Entries for the 'Oil and Gas' Category

One of the great, and underused, features in TIA Portal is the Network Topology tab of "Devices and Networks." It can enable you to accomplish a number of advanced tasks while simultaneously providing more in-depth network diagnostics. Today, I want to quickly show you how you can use Network Topology to configure a MRP-based Ring Network in TIA Portal. Why Ring Topology? There are many reasons why one might consider using a ring topology for your network. The most common one is ...

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Ever wish you could create a project with optional hardware modules? Or add hardware in the field with any programming? Configuration Control within TIA Portal allows you to configure hardware modules and even I/O network objects to be optional so that a user can, at run-time, choose what hardware should be used.

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For anyone who has spent much time working with the SIMATIC S7-400H, it becomes quickly apparent that the devil is often in the details. You find that there are many small settings and 'tricks' that you uncover while setting up redundancy, redundant Modbus communication, redundant communication interfaces for I/O, configuring hardware, etc., that you need to get things running. Sometimes those small details are hard to catch. In the words of my wise colleague Lillian Walker, "The re...

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In a previous blog I discussed programming motion control with a S7-1500 with Technology Objects in TIA Portal. This is a very popular method of doing the motion control on the PLC. We can also offload the motion control to the drive control unit using Siemens’ library motion blocks such as SINA_POS and allow the PLC to control more drives. The Siemens library motion blocks are also available for S7-300 PLCs, which do not support the same Technology Objects as S7-1500 PLC...

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Siemens will be hosting their Oil & Gas Conference in Houston on March 30 and 31. The two-day event brings together over 700 Siemens customers, executives, technology leaders, and industry experts to explore innovative technologies and new challenges facing the Oil and Gas Industry. If you're attending the Oil and Gas conference, stop by DMC's booth and don't miss the three presentations we'll be leading. Using TIA Portal and the S7-1200 for Simplified, Distributed Cont...

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I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the Siemens Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Conference in Denver. This was Siemens' first year holding the conference in Denver and there was an enthusiastic response of over 120 attendees.  The goal of the day-long event on July 28 was to promote discovery and discussion around the Oil and Gas industry's emerging automation and controls trends. All the presentations were well attended, offering a great opportunity to network in the area an...

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Update: View my presentatation here.  Siemens' mobile showcase will be stopping by Denver on July 28 for the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Conference. This free event offers a day of discovery and dialogue on the latest emerging trends around automation, instrumentation, and controls for the Oil and Gas industry. Register here.  If you're planning to attend the conference stop by DMC's booth and don't miss my presentation: Powerful SCADA solutions: Is ...

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DMC recently attended the 2015 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held May 4 - 7 in Houston. Over 94,700 attendees in offshore energy from around the world gathered at NRG Park to exchange ideas and opinions advancing scientific and technical knowledge for the safe, environmentally friendly and sustainable development of offshore oil and gas resources. DMC opened a Houston office this year, making this conference especially valuable. Ryan Taylor and I spent a day at the ...

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DMC was recently invited to speak at the 2015 Siemens Oil & Gas Conference in Houston, TX. The conference is an opportunity for industry partners to share knowledge on how Siemens delivers efficiency and reliability to the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of oil production and explore solutions that do more with less. Since DMC opened an office in Houston this year, the conference was a perfect opportunity to meet more people in the area. Jason Mayes and I attended and...

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