A Big THUMs Up

Larry Wolfe just got our first THUM and installed it on our proof of concept system.

So what’s a THUM you may ask? Emerson’s 755 Smart Wireless THUM adapter (it's that bulbous attachment on top of the Rosemount 3144 temperature transmitter) adapts the wired HART protocol to the Wireless HART protocol. It's the perfect choice to set free all the diagnostic and process data trapped in HART devices stranded on your legacy automation platform. Check out the THUM here.

We've just had a customer here in the Carolinas purchase 75 THUM's - that's a heck of a way to kickstart your wireless mesh network. 

Server Room Extreme Makeover

While we consolidated all our project servers and mimic simulation equipment into a single location awhile back and took care of HVAC issues (thanks to wireless technology and our RegReports package), the space was in desperate need of a cleanup and makeover.

With our extensive use of VMWare, we’ve been able to add more than 50% server capacity without increasing our hardware footprint (not to mention our electrical load – how’s that for being green). And now we’ve made the layout and access easier and simpler for all our engineers to use. Easier to use = less time spent on non-value add activities and a better value for our customers.

One issue we always faced in the past was changing up DeltaV controllers from one system to another as project requirements change. With the new network and switch layout, we’ve eliminated all the confusion.

Scott Thompson did a great job getting all this organized (Ty Pennington’s been calling to see if Scott’s got any free time).

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how we were handling all those SI dongles in a VMWare environment, take a look at this:

anybody jealous out there?

Sync With Syncade 2.0

We’re putting the finishing touches on version 2.0 of our Sync With Syncade utility. We developed Sync about a year ago to allow DeltaV and other automation platforms with OPC servers to trigger Events on Equipment in Emerson’s Syncade ET module.

Of course one of the first things I heard when I presented Sync With Syncade at the 2009 Emerson Exchange was “can you reverse the process and have Syncade trigger DeltaV?” Well, now we can. In version 2.0, you can configure Sync to monitor Event states and write values into parameters via OPC when an Event changes state.

 

This could come in handy for a deployment of Syncade and ET without workflow. By using Sync, a tripped event on a piece of equipment in ET can cause a parameter in a DeltaV module to be set, thereby causing an SFC to start running.

Checkout a short demo video on my YouTube site – www.youtube.com/acmebiotech