Before you mail, just find your answers with the following FAQ section. For more details, refer Feature Details and Feature Matrix sections.
Q: Which Edition is Right For me ?
Flex-eSuite has four different Editions to cater the need of different categories of Users.
Monitoring Edition: This Edition is for users with very small budget who just wish to view online data, control analog or digital value and log time-stamped data for application such as PC based Data Logging.
Reporting Edition:This Edition is for users who wish to archive data from existing SCADA/HMI application and generate professional quality reports. This edition doesn't provide online monitoring and time-stamp trendning. It generates thousands type of interval information with hundreds of pre-built types of reports with avg, max, min, cumulative information.
Standard Edition: The standard Edition may be used as stand-alone SCADA/HMI with professional quality reporting and information archiving facility. This has all the features of Monitoring and Reporting Editions.
Professional Edition: The Professional Edition has all the features of Standard Edition with advanced interval condition based reporting.
Q: I am already having SCADA/HMI application, do I need Flex-eSuite?
If you need to archive your data as MIS information, you need Flex-eSuite. Flex-eSuite's Reporting Edition is specially suitable for people having SCADA/HMI application already running on their PC. It connects to the SCADA/HMI application thorough OPC interface and archive real-time data into interval information. You don't need any external database, as it includes high performance embedded SQLite database which converts your data into information and stores it for reporting purpose for years.
Moreover you need not to store your data as Excel Files and bother about various types of reports required for your Management Information System. It has many advance features required for such users.
Q: I don't have any SCADA/HMI yet. Should I purchase Standard Edition or should purchase Reporting Edition along with a Third Party SCADA?
Flex-eSuite doesn't have advance SCADA functionalities. So, if your application demands a high degree of supervisory & control action such as PID algorithms, sequential control logic or animated mimics, you should go for a third party SCADA with OPC Server Interface. In such case, you may purchase Flex-eSuite Reporting Edition for archiving and reporting purpose.
On the other hand, If your application requires Online Monitoring, Data Acquisition, Archiving, Reporting with simple ON/OFF type control, Changing Analog Value, you should purchase Standard Edition.
Q: I have very tight budget and my application is just logging parameters from temperature controllers. What should I use?
You can use Flex-eSuite's Monitoring Edition. It starts just at $99. It is used for online monitoring, trending, archiving of time-stamped data. You can also use it for changing Set Point of your temperature controllers. Most important, It also gives you a Free MODBUS OPC Server .
Q: What is difference between Data Points, Time-Stamped Flex-eTags and Interval Type Flex-eTags? How do I decide the required numbers of Data Points?
Data Points are OPC-DA Tags which represent real time values of process or device parameters. A Data Point is mapped with one or more Flex-eTags for displaying, archiving or logging and reporting purpose. The mapped Flex-eTags are of two types- First, Time-Stamped Flex-eTags, which are used for displaying real time values and historical trends as time-stamped value. The Second is Interval Type Flex-eTags, which is used for converting time-stamped value into interval information such as Avg, Max, Min, Cumulative, Rate, State ON/OFF Time, State Change Count and more. These types of Flex-eTags are used for MIS Reporting Purpose such as hourly production, shift wise maximum. So, if you are using Flex-eSuite for Online Monitoring, you need all process value as the Data Points which you need to display and store for historical trends. On the other hand, you are using it for reporting purpose, you only need those data points which you require for MIS reporting.
Q: I am using approximately 500 Tags in my SCADA/HMI and want to purchase Flex-eSuite Reporting Edition. Should I purchase a 512 Data Points for Reporting Edition or less?
You don't need to archive all of your 500 Tags. In fact, you require only those data points which you need for MIS reporting. We have experienced that people require only half of their SCADA Tags for reporting.
Q: Which Edition is recommended for Energy Monitoring Application?
As Energy Monitoring Application doesn't require SCADA features and just requires logging of electrical and energy parameters, you may go for Standard Edition without any third party SCADA.
However, if you wish to implement Advanced Energy Management Features such as load balancing, you may choose third party SCADA along with the Reporting Edition.
Q: Do I need to purchase OPC Server separately for device connectivity?
No and Yes, based on your specific condition.
If you are using Reporting Edition, Flex-eSuite connects to your Existing SCADA/HMI and doesn't communicate with your devices. However, you must ensure that your SCADA/HMI works as OPC Server.
If you are using Standard/Monitoring/Professional Edition, you get a free license of MOD-dConn or ASC-dConn OPC Server (for MODBUS or ASCII devices respectively). Most of PLC, SCANNER, Data Acquisition Modules support MODBUS protocol (AB, ABB, Schneider, Mitsubishi and a long list). However, if you have device which supports some other protocol, you may take the OPC Server from the vendor it self. OPC, being the de-facto standard today, are generally provided by most of the vendors at free of cost (or a very reasonable cost). The
resource section provides a comprehensive list of such vendors.
Q: What is Interval Condition Based Reporting supported in Professional Edition?
Interval Conditions are applied on the Interval Information during the aggregation. Take the example of Availability Based Tariff, in which energy consumption of different intervals are segregated according to the Avg Frequency of that interval. With Normal Aggregation, you can not get this information. However, with this feature, you just define interval conditions for different avg frequency of interval. During aggregating, you apply interval condition to get energy consumption for different Avg Frequency Bands.