Man machine interface for power management control systems

• US 20030040897A1
• Filed: 03/08/2001
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/1996
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brett William Bolte, Cliff John Winkel, Dana Foster, Donald Richard Iii Brown, Donald S. Whitehead, Edgar Yee, Grady W. Broadnax Jr, Harshad Tanna, Indrajit Purkayastha, James Burke, J Lakshminarayana, John S. Vandevanter, Jose Bscheider, Kelley E. Gourley, Kumar B. Ravi, Mary A. Doddy, M Kailashnath, Patrick G. Salas, Pradeep Kumar Tamanna, Rao A. Rajeshwar, Sara Simplot, S.S. Lakshmi, Subhash Garg, Sudhir Mishra, Thomas Andrew Murphy, Veronica Kertesz, Wolfgang Meyer-Haack
• Original Assignee: Brett William Bolte, Cliff John Winkel, Dana Foster, Donald Richard Iii Brown, Donald S. Whitehead, Edgar Yee, Grady W. Broadnax Jr, Harshad Tanna, Indrajit Purkayastha, James Burke, J Lakshminarayana, John S. Vandevanter, Jose Bscheider, Kelley E. Gourley, Kumar B. Ravi, Mary A. Doddy, M Kailashnath, Patrick G. Salas, Pradeep Kumar Tamanna, Rao A. Rajeshwar, Sara Simplot, S.S. Lakshmi, Subhash Garg, Sudhir Mishra, Thomas Andrew Murphy, Veronica Kertesz, Wolfgang Meyer-Haack
• Inventors: Yee, Edgar, Tanna, Harshad, Burke, James, Foster, Dana, Kertesz, Veronica, Garg, Subhash, Bolte, Brett William, Tamanna, Pradeep Kumar, Simplot, Sara, Salas, Patrick G., Lakshminarayana, J., Murphy, Thomas Andrew, Bscheider, Jose, Kumar, B. Ravi, Doddy, Mary A., Whitehead, Donald S., Gourley, Kelley E., Rao, A. Rajeshwar, Brown, Donald Richard III, Mishra, Sudhir, Broadnax, Grady W. Jr., Winkel, Cliff John, Lakshmi, S.S., Kailashnath, M., Vandevanter, John S., Meyer-Haack, Wolfgang, Purkayastha, Indrajit
• Application Number:
  US09/802,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20030040897A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/18
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23262 DDE direct data exchange, DLL dynamic library linking
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25014 Fieldbus general name of bus connected to machines, detectors, actuators
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25428 Field device

Abstract

A power management and control system having a dynamic data exchange (DDE) server simulator for simulating supervisory management and control of electrical distribution systems is presented. The DDE server simulator is an alternative DDE server which simulates device values rather than acquiring data from real devices. The DDE server simulator generates and calculates device data from user generated electrical property profiles and updates DDE compliant clients. The DDE server simulator accepts the actual topics and item names and power profiles are user configurable with an option to apply white noise to the data, which provides true-to-life values to the user. These simulated measured values are used to calculate derived parameters and pre-set arrays provide wave form data in the proper format. Device events and trips can be interjected by the user and properly interpreted by the simulator. The data is passed to the clients via DDE.

Claims

1. A method of data exchange comprising:

designating a device;

associating a mnemonic name with a memory location, said mnemonic name indicative of said device;

configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

polling said device to acquire data therefrom; and

storing said data at said memory location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

time stamping said data.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

time synchronizing said device or said data acquired from said device.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a status of said device.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

changing said status when said device responds to a poll.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of polling comprises polling at multiple rates.

7. A method of data exchange comprising:

designating a device;

associating a memory location with said device;

configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

polling said device to acquire data therefrom;

storing said data at said memory location; and

time synchronizing said device or said data acquired from said device.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

time stamping said data.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

maintaining a status of said device.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

changing said status when said device responds to a poll.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein said step of polling comprises polling at multiple rates.

