User Manual

User Manual
GMT Feeder
Steinsvik AS Rundhaug 25, 5563 Førresfjorden, Norway | +47 52 75 47 00 | post@steinsvik.no | www.steinsvik.no

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Control System: ....................................................................................................... 3
2. SITE MAP ...................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Adding A cage: ........................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Save and transfer to PLC: ....................................................................................... 6
3. Feed Zones .................................................................................................................... 6
4. Moving and Changing a Feed Zone:.............................................................................. 8
5. Linking Cages to Pipes: (Tools, Pipe Configuration) ....................................................... 8
5.1 Feed Transport time: ............................................................................................... 9
5.2 Blower Frequency: ................................................................................................ 10
5.3 Pressure HH ( High High), H ( High) and L ( Low): ................................................ 10
5.4 Length: .................................................................................................................. 10
5.5 Max Feed Rate ( g/s): ............................................................................................ 10
6. CAGE DATA: ............................................................................................................... 11
2. CAMERA FEEDER: ..................................................................................................... 16
3. System Overview: ........................................................................................................ 19
4. SILOS .......................................................................................................................... 21
6.1 Example: Silo 1 ..................................................................................................... 22
5. Calibration .................................................................................................................... 23
6.2 What Frequency should I choose? ........................................................................ 25
6.3 Calibration Interval ................................................................................................ 26
6.4 Set calibration directly: .......................................................................................... 26
6. Alarms .......................................................................................................................... 26
User Manual | GMT Feeder 2

1. INTRODUCTION
The GMT Feeder centralized feed systems, are developed to meet the ever-increasing demand in
modern fish farming.
User-friendly design has been a major goal in the development of the GMT feed system.
The user is placed in the “driving seat”, in control of the system and with access to all information
necessary to be able to run the system efficiently.
1.1. Control System:

Two main parts controls the system, PC and PLC. (Programmable Logic Controller)
Information about the cages, how and when to feed, historical data and most of the calculations are
taken care of by the PC Software.
In the Control Panel, the PLC controls the feed machinery. The workhorse, the PLC, also handles
signals from sensor and alarm signals.
If the PC takes a dive, the PLC runs just as it has been told by the PC program. All vital data is stored
in the PLC memory. All feed data is recorded by the PLC and may be downloaded to the PC at any
time.
1.2. Radio Remote Controller: (PDA, Hand Held Computer)

If you are lucky to have a Remote Controller, the system is fully operational via the Radio Remote
Controller if the PC is off or the PC-program is terminated.
The remote control (PDA) and the PLC communicates directly with each other independent of the
computer.
1.3. Congratulations with your new Orbit GMT Feed System!

We feel confident that you will be satisfied with your new feed system.
We appreciate your ideas of improvements to the system and this manual.
Feedback from you as an operator, is very important in the process of further improvements to our
products.

2. SITE MAP
In the Site Map window you can create a graphical view over you site. You can add, remove, move, size
and choose the shape of you cages/tanks.
Background Color Cages:

- GREEN = Cage 2, System 3 is feeding at the moment.
- YELLOW = Cage 6, System 2, NOT Feeding, selector is at cage 6.
- GREY = Cage 7, System 2, NOT Feeding, selector is not on the cage.
Silos:
- GREEN diode light under the silo indicates that feed is extracted from the silo.
- YELLOW bar indicates the level in the silo.
- For additional information, point at the silo with your mouse pointing device.

For additional information, point at a cage.
2.1. Adding A cage:
Right-hand click somewhere in the window and click on:

Add Item.
A new cage will appear in the top left corner of the screen.
The Cage number chosen is the lowest available

number that does not already exist. In this case 5.
Right-hand click on the cage and select the cage number

from the list.
Fill inn an ID; Volume, Type of Fish, select size, Cage

Image and move the cage to the position you like.

