labview advice needed !!!

[dazzooo]

for my collage project i am building an oee monitoring system, the plan is to use an ethernet daq, have a server Pc and a client Pc, all on the same network 

1. Server Pc 

2. Client Pc- acting as a hmi for machine operator http://www.audon.co.uk/winxp/cupcp80.html

3. Ethernet Daq -  https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/model/ni-9425.html

the plan is to run the program on the server pc, will i need and I/O server and what type of variables will i have to use so they can communicate with the server PC ??

i was also thinking of using the data dashboard app to view it remotely or is this possibly, and will i need to accuire more software, as it is a collage project funds are low !!!

any help or sugestions welcome ..... 

[Nathan_S]

Hmm, I'm still a little unclear on the question.  You want to run the program on the server but be able to subscribe via the client computer?  I think the easiest way that I can think to do it is Shared Variables.  They are easily added to a project and configured in a user-friendly menu.  Code can run on the server to talk to the client (not sure how your client computer works, same as regular computer I guess...)

What's the channel count?  Are you planning on running a LV app you wrote on both machines (or is that the purpose of the data dashboard?).  Data dashboard is free BTW.  https://forums.ni.com/t5/Smartphones-Tablets-and-Mobile/Data-Dashboard-for-LabVIEW-iOS-Android-Windo...

Post some more questions if you have any.  Hopefully this little bit helps you out.

[jyang72211]

Not sure why you need a server computer.  With a ethernet DAQ, you can access all the data from the data device through the client PC through IP address.

[PhillipBrooks]

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@dazzooo wrote:

for my collage project i am building an oee monitoring system, the plan is to use an ethernet daq, have a server Pc and a client Pc, all on the same network 

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By ooe, do you mean Overall Equipment Effectiveness?

[dazzooo]

thanks for all the feed back 

was thinking i would need a server pc as the panel pc at the machine may not be fast enought to run a large labview program, i also want the production manager to be able to see the programe ??

i was going to recoard all activity on a excel spread sheet or data logger ??  any sugestions or help 

if i use shared variables, will both pcs be able to read them and also will the data dashboards be able to read shared variables ??

all suggestions welcome ??

[Nathan_S]

If this is a big project, the server would be the key, but if not jyang hit the nail on the head. 

If you want to log to spreadsheet, use the Report Generation Toolkit or create a report using native LV VI's (even the Express VI's do a decent job if there's not a ton of data).

For the Shared Variables, you need to create some sort of DAQmx Read or something from the main VI and then write that to a SV.  Create a reader SV on the client and do what you want with it there.  It seems like there should be a way to implicitly link channels to SV's without having to come through DAQmx, I'm just not familiar with it.  Maybe someone else could comment to that.  Distributed System Manager or something?  iono...

[josborne]

I did a lot of work with OEE a while ago.  And if I recall correctly, OEE is always calculated over a period of time.  So you can't simply ask "what is the OEE now?" ... you need to ask "what is the OEE from the last 30 mins" or something similar.  This makes me wonder if you are going to need some kind of database (or at least some historical datalogging) such that the user or supervisor can query the OEE for their desired time period (eg maybe the user wants to know what the OEE was yesterday?!).

Good luck and keep us posted.  Sounds like a challenging and interesting project.

[dazzooo]

thanks for the comments and help ??

project is in early stages yet, but the OEE will be calculated for each shift in the factory, the plan is to have a print out of OEE preformance at the end of each shift, 

this is why i was thinking i would need a database, i was thinking of trying to use excel or is there a way of creating a labview database ???

the supervisor in the factory wants a graph or spreadsheet at the end of each showing machine stopages or faults ??

is it possible to do this in labview or will i need to get some adition software ???

i am putting together a parts list at the moment so all help and suggestions very much appricatied ???

[ShalimarA]

If you're looking for communication with a database, you can also look into the Database Connectivity Toolkit. You mentioned that you had a limited budget but this is something that perhaps your university may already have. 

https://www.ni.com/en/shop/labview/select-edition.html

[josborne]

My advice for any project like this:  KEEP IT SIMPLE. 

Adding complexity will add risk.  Keeping it simple will increase your chances for success.

If this were a production system to be used by a customer, I would use a "real" relational database like Oracle or MS SQL Server.  And then use the LabVIEW Database Toolkit mentioned above.  But if you've never used a relational database before, it will add a lot of time and complexity to your project.

Since this is a student project, you may just want to record your production data to a file ... e.g. one file per shift.  You could name the file by date and shift and that would allow you to easily generate reports from the data.  You could use a standard text file or a TDMS file (TDMS is a National Instruments standard for file storage).  To generate reports, you can use the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit.

Best of luck!