment my pond is brown and full of algae because I've been waiting for monitor function for the General Input Unit.

I plan to add external temperature, barometric pressure and humidity to the General Input unit. It makes for as expensive weather station, however, my plan is to control my heating and ventilation based on external temperature, as well cooling my roof space in summer when it gets too hot. I may do away with pressure or humidity and connect a VSD to control a fan speed.

I can understand that this product probably isn't widely used and the effort that you guys put into it probably isn't value for money, however, you have to look at it from the point of view that if you cover the range of inputs and outputs you are going to tempt people away from going to a PLC. At the moment I'm teetering on the edge of going to a PLC ...

Regards, CC&C.

 

I would like to see a monitor and or trending fuction.

Would like to use to monitor tank levels via a pressure sensor

 

I will be using it in the near future for a few things!

Monitoring of water tank levels (switching to mains water if empty), external temperature (to disable heating / cooling)

will let you know how it goes.

 

I certainly would not want to see it disappear. I think it is a product that is a little ahead of the market needs. I would imagine if the average sparky were asked to perform something clever he would basically want it of the shelf rather than build and design it himself.

I think that people need ideas on how it could be used.
For measuring the water level for those that are on tank water.
Measure the amount of Diesel in the generator
Measure the amount of Methane from the composter.
Have it read the cent a meter and record power usage.
Have it read the state of electronic equipment - Is there Mains power supplied - Is the device drawing current.
Is the garage door open or closed or even locked.
What is the temperature and humidity in the glasshouse and are the vents open?
Is it raining - is the basement flooding - is the river about to over flow its banks.
I think more things will come. My efforts at the moment are trying to persuade my clients that they need the simple stuff. Time will bring more sophistication to the market.

(Thinks to himself)
Actually I need a way to be told if my basement is flooding. It does periodically.

Possibly you may need to lead the way. Come up with a sensor for detecting flooding and have it connect through the input.
Have articles available on how to achieve some of the clever stuff for those who are a little less technically skilled. How would you look at connecting Ph probe to measure water quality?

Colin

 

I didn't even realise this thing existed until I saw this thread, what a handy piece of kit.

I think a couple of "Tutorials of the Week" would help get the word out.

Rohan

 

Hi Colin, there was no suggestion the unit would disappear. Daniel was just working out how much effort should be put into the units Toolkit interface for configuration purposes.

We think the unit is great and has masses of potential for the Integrator who wants to go the extra mile on an installation.

 

1) When is the monitoring function going to be available in Toolkit?
2) Have the scaling errors (V2) been fixed that have been previously reported? (I can't tell if they have in Toolkit because I can't monitor the inputs).
3) What future products will be able to read the value from the input?

At the moment, I can't see how anybody can be using a GIM.

Regards, CC&C.

 

thermostat and monitoring

My integratirs use it in Russia, but for couple simple temperature automation mostly. It would be used A LOT more frequently if folowing will be provided:

• Monitoring from C-Touch and Homegate
• Tags to enable-disable control points (so each channel may be used as thermostat with 8 temperature levels!). This thing I expected mostly, thinking, that could have 8 buttons on a C-Touch set to +16, +18, +20, +22, +24, +26 etc. So we would hear no more "C-Bus has no thermostat, so it is lighting control only system" from EIB and LonWorks integrators.
• Also support for more than 10000 Om will be good, as many sensors work with 20000 etc.

 

I should have qualified my previous statement and added '... with toolkit."

1) I've just tried to connect to my GIM using Toolkit 1.1.5, the progress bar gets to 3% when "Loading unit parameters from network" and then I receive the following error: Error 20044 "The unit you selected failed to load".

2) I assume the "offset" is for calibrating the input. It would be good if the field could accept negative numbers.

Regards, CC&C.

 

I've also been using a GIM and had quite a lot of trouble with it. I have a suspicion that some of the channels (hardware) are duds. When I've used V2 software to program it, it returns inconsistent results from channel to channel using the same physical inputs.

So far it's been used to read the status of:
Garage Roller Door
Soil Moisture Probe
Fire Alarm Status
and soon to be included an anenometer

How can I test the unit to ensure that the hardware is performing?

Some tutorials, even some basic programming information and examples would be very much appreciated.

 

Saving to network

Hi there

We are struggling to successfully save the GIU GUI to the network. I have tried both toolkit 1.1.6 and V2.3.0. as suggested. Is there a version that will work?

Cheers
Scott

 

Just out of interest, what type of signal are you going to connect (i.e. 0-5Volt, 4-20mA, etc.)

After all the trouble I had with connecting my sensors I gave up. They wouldn't work in V2 because the software has the wrong scaling co-efficients but even after emailing tech support a couple of times no one has acknowledged this. The 'monitor' function disappeared in toolkit so you can't tell what the inputs are doing. I was succesful in being able to at least connect to the GIU in Toolkit 1.1.6 but as the monitor function still didn't exist I didn't bother to try and download from it.

Regards, CC&C

 

I was going to answer your original question and forgot to. I shouldn't have been so harsh in my criticsm as I was emailed from Tech Support that I would have to use V2.7.6. Cheers, CC&C.

 

I am using the GIU for load shedding using 4-20mA. I will try the V2.7.6 thanks

Scott

 

I couldn't get 0-1VDC or 0-5VDC inputs to work because the software appears to be using the wrong scaling co-efficients. Hence my interest to see if you had similar problems. Haven't tried 4-20mA, but I would assume that the software was probably tested using this type and 0-10VDC.
Cheers, CC&C.