HEARTfelt Welcome, dear friends of protection and control engineering. After over a year of intense work, the WOODWARD guys have just released version 3.6 of their successful HighPROTEC series. The key points of the release are compliance with new grid connection guidelines, extensive IT security enhancements, IEC 60870-5-104, the new SCADApter software tool and many improvements in handling, documentation and protection.
Here are the top features:
🌐 The HighPROTEC protection devices now meet the protection requirements of VDE-AR-N-4110: 2018 and VDE-AR-N-4120.
🌐 Conformity with the G59 Issue 3 Amendment 4
🌐 An improved version of the frequency and df / dt protection is now available. This now has an even more stable and accurate measurement method.
🌐 There have been very intensive optimizations in the field of IT security, including:
🔒 There is a new menu item "Security Status" with which security-relevant information can be called up. You can see now immediately if individual passwords have been assigned.
🔒 The new security logger now provides safety-relevant self-monitoring messages (for example, someone has entered an incorrect password).
🔒 A separate password is required for access via network (Ethernet). Smart view allows network access only after correct password entry.
🔒 A separate password is also required for access via USB interface.
🔒 In order to effectively prevent a "man-in-the-middle" - attack, each protection device is equipped with an individual crypto certificate during production.
🔒 It is prevented that the protection device - instead of Smart view - can be contacted and reprogrammed by malicious software.
🔒 Novel encryption of connections via secure algorithms.
🔒 Passwords now "survive" firmware updates.
🔒 Introduction of time penalty for incorrect entry of passwords. The waiting time is extended with each entry and can only be reset with a correct entry.
🔒 Implementation of syslog. If necessary, the syslog module can be activated. This allows self-monitoring messages to be transmitted to a specified server computer.
🌐 New communication protocol 104: The communication protocol according to IEC 60870-5-104 is now available, via which the system time can now also be synchronized.
🌐 SCADApter (telegram mapper): The communication protocols Modbus and IEC 60870-5-104 can be adapted to an existing control center communication. For this purpose, a Windows application called SCADApter is available, which allows individual assignment of data points to internal protocol addresses.
🌐 Renewals in the field of IEC 61850
- The names of the setting parameters for the virtual inputs and outputs have been adapted to the usual naming scheme of IEC 61850.
- The number of available virtual inputs and outputs has been doubled to 64.
🌐 Expansion of the earth-fault protection by a watt-metric direction detection. At the same time an intuitive visualization of direction detection was implemented.
🌐 New order variants are now available:
- MRA4-2F and MCA4-2F with 2 analog inputs and 2 analog outputs as well as 16 digital inputs and 14 output relays
- MRA4-2E ... and MCA4-2E ... with 24 digital inputs and 20 output relays
🌐 The concept of inverting a trigger / input signal has been improved so that non-ranked (i.e., unused) input remains inactive even when the "invert" flag is set.
🌐 If self-holding in the device configuration has subsequently been deactivated, it will be reset immediately.
🌐 Easy acknowledgment of LEDs possible: By pressing the "C" key for one second, LEDs can be reset in latching mode. This direct acknowledgment is now active as standard and can be deactivated via a new parameter.
🌐 New structure of the documentation: The previous manuals are now divided into two documents. The manual describes all properties and possible applications of the protection device. All chapters have been thoroughly revised for readability and correctness. The reference book contains all implemented settings, measured values and binary states, whereby a table with all properties and a help text is available for each entry. The publicly accessible download area for the new documentary can be found here!
That sounds like a successful update, congratulations and much success in the application.
Further information is available directly from the manufacturer.
Greetings Alex
