PROTOR consists of one or more remote data acquisition systems (RMDAS units). Typically a single RMDAS unit may monitor an individual main turbine or a number of pumps or fans. The RMDAS units are connected together by standard ethernet This allows the units to be mounted close to the transducer signal source and hence avoid large cabling costs.

PCs or workstations on the network may then be used to view the data. The data collected by the RMDAS units may either be vibration data which is captured synchronously sampled to the rotational speed of the machine or plant analogue signals (such as MW, Rotor Current, temperatures or pressures).

One PC on the network may be an Access PC to allow remote access to the PROTOR data either via modem or WAN.

How is PROTOR Data Presented?

A PROTOR user may view data collected by PROTOR on any PC or workstation on the network with the PROTOR User software installed. There are numerous displays available and a few examples are available by clicking here. The PROTOR User interface is powerful yet easy to use for casual users. It is a graphical user interface where selection of display type and channels is by mouse selection from pull-down or pop-up menus. The PROTOR User interface was designed in conjunction with power plant control room engineers. PROTOR provides a number of graphical interface modules for specific functions.

• Operator module provides mainly real-time data displays such as Mimics, Trends, Waterfalls, Orbits.
  
• Historic displays data from the historical database.
  
• Prodem is for diagnostics and displays full frequency spectra and
  time histories
  
• Config is a configuration editor

PROTOR supports a number of different levels of access on a per user basis, typically Expert, Engineer and Operator. This allows the system manager to control who can access configuration settings, create new layouts, change screen setups and the like.

PROTOR Data Storage

Data is continuously acquired and displayed by PROTOR. Data is also saved to disk for long-term storage and historical presentation. For time-based states such as Onload or Barring then the user defines the logging rate to disk. For variable speed states such as runups or rundowns then all data is saved to disk. Data is stored in binary, fast-access, formatted files which maintain a “first-in first-out” cyclic storage scheme. A database is also maintained to provide pointers to significant events within this file structure such as start of events, alarms, startups and shutdowns so that data may be easily retrieved later.

Each RMDAS system contains a sufficiently large hard disk to allow several years worth on data to be stored online. The archive system also contains exchangeable media for backup or archive, typically a magneto optical disk. Data is written to this media on a daily basis as a backup. The amount of space available on this media is reported to the users and they are warned when it becomes full. This distributed database system allows a user to access data regardless of where it is stored.

Data may be extracted from the PROTOR database and file system either in Prosig DATS file format or in delimited ASCII files suitable for importing in MS-Excel or similar.

What Can PROTOR Measure?

Where necessary the PROTOR hardware may provide any excitation voltage or constant current supply.

PROTOR treats input signals as either dynamic channels or static channels. Dynamic channels are acquired and analyzed with reference to a "once per revolution" tachometer or keyphasor signal. The tachometer signal provides the phase reference and is used to generate the sampling clock signal so that the acquired data is order locked.. For each dynamic channel PROTOR acquires and analyzes 8 cycles of data at regular time or speed intervals and produces a results packet which contains:

• Overall Level
• Amplitude and Phase measurements for orders 1 to 4
• Amplitude and phase measurements of another specified order
• Subsynchronous component and frequency

Static channels or Plant analogue signals may also be acquired. These may be direct voltage inputs, current loops, thermocouples etc. These signals are acquired at a constant clock rate and averaged.

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