Fingerpint recoginition

[Conor 4]

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone has done anything on Fingerprint recognition. I have an PanelView that I use to flash up Site-wide alarms to let the Operators know that there is a paritcular alarm in a certain area. I have a slience button that silences an alarm siren. The problem is that anyone can silence the alarm, and if the alarm is not for the area that they work in then they don't always let the other Ops know. I had suggested that the I force the Operators to Log On to a screen on the PanelView wit their employee number. I will then read this employee number and store it in an Historian. I have tested this and it works fine. The only thing is that an engineer in here has got a bone about Fingerprint readers and wants me to see if I can do the alarm slience this way. The way that I see it is that I would need the Fingerprint reader to be sitting on a PC with software to be able to recoginse a unique Fingerprint. I would then have to send an Output to my PLC to silence the alarm siren. The PLC that is connected to the PanelView is a SLC 5/04. I have an L35E close by as well. I would be very grateful if someone could recommend something as a solution for me, or if not I will have to go with the Logging on to the PanelView which I know will work. I think that the Enginerr is afraid that one Op will get to know some elses employee number and just use that, bu to me that would be a disiplinary issue. Thanks, Conor

[Armadillo852 25]

The way I have done it in the past is separate my alarms. I would display them on every HMI, but only allow a reset of the alarms from the HMI that is for that area. It means more upfront work, but once the initial work is done, then adding alarms is easy from there. Of course people are people, they will get passwords, log in information, keys, etc. It is just human nature. You cannot fix this, only try and prevent it. Edited 19 Sep 2013 by Armadillo852

[Conor 4]

The PanelView is only in one area. It is a main area used as a Site-wide control room by most operators, so all Op's will have access to the room.

[BobLfoot 302]

Biometrics and Fingerprint readers are becoming more robust, but still pose a headache in terms of sanitation and reliability IMHO. We went to BOSCH RFID TAG system years ago where each operator is issued an RFID tag. Premesis Entry, Time Clock and Key Areas {tool crib} are RFID access restricted. We've even got a coupld of HMI with reader attached. I am sure you could get an Ethernet Ip or Serial stream into your L35E from and RFID reader. One big plus, RFID doesnt need to be cleaned with Joe Greasy Mechanic wipes his paw on it.