TechCorner 31 - Setting up the Moxa AWK-1121 to Connect to an Access Point by QuantumAutomation3/14/2013 eWON Inc. exhibited at Automation Technology Expo - ATX West, in February 2013 in Anaheim, CA, USA. It was represented by eWON California distributor Quantum Automation. Brian Gallogly, the owner and manager of Quantum Automation, gave a video interview, where he did an excellent job explaining eWON product line: Learn more about eWON (click here).![]() Advantech’s ADAM-6100 series now has a new range of five PROFINET certified Industrial Ethernet Remote I/O modules: Designed with 2,500 VDC isolated protection, these modules are very resistant to field interference. They are also equipped with the PROFINET protocol, and allow daisy chain connections, making it possible to transfer data much faster during process control and other industrial automation applications. Daisy chain connectivity provides a more scalable system with fewer wires to help avoid interference common in factory settings. The ADAM-6100 series can also be mounted in different ways depending on different field situations, such as DIN-rail mounting, wall mounting, and piggybacked. More importantly, Advantech Adam/Apax .NET Utility comes bundled with each ADAM-6100 module, allowing users to configure, set, and test ADAM-6100 modules through Ethernet. ![]() Located about 50 miles south of Bethel (population 6,000) and 50 miles north of the Bering Sea (which warms to 34 degrees in the heat of summer), Tuntutuliak is a tundra village of about 400 Yup'ik Eskimos. Most residents survive from subsistence hunting, fishing and berry-picking. There is one school, two churches and three stores and about 80 houses. As you arrived you probably noticed; this little community is almost surrounded by water. There are no roads, but there is a 10 foot wide boardwalk connection all the buildings. In this rugged land of subzero chills and eternal winter darkness, the residents of Tuntutuliak place a high value on their electrical service. And, here in lies a story worth telling. Nearly 4,000 miles away, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, sits the home of Windwatcher Systems, a manufacturer of wind turbine controls. In recent times, alternative energy, wind farms and tall towers seem to be gaining center stage in national discussions. But, Windwatcher is different. Tom Ellis, Windwatcher Systems President, has created a solution for turbine controls located in remote power systems. According to Ellis, “These remote villages have traditionally used diesel generators to produce their power. And, with the combination of the rising price of diesel and high transportation costs, this power runs about $0.65 per kWh. The cost to the village is more than just high, it's astronomical.” Extreme weather conditions and long travelsTom’s organization produces a control system that not only matches the output of the wind turbine with the diesel generator, it controls factors not found in your typical wind farm application. “In the artic, the temperatures can drop to 30 and even 40 below zero. At those extremes in temperature, air is much denser than in normal situations. Because of this phenomenon turbines can over produce. With this factor in mind, the Windwatcher control system was designed to be scaled for these conditions.”, again per Mr. Ellis. Here’s the crux of the story. Windwatcher Systems must have the ability to remotely monitor their systems in the field. Here’s what Ellis says about this requirement, “It takes over 26 hours to travel to these remote locations, when travel is even possible. We leave Colorado Springs early in the morning, fly to Seattle, take a plane to Anchorage, grab a commuter flight to Bethel, Alaska and then, if the weather cooperates, go the rest of journey via some Bush Pilot. In at least one instance, we found ourselves stranded and traveled over 100 miles via snow mobile. Not good.” eWON - reliable remote systemAfter searching the market for a reliable remote system to monitor and tweak their control systems, Windwatcher discovered the eWON device. Here are their words, “We looked into a number of systems for monitoring but we knew that we had come on something much different as we made some final tests. Our system was being assembled in a panel shop about 100 miles away and we decided to run a test rather than make the drive. We asked the shop to turn on power and we made the connection. The rest fell into place like magic.” The eWON system allows for remote programming, trouble shooting and monitoring like nothing else on the market. “The eWON system just takes the stress out of shipping our systems to the far corners of the globe. For example, just last week we were able to update and test seven systems in a single day; all from the comfort of our office. Nothing else on the market allows that kind of flexibility.” Full integration of IT security standardsHow does the eWON system work? The eWON system offers a unique method for establishing secure internet connection between the user and the machine with minimal behind the scenes LAN work. eWON has developed Talk2M (talk to machine), a smart Web-based remote access method. The cool point about Talk2M is the full integration of IT security standards. It enables Internet VPN connection between the user and the remote machine without requiring any changes to IT network security settings at either end. This allows easy deployment while hiding the complexity of the IT network infrastructure. Since connections to the cloud are outbound, firewalls remain intact to protect the network against malware and virus – like Stuxnet. Collection of dataIn addition to these features, eWON also allows collection of data to be resident on their devise. This allows for monitoring even when the device is not online do to network outages. And, because the eWON system operates using Ethernet, other non-control devices can easily piggyback onto the architecture. Just imagine the power of not only control system monitoring but also connection to video streams for a quick “visual inspection” of the environment.The importance of the eWON system came through loud and clear when Windwatcher President Tom Ellis made one final statement.
