News

Once again, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but the elves at Porcine Associates haven’t been idle.

Probably the biggest change is doubling the native resolution from 0.01″ to 0.005″ (0.254mm to 0.127mm). We do this by enabling the Dynaview I/O processor to watch both positive and negative edges of the length encoder.

We’ve put the Dynaview in a slightly smaller enclosure. It measures approximately 300x150x120cm. (Previously 300x200x120). The I/O panel on the bottom remains unchanged as does the gland plate on the top.

Another change is putting the screen update rate under recipe control. Traditionally it has been twice a second. Now, under recipe control, you can choose 2, 5, or 10 updates per second.

Behind the scenes, we’ve completed the move to XML. All recipe storage is now in XML format.

We have two ways of implementing remote view of the Dynaview screen:
— One is screen sharing, where anyone with a browser and appropriate permissions can see the Dynaview screen.
–The other is our traditional method of using a piece of dedicated hardware to show the Dynaview screen. This is shown elsewhere in these web pages.

We have a Dynaview set up in the lab that has first version (sharing via a web browser) enabled. We have gone one step further and given the remote viewer full control over the Dynaview. Full control is an option, and probably not something you want to enable in your plant. However, it makes a very good demo! Rest assured, it took some work to get all the routers and firewalls to cooperate with this export. If you are interest in playing with a live Dynaview, drop us a note and we’ll share the URL and credentials.

It’s been a while since I’ve given a update on the features we’ve added and the bugs we’ve found on the Dynaview.

November, 2011

We found a bug that is present in all Dynaview IIIC models up to this time (before Rev 2.16.0, 11/2021). If you have no sensors attached, or if the monitored web is not moving, AND you choose meter view, the Dynaview will hang. It recovers when you turn if off and back on. Contact Porcine Associates for a update.

January, 2022

For those customers who like to maintain recipes off-line, we’ve made it a lot easier. A Dynaview can now import and export recipes in XML format. Porcine Associates has an app that can read, edit, and write these XML files. The app works in Windows, in Linux and probably on a Mac. We need testers for the Mac version.

February, 2022

This is a little behind the scenes work. In our previous model (Dynaview IIIB) we implemented a hardware watchdog so that if anything in the system hung, the Dynaview would reboot automatically. It turns out that our present CPU module also supports a hardware watchdog. We’ve done the work to wake it up, restoring this automatic reboot functionality if something hangs the system.

The elves at Porcine Associates have been working hard. We’ve found that by adopting commercial hardware, redesigning the Dynaview hardware to minimize internal wiring, and using 3D printing techniques we could dramatically reduce the complexity of the product. This will make the new Dynaview more reliable (fewer internal connections) and easier to produce (lower cost).

We met our target of offering a Dynaview for less than US$5,500.00 without removing any features. In fact, we added a meter-like main screen and added the ability to look back in time for more than an hour. Depending on options a Dynaview can now be substantially less then US$5500.00! Contact us for more information.

More details in the white paper.

• Dynaview ships with the ability to use an internal USB drive to store reports. Previously, only the last 10 reports were kept locally.
• Recipe storage has been changed to a much more flexible system. Recipes are stored in named folders. A Dynaview can now have up to 99 folders with up to 99 recipes in each folder. Both folders and recipes can be displayed in alphabetical order.
• Porcine Associates releases an off-line Dynaview recipe editor.
• Dynaview uses M12 style connectors for the mark sensor and the encoder cables.

Contact Porcine Associates about updating your existing installation. Updated manual

January 5, 2011: