PROFIblog

Apr 28 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: Discoveries and surprises

loading… Monday morning and I’m about to leave for the airport en route to Houston for the ABB Automation World.  I’ll be speaking about PROFIBUS and PROFINET on Thursday.  But before I go let me share some of the discoveries I made at Hanover Fair. Phoenix Contact showed managed Ethernet switches that have their configuration…

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Apr 28 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: Hooked on a Feeling

loading… The final numbers for Hanover Fair are just in – in time for this, my final Hanover Fair post:   5,100 exhibitors from 60 countries   200,000 visitors   3,200,000 leads generated (a 15% – 20% increase)  This blogging software won’t let me post videos, so click here to get the sights, sounds, and…

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Apr 26 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: Even more news

loading… The final new press release from the PI press conference covered new white papers.  [From O’Hare airport in Chicago, between flights.] The news: PI publishes two new strategy documents The gist, part 2: The second one is “Enhancing the High Performance of PROFINET.”  It builds on the paper presented at the 12th IEEE Conference…

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Apr 26 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: More news

loading… The big news related to PROFIBUS and PROFINET (and maybe for the show over all) was the continuing growth of the PROFIBUS and PROFINET fieldbuses.  What the numbers were and meant were in an earlier post.  The other topics from the PI press conference included: The news: IO-Link Integration into PROFIBUS and PROFINET The…

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Apr 25 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: The Big News – Growth

loading… The leading news at the PI press conference covered the continuing growth of PROFIBUS and our first node count of PROFINET devices.  (You can read the full press release here.)  I tend to get all excited about PROFINET at the expense of PROFIBUS, so before I get to the PROFINET story, here’s the scoop…

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Apr 24 2008

Hanover Fair 2008: The Fair

loading… I’m finally able to sit down and blog about this year’s Hanover Fair (starting on the train from Hanover to Frankfurt).  The sitting part feels really, really good after four very full days at the fair plus evening meetings.  Over the next several posts, I’ll tell you (and show you) what I saw.  I’ll…

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Apr 18 2008

Totally Cool

loading… Where are the automation professionals of tomorrow?  Today, many of them are in Atlanta competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition.  I know because my oldest grandson is there competing.  They just finished a match.  The first 15 seconds is all automated.  His team scored 4 points in that part, which is good because he…

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Apr 14 2008

Hanover, Houston, and Raleigh

loading… Hanover, Houston, and Raleigh?  Is this a blog or a travelogue?  Maybe both.  It’s certainly travel season in my world now.  In the last month, I’ve been to Portland (OR), Montreal, Toronto, and Cleveland.  I’m headed for Hanover, Germany, this weekend for the Hanover Fair.  I’ll be hanging out at the PI booth all…

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Apr 7 2008

Montreal, Toronto, and Cleveland

loading… It’s hard to keep up with blog-able news when your laptop battery dies.  Finding a power outlet in an airport is not easy… and that’s the only place I’ve had “spare” time lately.  Thanks to those of you who noted my absence and “gently chided” me to get busy.  Anyway, here’s some news from…

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Mar 13 2008

Live from Portland…

loading… …it’s Wednesday night.  <insert pratfall here>  On second thought, there’s no need for the pratfall.  We’ve had a good couple days here in Oregon.  [If you missed the obscure SNL reference, click here.] The PROFINET one-day training event on Tuesday went very well especially considering that it was the first of the year.  We’ll…

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