U.C.ME-OPC™ Features

U.C.ME-OPC™ can concurrently dial up to four telephone numbers, play voice messages, send emails, SMS and messages to pagers, and play alarms to local multimedia loudspeakers.

U.C.ME-OPC™ allows two-way SMS and phone communication between users (such as technicians, field engineers or managers) and the control system. Users receive alarm notifications yet can also change set-points, acknowledge alarms, listen to real-time values, execute programs, and a range of other actions – directly from their cell phone or landline.

U.C.ME-OPC™ allows sending SMS over the Internet using SMS gateways. All you need is to contact an SMS Gateway service provider that will provide you the access to its SMS gateway service.

The effectiveness of alarm systems is often undermined by poorly configured alarms, static alarm settings that can’t adapt to dynamic plant conditions – and a host of other reasons. U.C.ME-OPC™’s sophisticated escalation procedure is a customizable alarm delivery feature that sends alarms to alternative recipients. When a recipient acknowledges the alarm, further unnecessary repeat alarm notifications are prevented – reducing nuisance alarms and reducing costs.

Using U.C.ME-OPC™’ you may define alarms which are based on a compound condition. For example: If  ((Tag1 > 100)  Or  (Tag2 <=250))  And  (Min(Tag1,Tag2,Tag3) < 10). This functionality can be used to reduce the time for the alarm definition/maintenance and also helps to avoid false and nuisance alarms.

The easiest way to automatically change OPC tag values based on date, day-of-week and time.

Create predefined notification scenarios based on date, day-of-week and time.

U.C.ME-OPC distinguishes between low severity alarms and high severity alarms. Alarms that are defined as High Severity will be handled with higher priority than the other alarms. For example, if you have 50 alarms in the alarms queue waiting to be sent to the recipients, the high severity alarm will bypass all other alarms and will be sent immediately. This feature ensures that high severity alarms will be sent to recipients in the shortest time, prevent damage, improve uptime and service.

If U.C.ME-OPC™ fails to send a text message (SMS) via one channel (for example: a faulty GSM cellular modem), it will automatically switch to a fallback channel (for example: a CDMA cellular modem). This functionality reduces the chances that a text message will not be sent and as a result, increases the system reliability.

By providing additional plant floor parameters sent to your cell phone, U.C.ME-OPC™ provides you with more, detailed information so you can have the complete picture at the moment of an alarm for a more accurate response. Alarms and alarm-snapshot information are stored in an MS-Access™ or MS-SQL™ database. The data may be viewed from any computer on the network using a standard browser, such as Internet Explorer, for offline analysis and reporting at a later time.

U.C.ME-OPC™ connects with any SCADA, including RSView™, Cimplicity™, iFix™, InTouch™, Citect™, Lookout™, ClearSCADA™, Infilink™, Wizcon™, PI™, DeltaV™ and more.

U.C.ME-OPC™ can be programmed to receive text messages (SMS) from remote devices. Taking this information, U.C.ME-OPC™ can create and send more detailed alarm messages for greater efficiency and to enable faster responses.

U.C.ME-OPC™ can be programmed to send alarm reminders as long as the alarm is still active. The word “Reminder” will be added to the alarm text or voice.The time interval between each reminder (5 seconds to 49 days) can be set by the system administrator.

Unlike other software packages that require continuous Internet connection to send email-to-cellular messages, U.C.ME-OPC™ uses native text messaging via cellular modems, which means your control system is completely protected from Internet security threats.

U.C.ME-OPC™ allows for alarm import from your SCADA with one click of a button. This makes your job easier, reducing the chance of errors in alarm definition.

U.C.ME-OPC™ can notify recipients according to predefined prioritized shift schedules. Users may also specify special days, such as holidays, in which the shift priorities are different from the regular week.

U.C.ME-OPC™ enables you to translate various texts to your local language. For example, the text “Alarm started” or “Alarm ended”, attached to the SMS message, may be translated to any language.

U.C.ME-OPC™ runs a watchdog mechanism with the OPC or DDE server software. When the server (SCADA) is not operating, U.C.ME-OPC™ will notify the appropriate users.

With U.C.ME-OPC™, administrators can define recipients. Each recipient has its own authorization and time intervals that the system can use to send alarm notifications.

With U.C.ME-OPC™, administrators can define recipient groups for easier alarm maintenance.

Using U.C.ME-OPC™, you may acknowledge alarms using your cell phone. Upon acknowledgment, a dedicated tag in your OPC server or SCADA application will change its value according to your settings. Possible tag value types are: Numeric and String. String tags may contain the recipient name who has acknowledged the alarm.

If many alarms behave similarly, users may define alarm families to facilitate alarm definition.

The service operates before a user has logged in and continues to operate after the user has logged off. If the service fails, recovery actions can be set up, such as restarting the service automatically or restarting the computer (for computers running Windows® 2000, XP and Vista only).

U.C.ME-OPC™ communicates with multiple OPC servers and with industrial automation software (SCADA) via OPC or DDE.