Once you have installed and activated your instance of D2MS Community Edition, you can use the OPC Server Simulator to test D2MS without the need of any real hardware. Please see below a demonstration video, and step-by-step instructions.
0. Update your D2MS version
First of all, we suggest that you upgrade your D2MS instance to the latest version (V2.6.3).
Download the two zip files from the above link. Firstly, extract the contents of Community 2.6.3.zip into the OAJ folder of your existing D2MS installation, overwrite the older version of OAJ.exe, and combine the data folder. Secondly, extract the D2MS_Updater 2.6.2.zip to anywhere on your computer, e.g., the Downloads folder, run the D2MS Updater V2.6.exe. This will patch the D2MS database to work with the latest OAJ.exe
1. Install the OPC Server Simulator.
Simply run the installed included in the D2MS packages, or download the installer from the official website.
If you see a notice that reads "You must install OPC Core Components Redistributable" as shown in the screenshot above, it is because during LabVIEW Runtime Engine installation, we skipped some components (the Native Editions of D2MS do not need the OPC components). We need to re-run LabVIEW Runtime Engine installer to include those components.
2. Set up the OPC Server Simulator
We included a configuration file in the D2MS installation packages, which you can import directly into the OPC Server simulator.
3. Configure D2MS Data Logging
Choose the parameters you want to log and specify their OPC tags. This step could be a bit tedious for third party devices. If you have many devices that are almost identical, you can easily duplicate the settings, though. For D2MS Native Editions, this step is unnecessary.
Please note, the parameters in D2MS are 100% customizable as part of D2MS' Parameter Management features. Here we included some common parameters just for demonstration purposes. We will create further tutorials in the future.
4. Run the D2MS Data Logger
Find the OPC Data Logger that you have previously downloaded as part of the D2MS packages. Simply double-click to run it. It will automatically load the parameters you configured in the previous step. Here you can change the data logging intervals. For bioprocesses, 60-second interval is normally fast enough. For long runs, maybe use 300 seconds.
5. D2MS Run management and Data Management
After performing the above steps, go to D2MS main window (OAJ, Operator Action Journal), right-click on the "Test" reactor, and click Create a Run. A RunID will be automatically created. And all your future operations, comments, samples, etc., will be associated with this RunID.
Once a run is created, you can continue to Add more details, such as a customized Batch Number, experiment Objectives. All this information can be used as keywords to search for this run in the future.
Finally, as in any other Windows app, many functions of D2MS are accessed from the right-click menu. Don't hesitate to explore. You won't break anything because we are not connected to real bioreactors.
Comments