PI Manual Logger Overview

PI Manual Logger is a set of client applications (PC and Mobile) for manually entering data to the PI Server. Typically, a facility may have a significant amount of data that cannot be collected automatically from instrumentation and control systems. PI Manual Logger provides these data entry capabilities:

• Configure data collection on a PC using PI Manual Logger.
• Enter data using PI Manual Logger data entry screens on a PC.
• Enter data on a Windows Mobile device using PI Manual Logger Mobile 2012.
• Enter data using any device with an HTML5-compliant browser using PI Manual Logger Web 2014 R2. This component requires Microsoft IIS to host the application and a PI Manual Logger Mobile license.
• Users can optionally review and edit the data collected on any device on the PC before sending it to the PI System.
• Data may be entered in an offline mode (disconnected from PI) when using a PC or a mobile device.

A Microsoft SQL Server database is used to store Tour configurations and other PI Manual Logger-related data. See the Release Notes for more detail on requirements and capabilities.

PI Manual Logger Mobile Data Entry Capabilities

The following table summarizes features that have are available in PI Manual Logger Mobile 2012 that are not available in PI Manual Logger Web 2014 & 2014 R2 and vice versa.  Y = Supported and N = not supported.
 

Capability	PI Manual Logger Mobile 2012	PI Manual Logger Web 2014 & 2014 R2	PI Manual Logger Web 2014 R3	PI Manual Logger Web 2017 & 2017 R2
Collect data offline	Y	Y	Y	Y
Require approval	Y	Y	Y	Y
Tour runs created by schedule	Y	N	N	N
Honor conditional entry conditions	Y	N	N	N
Navigate only empty entries	Y	Y	Y	Y
Navigate only due entries	Y	N	N	N
Data Entry Only Group can send data to PI	Y	Y	Y	Y
Overwrite existing PI data instead of insert duplicate	Y	Y	Y	Y
Auto Send Data to PI	Y	Y	Y	Y
Manage tag order sequence manually	Y	Y	Y	Y
Default Tour Time to the Current Timestamp	Y	Y	Y	Y
Allow Tour timestamp to be edited	Y	Y	Y	Y
Default Tag Time to the Current Timestamp	Y	Y	Y	Y
Default Tag Time to Tour Timestamp	Y	Y	Y	Y
Allow Tag timestamp to be edited	Y	N	Y	Y
Display confirmation after sending to PI	Y	Y	Y	Y
Warn if tour is incomplete	Y	N	N	Y
Indicate when tour is incomplete	Y	Y	Y	Y
Display previous value	Y	Y	Y	Y
Show instructions	Y	Y	Y	Y
Use hyperlinks to documents or pictures for instructions	Y	N	N	N
Scan codes (e.g., barcodes) to navigate or enter values	Y	Y	Y	Y
Require scan code entry	Y	N	N	N
Record  user name with tour run	Y	Y	Y	Y
Record user name in annotation when sending data to PI	Y	N	N	Y
Write comments to both annotations and comment tags	Y	N	Y	Y
Support feet-inch entry format	Y	N	N	N
Prompt before sending data to PI	Y	N	N	Y
Default current comment to last entered comment	Y	N	N	N
Default to previous value	Y	N	N	N
Allow selection of pre-configured comment text	Y	N	N	N
Support voice-to-text comment entry	N	Y	Y	Y
Provide navigation via tree view	Y	N	N	N
Capture comments in a tag	Y	N	Y	Y
Require signature	Y	N	N	N
Require comment on limit violation	Y	N	Y (Individual Entry Page Only)	Y
Prompt on limit violation	Y	N	Y	Y
Visually indicate limit violation	Y	Y	Y	Y
Support non-Windows devices	N	Y	Y	Y
Provide data entry in a grid	N	N	Y	Y
Provide a trend control	N	N	Y (Grid View Only)	Y (Grid View Only)

PI Manual Logger Mobile was originally designed to run on Windows Mobile operating systems. As those operating systems started to become obsolete, OSIsoft developed PI Manual Logger Web, a browser-based, platform-agnostic application to collect manually entered data on modern mobile devices. 

PI Manual Logger Web is licensed the same way as PI Manual Logger Mobile, so there is no need to change licensing to upgrade to this newer version. There will not be any further releases of the Windows Mobile-based offering; however, the PI Manual Logger Mobile 2012 release will remain available for download. The new web-based offering will continue to evolve into a richer experience over time.