Manual creation of PI points

PI Manual Logger uses PI point definitions to create the tour definitions. These points must be created in your PI Data Archive before they can be used in PI Manual Logger. You can create the PI points using tools such as PI System Management Tools (PI SMT) or PI Tag Configurator in Microsoft Excel. For more information about creating PI points, see the topics on managing PI points in PI Data Archive System Management Guide, which is available from the OSIsoft Technical Support web site.

PI Manual Logger only uses a few of the point attributes in the PI System. This list describes how the PI point attributes affect PI Manual Logger.

Point name: Tag attribute

PI Manual Logger has no special restrictions on the point name. However, if you are using PI Manual Logger Mobile or Conditional Manual Data Entry (CMDE), you may want to use shorter point names than usual due to the limitations of the mobile device display and CMDE formula lengths.

Class of point: PtClass attribute

PI Manual Logger points must be classic points.

Data type of point: PointType attribute

PI Manual Logger supports the following Point Types:

• Float16

• Float32

• Float64

• Int16

• Int32

• Digital

• String

• Timestamp

Data Source: PointSource attribute

PI Manual Logger can use points from any point source. Using the same point source as an interface can result in errors in the interface and invalid data being written to points. It is common to use point source L for PI Manual Logger points, because this is the default point source for lab and manual input points.

Location attributes

PI Manual Logger does not use any of the location number attributes. If needed, they can be used to help identify points for searches during tour creation. For instance, Location1 is commonly used to identify the instance of an interface that a point corresponds to. If you have multiple PI Manual Logger systems connected to a single PI Data Archive, each with their own tours and points, you could assign the points a Location1 value corresponding to the PI Manual Logger system where they are used.

Exception specifications

PI Manual Logger does not use exception so these settings are not relevant.

Compression specifications

PI Manual Logger data will be subject to compression if the value being written is the newest value for the point. Compression does not apply when writing values older than the current snapshot of the point, such as historical values. See the section on compression specifications in the PI Data Archive System Management Guide for more information on compression.

Note: OSIsoft recommends that compression be turned off for manually collected tags.

Point value range: Zero, Span, and Typical Value

PI Manual Logger does not use the Zero, Span, or Typical Value, but they are shown in PI Manual Logger to help the data entry user.

Configuration of shutdown events: Shutdown

The shutdown attribute controls whether PI Data Archive writes a value of Shutdown to the PI point whenever the server is shut down. Although it has no direct effect on PI Manual Logger, you can set it according to your preferences for your PI Manual Logger points.

Point Security

PI Manual Logger must have read access to the Point Security and read/write access to Data Security for all the points it is configured to use. For more information on configuring PI point security, see the section on PI point access permissions in the PI Data Archive System Management Guide.