12. A method of data exchange comprising:

designating a device;

associating a memory location with said device;

configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

polling said devices to acquire data therefrom;

storing said data at said memory location;

maintaining a status of said device; and

changing said status when said device responds to a poll.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

time stamping said data.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said step of polling comprises polling at multiple rates.

15. An apparatus for data exchange comprising:

means for designating a device;

means for associating a mnemonic name with a memory location, said mnemonic name indicative of said device;

means for configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

means for polling said device to acquire data therefrom; and

means for storing said data at said memory location.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means for time stamping said data.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means for time synchronizing said device or said data acquired from said device.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means for maintaining a status of said device.

20. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said means for polling comprises:

means for polling at multiple rates.

19. The apparatus of claim IS further comprising:

means for changing said status when said device responds to a poll.

21. An apparatus for data exchange comprising:

means for designating a device;

means for associating a memory location with said device;

means for configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

means for polling said device to acquire data therefrom;

means for storing said data at said memory location; and

means for time synchronizing said device or said data acquired from said device.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

means for time stamping said data.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising:

means for maintaining a status of said device.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 further comprising:

means for changing status when said device responds to a poll.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein said means for polling comprises:

means for polling at multiple rates.

26. An apparatus for data exchange comprising:

means for designating a device;

means for associating a memory location with said device;

means for configuring a communication port for communication between said device and a server;

means for polling said device to acquire data therefrom;

means for storing said data at said memory location;

means for maintaining a status of said device; and

means for changing said status when said device responds to a poll.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising:

means for time stamping said data.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein said means for polling comprises:

means for polling at multiple rates.

29. A method of generating an electrical distribution elevation window indicative of the actual electrical distribution, comprising:

selecting a cabinet wizard;

locating said cabinet wizard in a window;

selecting component wizards;

locating said component wizards in said window at the same relative positions on said cabinet wizard as the actual electrical distribution;

selecting electrical device wizards; and

locating said electrical device wizards in said window at the same relative positions on said cabinet wizard as the electrical distribution.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein each of said electrical device wizards has a dialog box associated therewith, said dialog box providing a navigational link between said window and another window displaying detailed information for the actual corresponding electrical device.

31. The method of claim 29 further comprising:

logging information for the actual corresponding electrical device.

32. The method of claim 30 further comprising:

collating said information into a plurality of categories for analysis.

33. The method of claim 29 further comprising:

generating said electrical wizards.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein said step of generating further comprises:

configuring setup data for each of said electrical device wizards.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein said step of generating further comprises:

assigning an identifier for each of said electrical device wizards.

36. A method of power management comprising:

retrieving waveform data from a metering device; and

displaying, remotely from the metering device, at least two waveform parameters simultaneously on an amplitude axis and a phase axis.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein said at least two waveform parameters includes at least two of I_a, I_b, I_c, V_a, V_b, and V_c.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein said at least two waveform parameters includes I_a, I_b, I_c, V_a, V_b, and V_c.

39. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

capturing waveforms at the metering device to generate the waveform data.

40. A power management system comprising:

a first converter for converting a first protocol to a second protocol;

a second converter adapted for communicating in said second protocol and for converting said second protocol to a third protocol, said second converter for communicating with a power monitoring device or a control device in said third protocol; and

a server for communicating in said first protocol through said first and second converters with the power monitoring device or the control device, said server (a) processing data received from or (b) generating data transmitted to the power monitoring device or the control device to manage power use.

41. The power management system of claim 40 wherein said first converter is configured for communicating with at least one other power monitoring or control device in said second protocol.

42. The power management system of claim 40 wherein said first protocol is an Ethernet protocol.

43. The power management system of claim 40 further comprising a transfer protocol for transferring data packets at said first converter, said transfer protocol including:

a header associated with each of the data packets; and

an authentication field disposed within said header for determining data packet validity.

