“Hello Americans” is how Paul Harvey would open this month’s newsletter. /P>
Remember last month’s issue about the slightly deviant shortcut Jason Niccum used to trigger traffic lights from red to green? After two years of shortening his commute he was caught and fined. (Missed it? Check out the archive http://www.bb-elec.com/eConnections/econnections_archive.asp?s=e052506)
Well my friends, “You know what the news is. Now you’re going to hear the r-r-r-rest of the story!”
Just how was Mr. Niccum caught?
The unraveling of this mystery rivals any episode of CSI Miami. (You know - if we’d stop wearing pocket protectors and using Reverse Polish Notation maybe we engineers could star in our own weekly TV drama.)
Catching Mr. Niccum, as any good engineer might guess, was all about data.
As part of his regular analysis, city traffic engineer Joe Olson noticed disruptions in the traffic light patterns over 12 block stretch. Oddly, the disruption was coming at the same time every morning. Joe staked out one of the suspect intersections and within minutes had identified Niccum’s vehicle as it tripped a signal from red to green.
There’s a moral to this story. If you’re a B&B Electronics customer you already get it, but just in case you know someone that could use a refresher, I’ll dig into it anyway.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. With the technology and prices available today, there are few excuses left not to have total connectivity to all of your equipment. I’m not talking about the inner guts of the local control system here, that’s been in place for years. But what happens when something out of the ordinary happens? What if the power consumption changes by 10%? What if the temp of the motor housing changes? Does your system notify you? Can you easily access data? Can you reach your equipment from a web browser or do you have to take a trip to the site?
With global expectations of more for less you can’t afford to wait for a call from your customer or the plant floor screaming about the line being down. Bad for productivity, murder on your career.
The B&B team is here to help.
There’s a near-magical way to connect any piece of old equipment to Ethernet (and Internet). Years ago some lofty marketing guy coined these as “Ethernet Serial Servers” – but that sounds a bit intimidating. They’re really just serial to Ethernet converters. Bottom line is any piece of equipment with an RS-232, RS-422 or RS-485 port can easily connect to Ethernet. That means you can monitor it remotely, run diagnostics and update programming.
Industrial Versions:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=120
Commercial Versions:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?familyid=2
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=240
While a serial to Ethernet converter is well and good for a piece of equipment with a serial port, what about those cases where you just need sensor data? We’ve got solutions there as well.
Connect most any sensor input to Ethernet with Adam 6000 modules:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=12
Connect digital I/O wirelessly over 802.11:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=239
And any time you’re connecting sensors, you run into the need for these accessories:
Signal Conditioners and Isolators:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=247
Relays, Timers, Voltage Sensors:
http://www.bb-elec.com/productsubcat.asp?MainCategoryId=61
Terminal Blocks:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=23
Unfortunately the fix to Longmont, Colorado’s traffic system isn’t as easy. While they’ve got the connectivity side down pat, traffic engineer Olson has collected enough data to know that there are other drivers in his city making use of this easy “shortcut” – so he’s upgrading to a new system. Unfortunately for Longmont taxpayers, that’s $67,000 of new equipment. Luckily for you, we can get your legacy equipment online for far less!
Good Day,
Mike Fahrion
support@bb-elec.com
(800) 346 - 3119 |
