Rapidlogger Monitoring Systems for Drilling Rigs

Rapidlogger Systems designs and manufactures rugged and efficient monitoring systems for drilling, pumping and well intervention services. For a drilling rig the system is built from standard Rapidlogger units, each one a standalone recorder for one part of the rig, linked over a digital bus into a complete electronic drilling recorder (EDR) with a driller display, a job record and WITS, MODBUS and OPC outputs for the mud loggers, the company man and the office.

Who uses it

Drilling contractors instrumenting land rigs, workover and well-servicing rigs, rig builders and refurbishers, and operators who want their own independent record of pump, pit and hook-load data alongside the mud logging unit. Because each unit records on its own, the rig keeps its data even when the network or the PC is down.

Highlights

Each Rapidlogger unit is a compact standalone and cost-effective system for oilfield data acquisition and control. A single unit can be used for pump monitoring, cementing, mud, coiled tubing and slickline units. Multiple Rapidlogger systems can be connected together over a digital bus for creating complex rig control solutions, with one unit as master and the others as slaves (Tech Note 71).

Each Rapidlogger unit records sensor data on internal memory and is equipped with serial, Ethernet and USB connections. The electronics are rated from -40C to 70C in a NEMA 4X enclosure, with a mean time between failures of 200,000 hours.

Mud Pump Mode

When used in the mud pump mode the system measures, displays and records the pump pressure, rate and volume of each mud pump, from proximity-switch stroke counters on the pump and a standpipe pressure transducer. The data is displayed on the unit and sent to the main unit.

Pit Monitor Mode

When used in the pit monitoring mode the system measures the pit level, calculates inflow, outflow and pit volume for up to 12 pits per unit from the pit level sensors. Square and stepped tanks are calibrated as described in Tech Note 48. Flow out can be added from the returns flow sensor.

Rig Floor Monitor Mode

When used in the rig floor mode the system measures the standpipe pressures, rotary RPM, rotary torque, depth and hook load. Block position and bit depth come from a drawworks encoder, hook load from the deadline anchor load cell. All of this data is visible on the local display and is transmitted to the main unit, which calculates weight on bit, rate of penetration, slip position, pipe, bit and hole depth, ton-miles and circulating time.

Software Interfaces

In order for the system to be truly universal and compatible, the Rapidlogger system allows data input and output via OPC, WITS, Modbus and ASCII streams. These are available over Ethernet, WiFi and serial links, so the mud logging unit, the directional driller and the rig PLC can all read the same data.

RapidVu is the software for graphing and preparing quick reports on a PC. On a rig it runs in three touch-screen modes: a drilling depth mode for the driller, a multi-dial mode for the tool pusher and a back-office mode for reports (Tech Note 110). The RapidVu program is not required to run and record a job, but it can acquire data from the Rapidlogger system in real time or play back a previously recorded job from a USB stick. RapidHub joins up to 16 units into one data stream.