44. The power management system of claim 43 wherein said header further comprises an error status field.

45. The power management system of claim 43 wherein said header further comprises a number of bytes field.

46. The power management system of claim 43, wherein said header further comprises a checksum field.

47. The power management system of claim 40 wherein said second protocol is Ethernet protocol.

48. The power management system of claim 47 wherein said third protocol is a Modbus protocol.

49. The power management system of claim 40 wherein said second protocol is a Modbus protocol.

50. The power management system of claim 49 wherein said third protocol is a Commnet protocol.

51. The power management system of claim 42 wherein said second protocol is a Modbus protocol.

52. The power management system of claim 51 wherein said third protocol is a Commnet protocol.

53. A power management system comprising:

a converter for converting a first protocol to a second protocol, said converter for communicating with a power monitoring device or a control device in said second protocol;

a server for communicating in said first protocol and through said converter with the power monitoring device or the control device, said server (a) processing data received from or (b) generating data transmitted to the power monitoring device or the control device to manage power use; and

a tester for identifying and monitoring the power monitoring device or the control device.

54. The power management system of claim 53, wherein said tester queries to identify the power monitoring device or the control device.

55. The power management system of claim 54, wherein said tester writes configuration data for the power monitoring or the control device identified to a file which is accessed by said server to display data for the power monitoring device or the control device.

56. The power management system of claim 53, wherein said tester transmits data at multiple data rates and determines if the power monitoring device or the control device has been configured with an incorrect data transmission rate.

57. The power management system of claim 53, wherein said tester stores system configuration data and produces reports based on the system configuration data.

58. A power management system comprising:

a converter for converting a first protocol to a second protocol, said converter for communicating with a power monitoring device or a control device in said second protocol, said converter including a plurality of ports;

a communications abstraction layer which represents the plurality of communication ports included in said converter as virtual communication ports of a node; and

a server for communicating in said first protocol and through said converter with the power monitoring device or the control device, said server (a) processing data received from or (b) generating data transmitted to the power monitoring device or the control device to manage power use.

59. A transfer protocol for transferring data packets between a node and an Ethernet gateway device having a power monitoring device or a control device connected thereto, the transfer protocol comprising:

a header associated with each of the data packets;

an authentication field disposed within said header for determining data packet validity; and

wherein the Ethernet gateway device includes a plurality of ports and said header further comprises a gateway port number field for identifying which of said plurality of ports the data packet is to be transmitted on.

60. The transfer protocol of claim 59, wherein the data packet is a configuration packet for identifying configuration parameters to enable serial communications between the node and said Ethernet gateway device.

61. The transfer protocol of claim 60, wherein the gateway port number is assigned a first value when the node transmits new configuration parameters to the Ethernet gateway device.

62. The transfer protocol of claim 61, wherein the gateway port number is assigned the first value when the Ethernet gateway device acknowledges the new configuration parameters.

63. The transfer protocol of claim 61, wherein the gateway port numbered is assigned a second value when the Ethernet gateway device detects an error in the configuration parameters.

64. The transfer protocol of claim 60, wherein the gateway port number is assigned a third value when the node transmits a request for the current configuration parameters to the Ethernet gateway device.

65. The transfer protocol of claim 59, wherein said header further comprises a checksum field for providing a checksum for said header.

66. A transfer protocol for transferring data packets between a node and an Ethernet gateway device having a power monitoring device or a control device connected thereto, the transfer protocol comprising:

a header associated with each of the data packets;

an authentication field disposed within said header for determining data packet validity; and

wherein said header further comprises an error status field for indicating whether any serial communications errors have occurred.

67. A transfer protocol for transferring data packets between a node and an Ethernet gateway device having a power monitoring device or a control device connected thereto, the transfer protocol comprising:

a header associated with each of the data packets;

an authentication field disposed within said header for determining data packet validity; and

wherein said header further comprises a number of bytes field for identifying the number of bytes that follow said header.

68. A power management system comprising:

a converter for converting an Ethernet protocol to a Modbus protocol; and

a server for communicating in said Ethernet protocol and through said converter with a power monitoring device or a control device, said server (a) processing data received from or (b) generating data transmitted to the power monitoring device or the control device to manage power use.