“Without the eWON device our whole business model comes to a screeching halt. We couldn’t do what we do without the remote monitoring provided by eWON. The eWON products open up a new paradigm where distance, travel, and lack of expertise in the remote villages is no longer a deal breaker. We can improve the quality of life for the residents of remote villages and deliver world class service anywhere on the planet. Simply put, the numbers just don’t add up without eWON.” Finally, a quick check of the weather indicates the temperature in Tuntutuliak will be -32. TechCorner 30 - Convert from ASCII to Ethernet or Serial in just 15 minutes!! by QuantumAutomation2/25/2013 As computers assume greater and greater importance in vehicular systems, specialized hardware with highly engineered data protections will be needed. Railways are an excellent example: operators are already applying information and automation technologies at every level of their service, and in rail environments extremes of heat, cold, and vibration rapidly erode commercial IT computing hardware. With computers now being integrated to facilitate customer safety and convenience, consolidate management, maintenance, and oversight, or to guarantee nine-nines of availability for remote control and communications, Moxa’s SafeGuard™ suite of technology features offer not just trains, but any mobile system a powerful industrial-grade automation/information solution. The SafeGuard security suite for computers addresses a whole host of mobile applications challenges, overcoming problems that are simply beyond the range of commercial IT hardware. In particular, SafeGuard is tailored for the special, ever-present environmental challenges that are found on railways. The EN 50155 industrial standard was established by international bodies to clearly identify devices suitable for railway use, addressing a range of issues that include power surges and supply interruptions, vibration, heat, and more. As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of IA/IT convergence devices, Moxa has taken these international developments as its compass, and SafeGuard represents our response: a suite of data protections and tidy automations specifically tailored for rail applications, but which offer a powerful solution for any mobile environment, no matter how harsh. Take onboard network video recorders as an example: an NVR is a software package that typically runs on a dedicated, embedded device. These computing platforms receive video streams and save them in retrievable formats; thus, they require a large storage capacity. Yet mechanical storage devices are famously susceptible to vibration and temperature extremes, and while solid-state drives (SSDs) offer much more rugged endurance with regard to vibration, high capacity SSDs are far more expensive and remain susceptible to temperature extremes. SafeGuard™ answers all of these technological challenges, and then some. The Challenges of Train and TracksideComputing platforms aboard ships and trains suffer because these massive vehicles are operated by massive engines overseen by relatively small crews. This means a system must be both centralized and highly resistant to temperature and vibration extremes. SafeGuard addresses these challenges in four basic ways:
Centralized Power Controls and FailsafesCentralizing power controls involves altering the BIOS so that remote digital I/O or analog relay may be used to cleanly start up or shut down the OS. This allows the train operator to power up (or down) all computers simultaneously, so that the operator can, with only the flick of a switch, be certain that all the cabinets are on or off, as expected. Extreme Temperature Tolerance![]() Active temperature protection typically means fans; however, these components introduce one more point of failure, and significantly reduce the machine’s MTBF. Moxa’s approach is to first push passive controls to their limit, by turning the entire case into one large heat sink. With appropriate materials and careful attention to the board layout, high thermal tolerance can be achieved passively, eliminating the fans. However, when active controls are appropriately durable and reliable, they may still be used. To address more extreme temperatures, a temperature sensor is installed, with monitoring software that will cut power to the hard disk when necessary; the computer then logs new data to a solid-state, non-volatile buffer until the temperature returns to within the operable threshold. Finally, for climates where temperatures can drop to well below zero, SafeGuard provides a fully automated onboard heater, to warm the device to an operative temperature. Vibration and Shock SafeGuards![]() The effects of vibration are one of the biggest challenges for onboard computers. Solid state drives are one answer, but large capacity drives are extremely expensive, and still susceptible to heat and cold. SafeGuard’s approach is to mount industrial-grade hard disks on highly shock-resistant, asymmetrical brackets that significantly dampen resonant vibrations. This reduces displacement at the center of the drive and distributes oscillations across