Maximum number of System I/O variables

Hey all
Just a hypothetical situation.
We have to monitor a 100 sensors (both temperature and light level), compare them to a threshold value (which can be modified) and then display the status and area of the sensor that crossed the threshold. I assume that the following should be monitored

The current level of a sensor
The threshold limit of the sensor
The difference in both (to trigger the alarm)
A Boolean variable that states if the alarm has been triggered.

The logic is simple.
We would find the difference in both the threshold and the current status.
If a negative value is obtained, a timer is set, the status of the alarm is set to active but no audible alarm is triggered (an indicator appears on the page.)
If at the end of the timer the sensor hasnt returned to a level below threshold a audible alarm will be sounded
else the timer is reset.

Since we have a 100 sensors, this would require 400 variables to be monitored.

My questions are
1) Is there any way in which we can increase the number of I/O variables that we can use(as Schedule Plus puts a limit of 500 variables). This is incase I want to monitor some other devices as well.

2) Can we reduce the number of levels monitored in order to make simpler programming?

 

In this "hypothetical" situation, are you planning to use C-Bus temperature sensors and light level sensors ?

What sort of update rate of the measured values are you planning ?

The number of System IO variables can not be increased. Is there any particular need to use System IO variables ? Can ordinary variables (preferrably an array) be used ?

There is no need to store the difference between the current level and the threshold. You could just calculate this as you need it. This would reduce the number of variables needed.

 

Re:

Sorry for the long delay but I was away on holidays.
Yes I was planning on using C-Bus temp and light level sensors.
I was thinking of an update of every 3 minutes.
I am not very strong in Logic programming but I assumed that we would have to use System IO variables to record the output of the sensors.
Have I assumed correctly or can we store it in ordinary variables?
If we can then what exactly are System IO variables for?

 

You can, and should, use ordinary variables for storing this sort of data.

See the logic help file topic "System IO Functions" which explains the use of System IO Variables.

 

I look at the specified topic, but the Show System IO in my application is disabled, any reason why?

 

Figured it out, PAC does not allow System IO (allowed number of System IO is zero).

I use the Pages (on the PAC) for debugging and it is fine if I am monitoring GA values, but what about variables, how would I monitor their values?

 

The only option for a PAC project is to use the WriteLn statement.

You could create the project as a colour C-Touch project purely for testing purposes. This will then allow you to use graphics functions which will allow you to write values to the screen.