2.2. Save and transfer to PLC:
Clicking on the Disk icon, saves the current setting to the harddrive.
The flashing yellow frame around the blue arrow ( transfer button)
indicates that something has been changed in PC program that has not
been transferred to the PLC ( control system)
You do not have to save and transfer immediately. You may do all the
changes you want to do and then transfer.
3. FEED ZONES
Each system has a 24 hour time span where you choose when to feed. For each Feed Zone you make,
a Start Time, Stop Time and how many times you want each cage to be fed is chosen.
In this case Feed Zone 2 is has 70 cycles and Capacity 125%. This indicates that there is not enough
time to do all the 70 cycles in the given time. Feed Zone 1 has 60 cyles and Capacity of 93%.
The vertical line trough the feed zones indicates the actual time, synchronized be the PC internal clock.
Pointing a feed zones displays the details shown below.

The 7% spare capacity will result in a pause between each cycle. In this case the pause is 12 seconds.

4. MOVING AND CHANGING A FEED ZONE:
Move the cursor towards the start or end of a feed zone, hold
the left mouse button and move the cursor. You can also right-
hand click on a Feed Zone and enter the Start and Stop time
and number of cycles.
Cycles ( Max 56) indicates the number of cycles possible
without exceeding 100% capacity limit.
To move the whole feedzone, move the cursor towards the

middle of the feed zone. Click and hold the left mouse button
and move the feed zone.
When feed zones are moved I 5 minutes steps. If you want a
feed zone to start 13:31, you need to enter the time in the
dialog box after right hand clicking on a feed zone.
Feed zones may not overlap, only one feed zone may be
moved at the time.
5. LINKING CAGES TO PIPES: (TOOLS, PIPE CONFIGURATION)

Each cage may have one or more pipes. In Tools Pipe Configuration each cage is linked to a system
and one or more pipes.
Click on the Cage column and choose the Cage number

from the list. The leftmost column is the pipe outlets of the
distribution valve, in this case for System 1.

Now both pipe 1 and pipe 2 is linked to cage 9.
5.1. Feed Transport time:

Before moving the selector to the next cage (pipe) the blower will stay for the number of seconds
selected at the Feed Transport Time. On average you can 10m/s on the feed velocity through the feed
pipe. In this example the feed pipe is 450m and the Feed Transport Time is set to 45 seconds.

5.2. Blower Frequency:
Depending on the length of the pipe, the blower frequency is set. As a rule of thumb, the longer the pipe,
the higher blower frequency is needed to maintain enough air flow to move the feed through the pipes.
Depending on the size of the cage, if you have a rotating air spreader or not, the setting of the blower
frequency is determined.
The system will show the air speed for each pipe in the Camera Feeder window. We recommend to
keep the Air Speed around 20m/s. Remember, this is not the speed of the pellets, but the air speed.
5.3. Pressure HH ( High High), H ( High) and L ( Low):

If the pressure reaches HH, the feeding will stop on the current pipe. At Pressure H, you will have a
warning, but the system will keep on feeding.
At Pressure L the current system will stop feeding and the Low Pressure alarm must be reset on the
front of the electrical panel for the current system. A low pressure alarm is only activated if an auger is
running and the pressure is below the setting of the pipe.
5.4. Length:
This is only information about the pipe length. The number you put into this column is not used for any
calculations.
5.5. Max Feed Rate ( g/s):

For each pipe you can limit the maximum Feed Rate. For a short pipe 100-200 meters you may set a
higher limit than for a long pipe 600-800meters.
In this case 600g/s = 36kg/minute. The Max Feed Rate is set to reduce the risk of getting blocked pipes
due to putting too much feed through the feed pipes.

6. CAGE DATA:
The Cage Data is split into 2 pages (Page 1 and Page 2). The first 4 colums are identical for Page1
and Page2. All data related to the number of fish, average weight etc, is entered into the Cage Data.
PAGE1: State (Started / Stopped):

To change the State from Started to Stopped, Right-hand click in the square in the State column and
click on Stop.

