CIMScan provides an ideal platform to build an easy to use and maintain SCADA system for water/wastewater monitoring and control. Remote Terminal Units (RTU's) can continuously feed real-time information such as tank levels, pumping rates, and pump run time, to the CIMScan host running on a standard PC.

What makes CIMScan so attractive for Utilities SCADA Systems?

Incredibly Easy to Set up and Use

CIMScan is arguably the easiest SCADA software package to set up and use, yet it possesses all the capabilities to build a sophisticated system to meet any need. Best of all, the entire system can be customer-configured and customer-maintained.

Event-Driven System

This may seem just like more of the typical technical jargon that doesn't mean much average people, but it has some very profound ramifications for a SCADA system like CIMScan. Most other SCADA systems are "scan-based." This means that they constantly poll the remote devices which, in turn, return all of their data. Then the system updates all of the displays, whether they need it or not. All of this results in unnecessarily consumed communications bandwidth, slow updates, flickering displays, and wasted computer resources.

CIMScan, on the other hand, is fully "Event-Driven" which means that nothing happens in the system until a change occurs. CIMScan does poll the remote RTU's, but only to ask them if anything has changed. If any changes have occurred, the RTU will respond only with the changed values, which will be used to update the real-time database. The database update will trigger alarm evaluations, display updates, and other events.

Advanced Messaging

Virtually any event in CIMScan can trigger a message in CIMScan. The contents of the message is completely user-defined and can contain any of the data from the real-time database (flows, levels, etc.). Messages can be sent to a list of recipients based on the time of day, day of week or date by any of the following means.

Telephone

Pager

E-Mail

PA System

Very Low Cost of Ownership

We have taken a very pragmatic approach to building sophisticated, highly reliable monitoring and supervisory control systems using the latest cost-effective technology. Not only will the initial engineering required to implement a system be a tiny fraction of that necessary with competitive system, all the hardware and software components used in the system are significantly less expensive. Probably the biggest impact on cost of ownership comes from your ability to perform ongoing system maintenance and expansion, rather than relying on an outside party.

Easy to Maintain and Expand

One of CIMScan's greatest strengths is the fact that it frees the user from being tied to a systems integrator to make additions and improvements to his system. Additional remote sites can be easily added and tied into the system without any classical programming required. New displays, logs, messages, etc. can be easily added at any time, even while the system is fully operational.

Proven Technology

The CIMScan software package was first made available in 1995 and has been continuously improved since then. Version 5.0 is now available and contains numerous ease of use enhancements

The I/O Pods have been available since 1998 and the first eLink controllers were delivered in the summer of 2000.

Many Integration Possibilities

There are numerous ways that you can implement a CIMScan system. The following possibilities are just a few.

	We can provide the hardware and software components and you can integrate the system yourself. We'll provide our normal technical support on our products and you can purchase applications assistance for a nominal fee.
	You can tell us exactly what you want and we can put together the system components and build the interfaces at our facility and ship it all to you for installation. We can then provide startup assistance over the telephone and e-mail or we can send an engineer to your site for startup.
	As with the above, you tell us what you want and we'll design a system and provide you with a detailed system specification for your approval. Once the spec's approved, we'll create the system and make it available to you for testing at our facility in Beaufort, SC. We'll also arrange for installation at your site and help you obtain any radio modem licensing that is required. (The spread spectrum RF modems we usually use don't require licensing.) After the preliminary acceptance test has been completed, we'll ship the system to you, arrange for the installation, then provide installation and startup supervision and training.

Typical CIMScan SCADA Application and How It Works

The CIMScan system architecture is easy to understand and use. Each remote unit has a local array that is mirrored in the real-time database at the CIMScan host computer. Whenever an RTU channel changes outside a specified range, the databases are synchronized. It is then a simple matter to display, chart, or log the data as desired.

The following diagram illustrates how the CIMScan system works for a typical utilities SCADA application.

Click here for more information about the CIMScan software.

Flexible CIMScan RTU

CIMScan SCADA RTU's are built around a small, low power version of our eLink controller. Its exceptionally low power consumption allows operation with very small solar arrays and housing in small enclosures without significant temperature rise. The diagram below shows one of the small NEMA-4x enclosures with a high power radio and analog signal conditioners installed. Low cost spread spectrum radio modems are also available and our standard I/O Pods can also be used.

Click here to download the PDF datasheet for our MicroPower RTU.

Click here to learn more about our low cost, rugged I/O Pods.