[foxboro] Tricon vs. Trident Communication with Fox IA

Dennis,
        This doesn't solve your problem but I thought it might be
helpful for others, and possibly you in future implementations.  We
decided to install Tricons instead of Tridents because the TRICON's can
be connected to the Foxboro system as a nodebus Ethernet station.  With
an ACM card installed in a TRICON slot you can run Foxguard Station
software that makes it possible for you to configure/map TRICON values
to standard IA blocks that are like AIN, CIN blocks you use in any CP.
Once converted to Object Manager variables they can be displayed or
connected just like any other value from a CP.
        As a station, Foxguard handles all of the communication and
processor loading.  It also makes the TRICON diagnostics available from
within System Management.  So for all practical purposes it looks like a
CP and the TRICON I/O cards look like FBM's.  A TRICON might be overkill
for a small process SIS but we put multiple processes into one TRICON
and it has been more economical than multiple TRIDENT's with multiple
gateways.  Last I heard there was no plan to make a station type
interface to FOX IA for the Tridents.
        When I heard that the TRICON's would be integrated onto the MESH
via FBM232's I thought that it would be a good thing but the
configuration block types and data mapping is totally different and
would require a lot of work on our part to convert.  We would also lose
the ability to diagnose and alarm system problems with the TRICON that
the FOXGUARD currently provides.  That isn't available by default via
the FBM232 interface. =20
        There is word in the wind that Foxboro plans to port the
FOXGUARD, as a station, to the MESH network and that would be great for
us, and I hope many others also.  It allows a much tighter integration
between SIS and the DCS systems.  The TRICON's still perform the SIS
protection regardless of communication with IA but IA can be used as the
HMI/Alarm/Historian for the TRICON.  We implement pre-SIS strategies in
the DCS that try to keep the process from ever reaching an SIS trip
condition and also take post SIS action in the DCS after an SIS trip to
put the process control blocks in the best position for a process
restart when the SIS trip clears.  The high speed communication link
between the two systems makes that pretty seamless.
        Again, I know this doesn't solve your immediate problem but hope
you and others may be able to use the information for future decisions.

        Alex, this is my plug for developing an integrated Foxguard-like
solution on the MESH.  I believe it is a selling point for both TRICONEX
and Foxboro going forward.  My colleague, Dave Caldwell, discovered the
hard way that the FBM232 interface is a clumsy, there is no migration
path from FoxGuard, and it doesn't offer the System Management features
we have become accustomed to for diagnostics of the TRICON.

Cheers,
Tom VandeWater
Control Systems Developer/Analyst
Dow Corning Corporation
Carrollton, KY   USA

Afternoon,
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We recently installed and commissioned our first and second SIS
(Trident) system at our refinery.  The engineering/integration firm
hired for the project implemented communications between the I/A and the
Trident using MODBUS and 100's of IIN blocks tied to CIN's for display
and alarming.  My question is whether anyone has implemented MODBUS to a
Trident using a PAKIN block and then linking to CIN's for diplay and
alarming.  Our current setup puts a tremendous load on our CP  because
each status (single bit) is being represented/transmitted as an integer
value, causing overruns every 15 seconds.  I tried a test using a 32 bit
packed interger value from the trident and bringing that into a PAKIN
block but it doesn't appear that the PAKIN can decode the integer into a
32 binary word.  Any suggestions???

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Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

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Dennis Stone

Process Control Engineer

Hunt Refining Company

dstone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:dstone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>=20

(205) 391-3303

(205) 391-3564 FAX

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