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The Top 6 Things Seen at the Honeywell User’s group 2016 By Jason Baum   Uniformance Insight – an HTML 5 web trending and graphics for PHD Honeywell’s new Web graphics and trending tool, Uniformance Insight R101 is officially released as of the Honeywell User’s Group.  I tested this tool out, and it is a great step in the right direction.   Like Uniformance Process Studio, it requires a non-web, Uniformance-Insight-version HMIWeb Display Builder installation on a specific-version Windows PC in order to build the graphics.  However, the trends are built right in the web display and, are fully-featured with the ability to add and remove tags, change scales and time ranges, see hairlines, and change colors and thicknesses of the lines.  Uniformance Insight also has the ability to stack or arrange trends and graphics on a single screen called “Workspaces” or dashboards.   A feature I love is the […]

As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two… Sir Norman Wisdom   Dear Process Wise Friend, Manipulating a hosts file By Taylor Dunn   The hosts file is an alternative to using DNS and is the default location that the Windows OS uses in name resolution. It must be setup in each individual server and is particularly useful in connecting to servers outside of the domain or where no domain is setup. In general a hosts file is setup with the IP address, server name, and a description.   123.123.123.123     <Server Name>          #<Description>   Windows doesn’t care whether <Server Name> is the actual server name or whether it is a made-up name. In projects where a redundant OPC server is kept and is only used at scheduled times such as patching and maintenance you may consider this approach […]

Solution Focused   There is a book called 10-Minute Toughness written by Jason Selk that drives home an important concept.   Most people, including me, find it very easy to focus on problems.  If you have an itch on your head, for example, your mind will be completely ignorant of your foot.  If you find yourself face-to-face with a skunk, you rarely will think about having saved up to 15% or more on your car insurance.  Focusing on problems is natural.   However, Jason Selk instructs us that we should drive our minds to relentlessly think of solutions.  He says to ask yourself this question, “What is one thing I could do that could help this situation?”  You don’t have to have 100 things, but you should always have at least one solution on the board.  In response to your question, you should never say, “I don’t know.”  You may not […]

Dear Process Wise Friend,   The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers very good security training for individuals directly responsible for, or consulting in, industrial control systems.  Unlike the usual vendor-offered “training”, which usually turns out to be a sales presentation on a software product, the DHS training is very informative and very in-depth.  The instructors are knowledgeable and also look nerdy to boot – bonus!   There are web-based training classes (16 hours), local instructor-led classes (1-3 days), and a week-long cybersecurity boot camp in Idaho Falls, Idaho.   How much does it cost?  Nothing!  The Department of Homeland Security covers the bill.  There are a couple of stipulations however, if I understand it correctly.  First, you have to sign-up way ahead of time (months).  This gives adequate time for a background check (Kim Jong-un need not apply).  Also, after you have taken a course, I believe you […]

Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them. Samuel Palmer     Office 2016 and the Honeywell Uniformance PHD Excel Add-in   I was recently thrilled with the release of Uniformance Process Studio and Excel Companion version 320, because I could finally use it with Office 2013.  Since then, I upgraded to UPS/Excel Companion 320.2.  When I had the opportunity to upgrade Excel to version 2016, I took the opportunity, and found, to my glee, that my Excel Companion for PHD continued to work with no problems.  However, I got lucky!  It turns out that if you have Office 2016 installed already, then think, “I think I will install the Excel Companion.”  It won’t work!  The installer says it does not find office, 2007, 2010, or 2013.  We have tried various back-door techniques (as has Honeywell) and have come up empty.  The only way it seems to work is if […]

The easiest job in the world has to be coroner. Surgery on dead people. What’s the worst thing that could happen? If everything went wrong, maybe you’d get a pulse Dennis Miller   Dear Process Wise Friend, Engineering Unit Conversion in Uniformance Process Studio By Taylor Dunn   Honeywell Uniformance PHD allows you to convert engineering units as it is being collected. PHD also allows you to keep the data in the original unit and convert it later when it is being viewed in Uniformance Process Studio.   In order to make a conversion in Uniformance Process Studio go to the PHD Configuration Tool and find the desired tag. In the tag definition add the Engineering Unit, save the tag, and send the tag to PHD. If the Engineering unit does not exist, custom engineering units may be created.   Now in Uniformance Process Studio the tag can be trended. […]

 There is nothing as great as working with people you can trust, and that is one commonality that all Process Wise friends share, which is a deep sense of integrity.  One study tried to determine what characteristics that highly-successful people all have in common.  I suppose they were looking for a secret that if others applied would lead to similar successful results. Intelligence, it seems, was not a good indicator of success.  Neither was height nor looks (there goes the advantage I thought I had). Also, hard work surprisingly is often performed by the leader and layman alike.  One characteristic did shine through: Integrity.   The dictionary defines integrity as “honesty, uprightness, and morality.”  I like to think of it as living up to your commitments, being honest, and doing the right and fair thing just because it is right and not because you’re legally bound to do it.  The attainment […]

You’ve paid for great Honeywell products, how do you make them work for you? At Process Wise, we have the expertise to help you get the most from your Honeywell products.  Your PHD historian is collecting all kinds of data from your plant, but what is it doing for you?  We can help you identify the proper Honeywell tools to visualize and analyze your plant data. We can show you how to use Uniformance Excel Add-in with custom macro coding to create full-featured applications using Microsoft Excel. We can help you use Uniformance Process Studio and its graphic capabilities to create visualizations of your processes. We can help you use Experion Backup and Restore to properly prepare for system restores or disaster recoveries. We can help you display read-only Experion graphics on your intranet using E Server. We can help you prepare for Uniformance Insight and its exciting web capabilities. […]

“Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it.  Now quiet, they’re about to announce the lottery numbers!” Dear Friend, To be everywhere is to be nowhere The other day, I was reviewing a classic philosophical book on success.  It is called, “Letters from a Stoic” written by Seneca. Among the great advice given in this book is this gem that really struck me: “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”  This means that to achieve excellence in any area requires focus, and that we cannot focus on every aspect of our lives at once.  It made me think of really successful people: Einstein, Usain Bolt, Shakespeare, Mozart, Churchill, etc.   I hadn’t really thought about it, but these people excelled in one area and, not so much in others.  There are a lot of motivated people, and perhaps you are one of them, but […]

Dear Friend,   I hope you are faring well and have great goals and expectations as this fall begins and we move on towards the end of 2010.  We at Vision Stone are particularly blessed and are looking forward to even better things in the future.   Items forgotten on your last PHD upgrade! At Vision Stone, we don’t just go by the same old, tired manual when doing upgrades, but instead we are constantly learning and improving.  As a result, the steps in the standard installation documentation that comes with PHD are not as good as the immense improvements we made to it years ago.  And, the work of years past, is not nearly as good or as thorough as the work we are doing now.  When you do your next upgrade, whoever does it (I’ll bet you can guess who will do it best), here are some steps […]