Aircraft carrier redundant ring around Richmond
loading… Our one-day training event in Richmond concluded earlier today covering PROFIBUS in the Process Industry. One of our process application examples is aircraft carriers. Process application? Aircraft carrier? Didn’t make sense to me either until someone described an aircraft carrier as a tank farm for jet fuel… that floats. No wonder they keep the…
Training PROFIsafe Twins Newsletter
loading… Safely ensconced in my hotel room in Minneapolis, I can report on today’s PROFINET one-day training event. We had a few more no-shows than normal but the walk-ins compensated for them, I guess, because we filled all the seats. Turck was an exhibitor for the first time at a PROFINET one-day training event. They…
You know what they say about paradigms…
loading… It was 50 years ago last week that the world was introduced to that marvel of computer storage – the hard drive. According to an article at eweek.com, it was on September 4, 1956 that IBM introduced the “Disk Storage Unit.” Using 50 24-inch platters, they were able to cram in a whopping 5MB of…
Standards are a good thing…
loading… “Standards are a good thing. That’s why there are so many of them.” So begins an article in Computer, the magazine of the IEEE Computer Society. This article is about software, but it’s interesting to relate the author’s premises to industrial automation. And it’s one of my pet topics anyway. His second paragraph: Of…
Bus Wars, Part 3
loading… ARGH! Bus wars?! Oh well, I have to accept that these titles sell magazines. Not a bad article in Control though: “Welcome to the Bus Wars, Part Tres.” This is about motion control and the key point for PROFINET is that the same Industrial Ethernet can be used for motion and all the other…
Industrial Ethernet Symposium
loading… I just finished registering for the 2006 Industrial Ethernet Symposium. This will provide an excellent opportunity for those who want a great introduction to Industrial Ethernet. Not only is it an opportunity to hear from users who have actually implemented Industrial Ethernet, but it’s a good opportunity to compare the various technologies. All the…
IT and engineering – two organizations separated by common technology
loading… This Automation World article is a must-read for anyone contemplating Industrial Ethernet: “Marriage Made Where?” It’s about the necessity of IT and Control Engineering working together. Great quote by Eric Cosman from the article: “It’s becoming more and more important for IT and engineering to work together, because we are now two organizations separated…
PROFIBUS, PROFINET, and Fieldbuses in the news – part 2
loading… Well, the airplane seat wasn’t big enough to comfortably use the computer. So, I settled for listening to Gary Mintchell’s podcast and then opened a novel. But Saturday afternoon’s low scoring Arizona Diamondbacks’ game gave me time to write. Herewith, some recommended reading on fieldbuses, wireless, and Industrial Ethernet. Plus some “pot-stirring”? Fieldbuses “Fieldbus…
PROFIcast Number One
loading… As an experiment, here is the first PROFIblog podcast, PROFIcast, for short. It’s a report on the recent PTO General Assembly Meeting. Most of this was covered in the blog, but if you have more time to listen than to read, please download it. I’m not sure if we’ll do any more – it…
Live form Portland
loading… The PROFINET one-day training event here in Portland is over and we continue to offer a balanced program; e.g., we get an equal number of “do more demos” and “do fewer demos.” So I guess we’ll stay the course. Lately at these training sessions the light bulb seems to go on earlier about the…