Sending user designated command through PMU Connection Tester

Hi,

Short version of the question :
Would it be possible to include in PMU Connection Tester the possibility of sending user designated commands to PMU. There is already a drop box of list of commands to send and a button to send them. This change would require adding one new text box for entry of the command and another item in the drop list. See below for “artistic” rendition of how this could be implemented.

One thing we would like to avoid is adding ourselves this feature in a “custom version” of PMU Connection Tester because we do not want to distribute confusing versions of this great tool.

Thanks.

Long version of the question (including justification)
We had requests in the past from a number of asian utilities to enable activating PMU outputs through commands from C37.118 protocol.

We now implemented that feature in our PMU, using what the C37.118 standard allows (ref Table 15 of the C37.118.2-2011) as “user designated commands”. The command word bits are "0000 yyyy xxxx xxxx), where yyyy<>0000. Mainly, when yyyy= 0001 we send a direct operate (off / open / trip) and when yyyy=0010 we send direct operate (on / close)… In each case, xxxx xxxx now represent the physical output we want to control.

With the assistance of GPA, we found a way to send commands to the PMU to activate the outputs with openPDC (remote console, invoke / sendcommand).

The only problem is that it is quite a challenge to install/configure openPDC just to demonstrate that feature.

Now the PMU Connection Tester would be the perfect instrument to test this feature (that is built-in the C37.118 protocol).

Thanks and best regards,

Michel Mont-Briant

Hi Michel,

In your message, you suggested that you would like to avoid adding the feature yourselves in a custom version. Does this imply that you have the resources to make this modification? If so, I’d like to encourage you to go ahead and fork the PMU Connection Tester so you can make the modification and submit a pull request. From there, we can review the change, suggest fixes, and pull the change into the main code base to be included in the next release.

Alternatively, if you would not like to commit resources to this feature, you also have the option of submitting a feature request on the GitHub issue tracker for PMU Connection Tester. This allows us to document your request so we can ask for help from the community and/or work on the feature ourselves as time allows. The major drawback of this approach is that I can’t guarantee that the feature would ever be completed, but you would still have the option of implementing the feature yourselves as members of the community.

Thanks,
Stephen