ISA 2007
I went to the ISA show last month. It was alright. I learned some, connected with a few old friends, and made some valuable contacts. I look forward to the show when they come around, and wasn't disappointed.
I find
this observation from Joe Pinto interesting though.
Attendance at central exhibitions is declining only because, in the age of the Internet and tortuous air-travel, few want to travel to distant locations for an old-fashioned "exhibition".
He has a point, but as he suggest, these things aren't only about learning new technologies and products. They are also about people, contacts old and new.
Ultra Caps Redone
We wrote a
bit about ultra-capacitors a couple of weeks ago. It appears they are
in the news again. This time with nano-tubes. The article is a good over view about the the state of the art concerning Ultra capacititors, and realistic in their potential applications. Its a fascinating article that not only goes into an indepth explanation of the research, but it is written first hand by one of the developers himself, Joel Schindall
. I thought this photo was slick.
Photo: Riccardo Signorelli/MIT
ELECTRIC SHAG: A cross section of an electrode made with carbon nanotubes.
Another Neat Tool from Fluke
Maybe this should be under the header
"It's about time" We use clamp on current detectors all the time here at
PCO but these are high current monitors for testing power supply outputs and so forth. The new
Fluke 771 is used in testing process current loops, 4-20 ma loops in particular. Having to break a current loop in order to test the circuit isn't always practical and checking the Voltage won't always give us a real picture of whats happening. List price for this is $395. It could pay for itself the first time its really needed. This is going to be on every instrument techs must have list.
Cameras, a useful tool
At our shop in
Baytown I find that our little digital camera is one of the most useful in our arsenal. I admit its not thought of as useful as our multimeters and o'scopes but it can save a lot of work and surely aids in communication.
While working on an old 650 Watt Sorensen power supply it became apparent that a small 4 winding toroid transformer had to be changed. I needed to rewind it with some fresh new magnetic wire. Now I could try to make notes on where each of the leads go and try to keep track of each of their windings and polarities. The simple thing to do of course is take a picture, print it out on the laser/ink jet jot a few notes and I have some pretty foolproof documentation. Using Photoshop or just about any other photo editing software one could put text tags mark up a photo that will be emailed or saved to disk. A picture can also simplify a written procedure by showing just what a specific setup is supposed to look like.
Often part numbers can be confusing a particular widget might have a zillion options and a dozen build options a picture just might be the way to communicate exactly what widget is under discussion.
Some companies have pretty tight security policies on cameras in the workplace. We as support people have to live within whatever guidelines that are given us. However in most cases justification can be made in the time and money that a camera can save in documentation and communications. I am seeing more shops and support people with cameras available when they need them.
Labels: Electronics, Industry, Troubleshooting