much more widely distributed axial dimensions, dissipating the oscillations across a wider space and significantly enhancing the drive’s already high tolerances. SafeGuard also goes further: an independent, onboard vibration sensor (G-sensor) is included, allowing operators to monitor and log conditions for later analysis. With better awareness and the drive preparations mentioned above, significant increases in MTBF are easily achieved even in vibration-prone train environments. Moreover, SafeGuard’s G-sensor is so sensitive and accurate that it may double as a site-monitoring tool, so that engineers may use it to gather environmental data about the entire station. Power Supply Protections![]() Protection of and from the power supply is the last critical problem that railway systems must overcome. The first line of SafeGuard protections are optical isolators paired with power-module capacitors. The capacitors hold enough charge to carry the device through a 10 ms failure in power supply, while optical isolation provides strong protection against surges. However, by using serial or digital I/O interfaces to pair up a Moxa computer with an unlimited power supply (UPS), further benefits are gained. A UPS may be set up to provide surge protection, power redundancy, and local power monitoring and control, all in one. When power is lost, the UPS can maintain normal operations while initializing a safe shutdown. In this way, computers which have been cut off from their regular power supply will still power down using the standard system shutdown process, guaranteeing your data and storage drives remain secure and properly synchronized. ConclusionBecause of the peculiar environmental conditions introduced by motorized transport, vehicular computers—and particularly those used in railway applications—require more sophisticated and thoughtful designs than commercial IT hardware. Advanced technologies are needed to protect these computers from the conditions that inevitably arise. The SafeGuard technology suite is Moxa’s solution: automated power and vibration protections; built-in temperature and vibration sensors; and simply automated controls make SafeGuard an important element in type-approved EN 50155 systems, and a powerful feature for mobile vehicular systems of any sort.
According to recent studies conducted by IMS Research, three of the most pervasive Ethernet-based protocols, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and Modbus TCP, account for more than 65% of the world’s existing industrial automation deployments, and their collective growth from 2010 to 2015 is expected to exceed 18 million new nodes. As industrial automation networks expand and factory systems converge, integration of various Ethernet-based protocols and bridging of fieldbus systems will be inevitable. An Ethernet-based single-network infrastructure offers operators the efficiency of centralized network management with greater network scalability, higher bandwidth availability, and faster failure recovery. But in order to optimize these industrial Ethernet capabilities and streamline industrial automation deployment/convergence, system integrators must surmount two considerable challenges:
Three components for PLC network optimizationAs device networks expand into larger control networks through fieldbus-to-Ethernet integration, network deployment and management become more complex, and network performance becomes highly critical. To optimize PLC network performance and management, Moxa’s industrial Ethernet switches and fieldbus gateways are designed with a network-centric approach to enhance overall performance, improve deployment and management efficiency, and provide application flexibility. Performance optimization of industrial automation networks is critical for maximum productivity and reliability. Maintaining high network availability requires speedy recovery of network components, including fast boot-up times and millisecond-level redundancy recovery. Moxa’s switch and gateway solutions can be integrated seamlessly to optimize PLC network performance, such as PI-certified PROFINET switches and PROFIBUS gateways, which are certified for conformance and interoperability.
To optimize deployment efficiency, Moxa’s industrial Ethernet switches are plug-n-play for simple deployment, and the industrial gateways provide effortless configuration innovations, including AutoScan and QuickLink, to enable fieldbus-to-Ethernet integration in a fraction of the time. Automatic detection of PROFIBUS I/O modules and Modbus device settings eliminates the possibility of manual-input errors. In addition, Moxa’s industrial gateways also feature relay alarm settings, event logging, complete device status for troubleshooting, and a powerful utility to analyze and monitor protocols. Flexibility of switch and gateway devices, such as port density, connector/interface type, IP (ingress protection) rating, and protocol compatibility allows operators to optimize PLC network deployment. Many industrial automation applications are deployed in harsh operating environments and can require wide-temperature operation and industry-specific certifications.