Cage 1 is now stopped. When a cage is Stopped, feeding in AUTO(matic) will stop.
Pipe Ration.
In the Feed Zone(s) you can set the percentage of the Daily Ration for each Feed Zone.
In this case there is only 1 Feed Zone and it is set to 100%. If you choose less than 100%, the Spare
bar on the left side will show the undistributed amount of feed.

The Spare bar is in this case at 32.7% which represents 381.26kg. You are allowed to transfer this to
the PLC, but you need to be aware that the feed amount will be less than the Daily Ration.
NB! It is recommended to keep the Spare at 0% and use the Appetite factor to reduce or increase the
feed amount.
If you have 2 or more Feed Zones the 100% is distributed between the Feed Zones. Below the first
Feed Zone is 60% and the second is 40% of the calculated day ration.

This cage has 2 pipes, hence the light blue column. To adjust the percentage for the second feed zone,
first select the second pipe. That is done below the
After pipe 2 is selected, the bar to be adjusted is darker blue and has the pipe number at the base of
the Feed Zone.
Moving the mouse pointer over a Feed Zone gives a summary of the Feed Zone information.
Click and hold on the Feed Zone bar you want to modify and move the cursor up or down to adjust.
NB! The sum of the percentages can be maximum 100%. If the Spare bars are 0%, you can not increase
the percentage of any of the Feed Zone bars. You then have to “lend” / reduce one bar to be able to
increase another.

To distribute the total Day Ration between the pipes, double-click in the Pipe ration field.
Adjusting the intensity (kg/min) in a Feed Zone.
Under each Feed Zone, the amount and intensity of

the Feed Zone is shown.

Double-click on the kg/min below the and select the intensity for the chosen Feed Zone.
You can type the kg/min you want

or use the up an down arrows on
the left hand side to do the
adjustments.
7. CAMERA FEEDER:
In this window there are 2 main operation modes, AUTO and MANUAL.
AUTO: MANUAL:

In Auto, a system will feed according to what you have configured in the Feed Zone(s).
AUTO:
The 2 main parameters are Intensity and Appetite.
Intensity ( kg/min) can be adjusted from a minimum level to a maximum level. The minimum level is
determined by the minimum auger speed, and the maximum level is set in the pipeconfiguration ( is
also limited by the maximum setting on the frequency drives for the augers. )
Adjusting the Intensity (kg/min) is done by moving the slider up or down. The resulting intensity is shown
at the bottom of the slider.
Appetite:
Adjusting the slider will increase or decrease the feed amount in each feed zone.
Common for these parameters is that as soon as you leave the mouse button, the new setting is
transmitted to the PLC ( control system ). Do don’t have to save or transfer this changes you have done.
Pressure and Air Speed:

The pressure gauge measures the Air Pressure by the sluice and the Air Speed is derived from the Air
Pressure and the air flow from the blower.

MANUAL:
In MANUAL, more functions become available.
In this mode, the Feed Zone(s) settings have no effect.
Functions:
- Start/Stopp Blower
- Go To Cage: Select Cage number and move
selector to chosen cage
1.
- Next Cage, Move selector to next available cage.
- Next Pipe , Move the selector to the next outlet on the selector.
Select Feed Amount I Manual:
In Manual the Intensity has the same function as in

AUTO. The Manual feed slider is now available and the
Appetite is not.
In Manual you select how much you want to feed in kilos
( kg), and click on the Start Feeding button.
If the blower is already running, the feeding starts
immediately.
If the blower is off, the blower starts and the feeding
starts when the blower has reached the preset speed.
Normally after about 30 second.
Example:
Manual Feed amount is set to 354kg.
Feeding Now will show the selected amount. Remaining
is what’s left to be fed out of the 354kg total. It is 5
Minutes and 26 seconds until the 354kg mark Is
reached. In brackets is the time when the manual
feeding is finished. When the 354kg

