Turn your phone into a mini-HMI

Sending alarm messages from industrial plants to mobile phones is not new. But a Danish company has now gone a step further by developing a technology which can display customised graphs of plant parameters on the phone, and allows users to control the plant from their phones.

Resource Software Engineering`s msacOne (mobile supervision and control) system uses WAP or i-mode phones to display information tailored to the individual phone user. It can show status data and setpoints that are relevant to them, with the displays edited to fit the display of their phone.

To ensure that the system is secure, passwords prevent unauthorised access, and there is a limit on the length of time that a connection stays open without user activity

The technology is based on two software tools: a runtime management system that links to a plant`s Scada system via an OPC server; and a designer program that tailors the data to the users` needs.

In one of its first applications, the msacOne system is being used to monitor and control PLCs in a Danish printed circuit board plant.

• A Californian company, Pacific Microinstruments, has launched a similar system which monitors (but does not control) plants on Java-enabled phones and handheld computers. The company`s Extra*Digit Mobile SPC Suite processes plant data and transmits it for display as charts, histograms or numerical data on Java-equipped mobile equipment.