The Portal is not only a tool for monitoring but is also used for controlling process components. The first example with using the Online Values function in relation to viewing all of the valve process components in the configuration can be used to illustrate how to send commands.
In the illustration below, we’ve called up a list of all our valve process components by using the Online Values button in the Portal’s main menu and then filtering for all objects whose name begins with “v”.
Now we want to send the command OPEN to the first object in the list, v1. The name is underlined which indicates a link to another page. We click on the link and are brought onto the page for controlling the object as shown below.
Now click on the Edit button to open the command change page where we choose the command to be sent to v1 from the drop down list as seen below. Finish by clicking OK.
After clicking the OK button above, the previous page is displayed, and now the Close button is clicked. Finally, the original page for online values for all the “v” objects is displayed once again. Observing the state of v1, we now see that its state has changed to OPEN.
The procedure described above is basically the same for controlling analogue process components where set point, alarm limits, etc. need to be changed.