Let me start off by saying that I am sorry for the following long winded post. But please bare with me. My initial explanation of this quandary may be confusing to some, so please, feel free to ask questions for clarification.
I am looking to do a calculation in Pi that displays a value on a previously built display. I believe that I need to do this calculation in visual basic but I am not sure that it is possible.
As the plant engineer for a combined cycle power generating plant, we look closely at our heat rate as compared to megawatt generation. This basically tells us the efficiency of our plant. One of the calculations that I need to implement is one of a heat rate vs. megawatt. I have came up with the non-linear polynomial formulas for the heat rate. In these formulas, if I input the megawatt generation reading, it will show me the heat rate. To make it more complex, each month dictates a different heat rate based upon environmental conditions in the desert and due to contractual agreements, an escalation factor is entered for each year. In short, I have eight different functions, each function is based upon the month, and the factor is based upon the year.
What I am looking to do is perform this calculation in the background and display its output on the already made display screen.
An example would be:
year 2013 = factor x
month: point to the correct function that correlates to the month
megawatt generation is already a tag in the pi system
Then perform the calculation with the end result being displayed on the screen.