Moxa solutions and professional servicesMoxa provides a selection of networking products for optimization of PLC network performance and management, including industrial Ethernet switches and gateways designed specifically for EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and Modbus TCP applications. With multiple locations for professional support and customization services available, Moxa is the innovative leader in industrial Ethernet solutions for automation networking applications.
Advantech's ADAM-2000 Wireless I/O ModulesInduSoft Web Studio was recently demonstrated at the Unified wine and Grape Symposium, a conference for vintners. Quantum Automation showcased an application built on the InduSoft Web Studio SCADA software platform, and deployed on a laptop connected to a 19” flat panel display. The application, designed for demonstration at the show, featured InduSoft Web Studio capabilities for SCADA, with integration of the reporting capabilities of Dream Report. Features such as video monitoring, bottling and capping line control, and access to field irrigation systems were shown in the demo, and can be seen in the video tour here: This show is not the only time InduSoft Web Studio has proven to be the ideal tool for agriculture or food and beverage manufacturing. Here are some other examples of the applications of InduSoft Web Studio SCADA software in automating farms, and food and drug manufacturing. Watch Here
Advantech’s Industrial Automation Group is pleased to announce their full support of Microsoft Windows 8. There are several powerful functions added into this release, including Natural User Interface (NUI), cloud connectivity, Windows-to-Go, and Secure Boot. Windows 8 gives power to different kinds of devices with advanced technologies that deliver premium user experiences—all on a solid and more secure platform. As a long-term Gold Partner with Microsoft, Advantech offers a complete product lineup which fully supports Windows 8. The application of Microsoft Windows Embedded software products on Advantech platforms offers the most effective support to the embedded computing community, in scenarios such as environmental monitoring & facility management, power and energy, machine automation, and building automation. Microsoft extensively designed the User Interface on Windows 8 with optimizations for touchscreens as well as keyboards and mouse. The new “Start Screen” is similar to Windows phone family of mobile operating systems and includes application tiles. The start menu has been replaced by the start screen and is triggered by a Windows key.
Q: How long will the DL06 retain its memory after the battery has been removed? A: The AutomationDirect DL06 will retain its complete memory for 5 to 7 days with the battery removed. After that period of time, you may see some data loss Q: Where can I find example applications and projects for the Automation Direct line of PLCs? A: The Example Programs page at Automationdirect.com features numerous project files that you can use to further understand a concept or directly insert into your own project. Check it out at this link: Example Programs ![]() Q: What's the difference between B, C, and D curve circuit breakers? A: All Circuit Breakers carry a current rating (In) which is the amount of current the breaker can carry continuously. The curve type (B, C, D, etc...) designates the instantaneous trip current range, or the amount of current at which the breaker will trip without causing a time delay. Generally, the higher the current spike, the faster the breaker will trip. Below you'll find a list of the the most common curve types and their instantaneous trip ratings. B Curve: Trips above 3 times In up to 5 times In C Curve: Trips above 5 times In up to 10 times In D Curve: Trips above 10 times In up to 20 times In REASONS WHY THOUSANDS OF COMPANIES USE QUANTUM AUTOMATION:Technical Info for Circuit Protection / Fuses / Disconnects
Manuals for Circuit Protection / Fuses / Disconnects
Product Inserts for Circuit Protection / Fuses / Disconnects
Q: How do I find the Modbus address of a given memory location (V, SP, C, etc...) in my DirectLogic PLC (05/06/205/305/405)? A: You can use the Modbus conversion utility provided by AutomationDirect to translate any of the following types of V-memory: X, GX, Y, GY, C, SP, T, CT, S. Right Click and select "Save link as..." to download: Modbus_Utility.xls Note: Make sure to read the RED note at the bottom and only change the Red numbers in the spreadsheet. You can use "Save as" to save your configured address sheet when finished. ![]()
Maintaining success is often harder than achieving it. For instance, a microbrewer may come up with an amazing new beer, but it quickly becomes so popular that its high-quality process is stressed by cries for high-volume production. Well, Green Flash Brewing Co. in San Diego, Calif., may have resolved some of this eternal quality vs. quantity tug o' war. Its new plant is controlled by a micro-programmable logical controller (PLC) that gives its meticulous microbrewing process some of the added efficiencies needed to produce more beer and compete with larger operations, while maintaining the quality and taste that made it famous in the first place. Read More --->
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