More News to Amuse
loading… Gary Mintchell blogged about Ethercat opening an office in the US so I checked out their website to discover that the Ethercat Technology Group is “The world’s largest Industrial Ethernet organisation.” Hmm, that did not sound… accurate. So I set about comparing us to them: PROFINET Ethercat Organization size 1400 512 Regional…
News and Views
loading… I’m on the plane returning from Gary, IN and a PROFIBUS one-day training class. One of the attendees remarked that the class was very different from the one he took three years ago. He was very right; the class has evolved significantly over the years as we change and add material to reflect advances…
Workshops, Seminars, Webinars, and Meetings
loading… PROFINET Developer Workshop. Our first PROFINET Developer Workshop finished up last week in Detroit. Seven suppliers of Industrial Ethernet development tools explained how their solution could be used for PROFINET (and other protocols). Those suppliers were PTO members Comtrol Corp., Hilscher North America, Inc., HMS Industrial Networks, Inc., IXXAT, Inc., Real Time Automation, Siemens…
Yes, Yes, Nodes Again!
loading… Yikes, where does the time go? I haven’t posted for 10 days. Where does the time go? Boston for the PROFIBUS in Process one-day training event Industrial Ethernet webinar number 2 General Assembly Meeting preparation PROFINET Developer Workshop preparation PROFInews North American Edition newsletter (And you thought the question…
No, No, Not Nodes Again
loading… Discrepancies upset me, so I was pleased to meet with John Morse of IMS at Hanover so I could ask him about the differences between the PROFIBUS node count he reported for 2006 and our own count. His was half of ours. I received a reply from John after he had the opportunity to…
St. Nashville, Boston, Webinar
loading… St. Nashville? How about St. Louis and Nashville. We concluded the Nashville PROFIBUS one-day training event and the St. Louis PROFINET one-day training class this week. Mike A was in Nashville where the schedule was overrun by an hour due to some excellent discussion time. In St. Louis we actually finished just a little…
All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek
loading… A convergence of Star Trek news hit my desk[top] recently. “What If the Starship Extraprize Had a DCS?” asks a chapter in the eBook A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Control Room by Gregory K. McMillan. [I like it even though I don’t think Trek and Wars blend well.] Scotty goes…
More blogging
loading… Peter Welander of Control Engineering has joined the blogosphere. His first post is up at http://www.controleng.com/blog/490000249.html. He started with cartoon references – always a good start in my book. Which reminds me of a couple cartoons I have that when combined go something like this: Husband to wife: What do you mean we don’t…
Safety – Separate or Integrated?
loading… Safety systems – should they be separated from or integrated with the control system? Surprisingly, vendors who offer only separate systems say you should use separate systems and vendors who offer only integrated systems say you should use integrated systems. Meanwhile, I think users are saying they should use hardwired relays. The users are…
Standard Unmodified Ethernet
loading… Standard Unmodified Ethernet (SUE) – meaningless phrase for the day. Gary Mintchell baited me on his blog and I rose to the bait. Read his entry and my comment at http://radio.weblogs.com/0133292/2007/04/24.html#a1025.