"Diadem" AND "DataPlugin"

Question

Hello everyone:
I have data logged on binary files. Each binary data file (*.cvd) has its corresponding xml header file (*.cvx) which describe the data on the binary file plus other Logging information.
I have written a short Dataplugin for Diadem 10.0 to read these binary files into the Data Portal.
The binary files contain data from Real (32-bit floating point) channels, Integer (32-bit) Channels and Boolean (1 bit) Channels.
Boolean channels are all packed into a 32-bit DW (type U32).
On the header file (xml formated - can be read with Worpad) there is a description for each channel (Channel Id No, channel name, type, size ect...)
Once I got the Real, Integer and Packed Boolean channels loaded into the Diadem Data Portal I need to extract each individual "bit" from each Packed Boolean channel and create new channels (U8) on the data portal for each of the Boolean channels.
Please find attached the data plugin (Read_M80-M_data.vbs), an example binary data file (1823310_00_00_47.cvd) and its corresponding header file (1823310_00_00_47.cvx).
When you load the data using the given data Pluging in Diadem. you can see that the Double Word 101 has been imported as a "Packed DW 101" instead of a  specific channel name given on the header file. This is because each bit on that 32-bit DW represents a digital or boolean channel from the PLC (Process Controller).
Data store on channel "Packed DW101"  contains the data for 32 digital/boolean channels which are described on the header file (from Channel id =101 to Channel id = 132).
Since the data file could have 100s of Packed Boolean channels with > 3000 samples each.
The  $1M Dollar Question is:
How do we "Efficiently" extract each bit of each Packed Boolean Channel sample and load it in to Diadem Portal (This will not be Direct Access Channels I gess, but created channels after we load the data file).
Any help on this will be highly appreciated
Kind Regards
Felix.
BSc. MSc. Felix Beltran MIEE
Control & Instrumentation Engineer
CONVERTEAM Ltd.
formerly ALSTOM Power Conversion
Process Industries Department
Rugby CV21 1BU
United Kingdom
Attachments:
M80M Dataplugin.zip ‏269 KB

Answer 1

Felix,
I looked at your plugins and did a few edits to do what I think you want to do. First, its possible to split the digital channel while reading the data from file. You can use bitmasks to retrieve single bits. The "trick" is to define one channel for each digital channel. One thing is not obvious : As the base data types for dataplugins don't support "bit" you need to use e.g. U32. Now you have several of those you need at the same position in the file. This can be achieved by using one binary block for each channel.
The block need to be set up so that the block "knows" that in between the values of the channel you use, there are gaps. Those gaps result from the fact that the file has a layout where you have chn1, chn2, chn3 and so forth. This is configured by setting the "BlockWidth" property
In addition to the bit handling I added a few lines of code to show how you can create waveforms. Waveforms are channels with attached timing information. You can use them as long as deltaT in the time channel is constant. I used delta T from the XML header and added a dummy statement to calculate the offset (Tzero) This calculation probably needs adjustment (See line ""Base_Offset = Base_Rate*100.*(-1.))
I have attached the updated code below.
Please let me know if this works for you.
Andreas
Attachments:
Customer_M80M.zip ‏3 KB