The Napkin that Rocked the World
Dear Friend & Subscriber:
I saw this cartoon - there were a couple of guys sitting at a restaurant with something drawn on a napkin. One of them says to his server, "Waiter, can you get this napkin notarized?"
Which is pretty much how Ethernet came to being. Engineer Bob Metcalfe was working on a way to improve the performance of a network called ALOHAnet which linked university campuses between Hawaiian Islands. He drew a picture on a napkin, a way to enable several independent data radio nodes to communicate on a peer-to-peer basis without interfering with each other.
Can you imagine life without the convenience of that handy blue Ethernet cable to send your data wherever you need it?
'Twas the napkin that rocked the world.
And today when you have lunch, you're gonna have napkins on your lunchroom table. My job today is to help you draw your own cool pictures on those napkins, ideas YOU wanna make happen.
If you possibly can, grab your latest B&B Catalog - it just hit the streets - I'm gonna take you on a quick tour of napkin ideas from its pages.
The Ethernet section starts on page 18:
-It kicks off with great info on switch buzzwords. Don't know what VLAN or QoS means? Quick definitions at your fingertips.
-Pages 19-21 give the red carpet treatment to our "build it your way" Industrial plug-and-play (unmanaged) switches. More copper and fiber options than you can shake a stick at. There's no longer any excuse to suffer through using a two box solution because you've got a mix of copper and fiber.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=68
Or, use our nifty online configurator to get exactly the port configuration you need, including price and delivery date.
http://www.bb-elec.com/ElinxConfigurator
-Pages 22 and 23 are full of industrial managed switches. Lots of fiber options, Gigabit, full suite of managed features you'll need for Industrial Ethernet networks - VLAN, GMP, Mirroring, redundant ring, SNMP and more. Don't have your catalog handy (shame on you!) - you can find these online as well at
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=81
-Flipping over to page 24, you'll find set of heavy duty plug and play switches - wide temp range and qualified for rugged transportation applications. (Gotta be tough to survive a traffic control hotbox out in the Arizona sun or the frozen tundra of Canada!).
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=144
-If you've got one foot in the IT world and the other in the factory floor, you'll also find Cisco's Catalyst line of industrial switches. Sometimes when you're talking to the IT guys, only Cisco will do - so we've included them here for your one-stop-shopping pleasure.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=408
-On page 25 we've got the line of economical Ethernet switches and media converters from Advantech. These familiar little blue ADAM modules offer a great bang for the buck.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=174
-Need to go lo-o-o-o-ng distances? Page 26 - 28 are full of industrial media converters that you can configure with any type of fiber you'd like - and send your signals up to 80 km (50 miles)! DIN mount, rack mount and more.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=359
-And one of my favorites, we can extend your industrial copper Ethernet connections over a simple copper wire using DSL technology. Check out the Ethernet extenders over on page 28. Still don't have your catalog in front of you? Check out http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=71
-Request our new catalog at http://www.bb-elec.com/catalog_request.asp
-Handy introduction to Industrial Ethernet concepts and terms:
http://www.bb-elec.com/tech_articles/introduction_to_industrial_ethernet.asp
OK.....stick with me for another minute - there's one more cool thing I want to show you. Way back on page 70 (go ahead and flip, I'll wait).
Energy monitoring is HOT. 70% of all electricity used in industry is spent spinning motors - over $30 Billion per year in the US alone. Lots of us have projects to recover some of that cost through smarter power management.
So on page 70 we've used our wireless modbus line (Zlinx) to put together a complete power monitoring kit, complete with HMI and sensors.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=476
-Want live help for your idea-on-a-napkin? We'll discuss it with you on the phone, the number is (815) 433-5100. And hey... if you want to scan it in and send it to me at e-support@bb-elec.com I might even feature it in our next issue of e-Connections.
Mike's politically incorrect napkin design contest, eh? Who knows, maybe YOUR next napkin idea will encircle the globe 30 years from now. Be sure and get it notarized!
Happy Connections - and happy napkin drawing,
Mike Fahrion
(815)433-5100
support@bb-elec.com
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