Cage Info and Cycle Graph:
Here you get detailed feed information for each cage.
To feed today ( estimated amount today) is derived from what has been fed and what will be fed for the
rest of the day with the current settings.
The Time Span enables you to look at a “window” from 1 minute to 48 hours to see when the cage has
been fed, and at what intensity.
8. SYSTEM OVERVIEW:
To get a quick look at what mode each system is in, the System Overview may be used.
In the image below, all system are in AUTO, all systems are feeding ( Cage
background is green)

System 1 is nearly finished the amount in the current cycle, while system 5 just started a feed on cage
5.
In more detail:
- Cage 2 is being fed

- 150 kg is to be fed this cycle
- 60% has been fed

- It is 4 minutes and 59 seconds until the 150kg mark is reached

- The feeding in this cycle will finish at 11:03.29
More details about the feeding status, you go to Monitor, Camera Feeding or to Cage Date Page
1 and 2.
9. SILOS
The main function in this menu is adding feed to the silos. The other setting here
are the Capacity of each silo and the Alarm limits.
Click on the icon above a silo and enter the feed amount in kilos.

9.1. Example: Silo 1
As you can see the information in the table is repeated in the graphical representation of the silo.
The Result column show at what level the silo will be at taken into account
what is left to be fed from the silo today.
The Start level is at which level the silo started at the time when the feeding
started. The Start level will change if you add feed to the silo.
Alarm 1 and 2:
When the silo level reach the number of kilos in the Alarm 1 or 2 column, you
will get a warning at the buttom of the screen.

The first alarm limit is set at 500kg and the estimated end result is below 500
kg. It is still 734 kg in the silo.
If the estimated end result is less than 0, or the In Silo level is less than 0, the
buttom of the silo turns red.
In the table it is indicated like this:
10. CALIBRATION
Normally the calibration is done using a hand –held PC ( PDA)

Calibration may also be done from the PC.
First, turn the swith for the system you want to calibrate into position MAN.

In the Camera Feeding window this in indicated by changing the system
status to Calibration:
1) Click on Tools, Auger Calibration
2) Choose system and auger
3) Click onStart for the selected frequency.
4) It is recommended to calibrate on 2
frequencies. ( In this case, first on 20Hz and
then on 40Hz)
2.
3.
4. Delayed Start is here set to 1 minute. After clicking on
Start, the auger starts after 1 minute.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
5) Weight the feed and type in the measured
weight. NB! Make sure you choose the right
frequency.
6) At the end press Save and Transfer.
10.

7) Repeate the process 1-6 for 40Hz.
11.
12.
13. In this case the measured weight is
3040grams at 20Hz and 3060grams at 40Hz.
14.
15. Note the change in the calibration data. It was
167,4 grams at 10 Hz, now it is slightly higer at
169,63gram at 10Hz.
16.
17. All the other calibration values has also
changed according the the Measured Weights
that was put in.
10.1. What Frequency should I choose?
In general you should calibrate on frequencies (grams/second) close to how you normaly feed. If you
feed at low intensity, calibrate on low frequencies and feeding at high intensity, use a higer calibration
frequency.

The figure below ( View, Monitor Systems ) show what frequency the auger is running at while feeding.
In this example the auger deliveres 518,8 g/s.
Related to the calibration data, this is just above 30Hz.

In this case a calibration of 20Hz and 40Hz is
recommened.
Some cages may rund at 25Hz, some at 36Hz etc. , so
it is important to take 2 or more calibrations for each
auger.
10.2. Calibration Interval
8) It is recommended to calibrate each auger
once a week.
9) When you switch to a new feed type you
must do a calibration of each auger.
10.3. Set calibration directly:
This option may be used for ” long term” calibration.

