One of the most impressive functions of the Red Lion Data Station Plus is its built-in data logger. Any piece of data from any connected device can be stored on the CompactFlash card, along with a time and date stamp, for later review. This allows data to be collected as a means to improving performance at a manufacturing facility, or to provide a historical analysis of
remotely located processes.
 
Even if you don’t need “proof” of their particular process, you can still use the logging facility as a means to determine the sequence of events that caused a machine failure. This can be used to prevent the problem from happening again, or as in some cases, to determining who is at fault after they’ve delivered a perfectly working machine to the end user.
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The DSP’s data logger stores information in simple CSV (comma separated variables) file format, allowing common applications such as Microsoft Excel or Access to open the files.
This means that the DSP collects the data in a format that IT managers can immediately use.
 
The built-in web server offers a quick and easy method for manual file viewing and retrieval, while a simple and free utility is available to have a PC automatically synchronize the files to
its hard drive for permanent storage.
  Don’t tell the Data Station Plus that it doesn’t have a display! It thinks that it’s just like its cousins, the G3 series of color touchscreen HMIs. Indeed, you can program the DSP as if it
had a touchscreen.
 
This “virtual HMI” facility is ideal for remote applications that don’t require a local display, but require that an operator see what the process is doing from their PC. The built-in web
server allows you to use a standard web browser as the interface, which means no special software needs to be installed and maintained to access this feature. By using the PC’s
mouse, the operator can control the equipment as if he were operating a touchscreen.
 
The web server also allows the data log files to be viewed and downloaded. Simply click the link for the log file of interest, and it opens in Excel.
  Instead of waiting for a phone call from an employee to alert you of a machine-down condition, the Data Station Plus can be programmed to send an email, or even a text message directly to your cell phone.
 
If an Ethernet connection is unavailable (or their IT manager is too paranoid to provide an Ethernet connection to the outside) the DSP can communicate via a landline or cellular modem!
 
Maybe you have a response team that’s always on call, and will configure the DSP to alert everyone on the team. The DSP’s unique conferencing facility allows any response to
a text message to be copied to everyone on the distribution list eg. if Bob says “I’m taking care of it.”, the DSP automatically forwards his response to everyone on the team!
  The Data Station Plus has a unique “port sharing” facility, allowing it to act as a remote serial port for a PC. This allows a programmer to remotely reconfigure a PLC from anywhere in the
world, as if it were connected to the serial port of his computer!
 
The DSP also supports many standard Ethernet-based protocols. For example, it supports SMTP (email), SNTP (networked time synchronization), DHCP (automatic assignment of IP
addresses) and PPP (allows TCP/IP data to be sent via serial or modem connections).
  At first glance, the Data Station Plus doesn’t look like a controller; after all, it doesn’t have any I/O. However, with its built-in alarm and event handling, the DSP can perform actions by
reading and writing tags mapped to I/O. For the ultimate in flexibility, Crimson 2 (free software) allows simple or complex C-like programs to be written that can control the DSP itself, as well as the attached I/O.
 
The DSP also provides the ability to collect values from one or more devices, perform 32-bit floating-point math on those values, and then store or send the result to yet another device.
This allows advanced math capabilities to be added to existing systems without altering the PLC program, or to add math capability to smaller, limited PLCs, servos, etc.