You can for example fill 2000kg in a silo, feed the silo
empty. If the silo data show that it is 100kg left in the
silo ( 1900kg fed ).
New Calibration = Orginal calibration *
2000kg/1900kg = Original calibration * 1.05
But, at what frequency should you multipy this factor og 1.05? 30% of the time the auger may run at
10Hz, 30% of the time on 10Hz and 40% of the time on 50Hz.
NB! It is recommended that you use Measured Weight.
11. ALARMS
Each system has the same set of alarms. In the figure below a Low Pressure Alarm is shown. The
description in the first line indicates what type of alarm has occurred, and the second line that the system
is stopped.
Other alarms:
- Level switch sluice
- Sluice alarm (Circuit breaker activated)
- Blower alarm (Alarm from frequency inverter blower)
- Auger 1 (2,3,...) –alarm (Alarm from frequency inverter or circuit breaker activated)
- Distribution valve (Circuit breaker activated)
- Pressure alarm ( Low, High or High-High)

18.
19.
20.
21. System Stopped Alarm:
22.
23. To restart a system after a System Stopped-alarm, turn the switch on the front of the control
panel to 0 and back to AUTO. Each system has a separate switch.
24.
Changing the alarm list:

Right-hand click on the line showing Date, time local

Select: Column selection
-
Now
you
can
remove
or add
what
you
want to
appear
on the
alarm
list.
Tip:
Click on to clear list , then select Date, Time local, Group, Description and Text in the
Avaliable liste by using the bottom.

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Steinsvik AS Rundhaug 25, 5563 Førresfjorden, Norway | +47 52 75 47 00 | post@steinsvik.no | www.steinsvik.no

User Manual | GMT Feeder 2

1.1. Control System:

1.2. Radio Remote Controller: (PDA, Hand Held Computer)

1.3. Congratulations with your new Orbit GMT Feed System!

User Manual | GMT Feeder 3

Background Color Cages:

User Manual | GMT Feeder 4

2.1. Adding A cage:

Right-hand click somewhere in the window and click on:

The Cage number chosen is the lowest available

Right-hand click on the cage and select the cage number

Fill inn an ID; Volume, Type of Fish, select size, Cage

User Manual | GMT Feeder 5

User Manual | GMT Feeder 6

User Manual | GMT Feeder 7

To move the whole feedzone, move the cursor towards the

5. LINKING CAGES TO PIPES: (TOOLS, PIPE CONFIGURATION)

Click on the Cage column and choose the Cage number

User Manual | GMT Feeder 8

5.1. Feed Transport time:

User Manual | GMT Feeder 9

5.3. Pressure HH ( High High), H ( High) and L ( Low):

5.5. Max Feed Rate ( g/s):

User Manual | GMT Feeder 10

PAGE1: State (Started / Stopped):

User Manual | GMT Feeder 11

User Manual | GMT Feeder 12

User Manual | GMT Feeder 13

User Manual | GMT Feeder 14

Adjusting the intensity (kg/min) in a Feed Zone.

Under each Feed Zone, the amount and intensity of

User Manual | GMT Feeder 15

You can type the kg/min you want

User Manual | GMT Feeder 16

Pressure and Air Speed:

User Manual | GMT Feeder 17

Select Feed Amount I Manual:

In Manual the Intensity has the same function as in

User Manual | GMT Feeder 18

User Manual | GMT Feeder 19

- Cage 2 is being fed

- 60% has been fed

User Manual | GMT Feeder 20

User Manual | GMT Feeder 21

User Manual | GMT Feeder 22

Normally the calibration is done using a hand –held PC ( PDA)

User Manual | GMT Feeder 23

1) Click on Tools, Auger Calibration

2) Choose system and auger

3) Click onStart for the selected frequency.

User Manual | GMT Feeder 24

10.1. What Frequency should I choose?

User Manual | GMT Feeder 25

Related to the calibration data, this is just above 30Hz.

10.3. Set calibration directly:

This option may be used for ” long term” calibration.

User Manual | GMT Feeder 26

Changing the alarm list:

User Manual | GMT Feeder 27

User Manual | GMT Feeder 28

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