Categorizing things...

Comments on whether you prefer to categorize in one of the following ways:-

• - Single - a very existential approach - to be or not to be...
• - Dual - It's either this thing or that [only two choices]
• - Triple - It's this or that or the other [no one likes to be the other]

I found that categorizing things in hierarchical groups of 3 enables us to make sense of prioritization with a minimum number of levels. For example the hierarchy shown above Things -> {Numbers{Even, Prime,Other}, Colors{Purple,Cyan,Blue}, Shapes{Circles, Rectangles,_}}.

Remote Control Modes - Local vs Remote

This amounts to a short note really.  

Nothing too mind bending, just the usual confusion with language we sometimes have....

Often Control Selectors and Mode switches are provided to assist off-normal operation or maintenance.

These days most control is done remotely, with Local control being the abnormal case.

Local control refers to the control you do when you are remotely located ? Doesn't make a lot of sense linguistically at least. 

So LOCAL really means LOCAL to the controlled Equipment.  REMOTE means controlled remotely from the MCR/PCR/MCC etc. normally a remote central location.

Of course we have confused the issue somewhat with the choice of language in SCADA where Supervisory control is managed from the REMOTE control location, and the Remote Terminal Units [RTU] are provided in the locality of the equipment.

So what of a Remote/Local control switch ?

A Remote/Local control selector switch can often be situated in proximity to the controlled plant [i.e. LOCAL to the equipment] and allow an operator to take control locally and avoid the need to interact or accept remote supervisory commands.

Switching the Selector to REMOTE allows the equipment to be controlled REMOTELY from a SCADA Master Station.

The important point to remember is that LOCAL always refers to the locality of the actual equipment.

If you have a particularly fine example of local control remote/local selector switch that you would like to contribute a photo of, please feel free to make a comment or send an email.

Happy Christmas.

Chris Smith

Sydney, Australia

Harry's Christmas Indigo collection

Water was what Harry was worried about. More specifically the effectiveness of it at his secret Indium mine site. Harry had something going wrong with the collection of Indium from the falls water, which was bad. His whole process was based on collecting the metal after heavy rains in a remote area.

Harry had come up with an autonomous process which extracted the rare metal directly from a stream of water flowing over the zinc/indium ore bearing rocks. Still unsure as to why there would be an unusually high concentration of Indium, Harry was not bothered.  All he had to do was make sure the tanks collected the water at the right time and flow rate and then run a solar powered concentration process on site remotely.  Every year he would go up the mountain and collect, just in time for Christmas.

This year things were not working out. The collection timing was wrong, all the equipment was working, but the collections were just not making it.

Thanksgiving moment...

Happy Thanksgiving ... the Internet of Islands..

No Man Is An Island

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

.....

...

John Donne

On US thanksgiving this year, I give thanks for the men and women who make up the Foxboro SCADA virtual team[s].  Located in many far flung cities, and more as an International group of friends/colleagues with a common purpose to support the Foxboro SCADA brand.  This year there are many long term colleagues as well as some new faces.  Without facebook and linkedIn or even our Invensys iShare portal it can be a struggle to put a face to a name or a voice to a name and a face on those late night conference calls.

Foxboro SCADA have an excellent distributed team with a positive helpful outlook.  Each member of the immediate product support team is located in many cities from many different countries.  Let me list them here.... but in particular - a special thanks to Patrizia and Simon, Joe and Fred, Shahid and Lu who really have put in an amazing effort daily.

USA, UK, ITALY, INDIA, CHINA, AUSTRALIA

For those of you who celebrate thanksgiving, have a great and happy holiday with your friends.  For those of you who don't you can breathe easy for a few days until the full distributed virtual team is back on deck.

Thankyou and bless all of our customers and our regional delivery and sales teams for your support and encouragement throughout the last year.

Chris Smith
Sydney Australia

PS: We don't get the holiday here in Australia [although it did make it to Norfolk Island] but having lived and worked in USA many times our family continues to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Sydney as well.  It's a lot warmer and light well into the evening... a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Photo ISLAND : courtesy by attribution from Sinead Friel : Flickr.com

Closing the cover door continued .. a User Initiated Innovation story.

About a year ago I blogged a post describing a User Initiated Innovation [UII] for the SCD5200.  An innovation can be defined as that intersection point where intuition meets invention and you get something new turning up.  The intuition here was obvious.  The door cover would not close when you continue to use thick 1mm2 wire with the higher levels [750v] insulation.. just not enough room. [ In the backblogs..."close the cover-door-click-please"]

The Foxboro SCD5200 Remote Terminal Unit

Now, a year hence.. I thought time to revisit progress on this and portray some of the comparative results so far.

Changing the Good Oil Remotely - Foxboro Evo Maintain on the SCD2200



Design Variations can hinder operation and maintenance

Occasionally developers find it useful to add enhancements to a product, adding some esoteric variation and new set of use cases.  This can happen often with systems level products, oweing to the almost infinite variety of NEW NEW end user configurations which can be achieved.

 

Toward the end of last week on my return to Australia, I visited Bondi Beach in Sydney and took the pilgrimage around the headland which was hosting the annual 'Sculptures by the Sea' event.  There among the hundred odd sculptures scattered around the cliff walk was a car which had been shall we say 'enhanced' by the addition of various pipes and structures.  The topology of the thing would definitely give your average maintenance technician a headache, probably which could only be resolved by a swim with the sharks or a welding torch.

 

Changing Guard with Foxboro Evo Protect

SAFE - AVAILABLE - SECURE

People take protective measures to guard something important to their daily lives and take care of others involved in it's operation. To protect means to make someone/thing/group safe from harm, ensure continuing availability and provide security from attack. These three aspects are embodied in the Foxboro Evo PROTECT activities.

We changed recently from having control and safety systems to having Protect and Operate systems as part of the set.  Mapping these to traditional systems

	Foxboro Evo
System	Protect	Operate
Security	Y
Supervisory	Y	Y
Control		Y
Safety	Y
Protection	Y

• Protection systems are traditional in the utility and power sectors and generally provide real-time monitoring and extremely rapid action against transient events such as overload, underfrequency and overfrequency, protecting equipment and powerlines directly.
• Safety systems are more aligned to protection of plant and people in process control, where chemical processes can become uncontrolled and endanger plant and personnel.
• Security systems are becoming more tightly integrated with all aspects of computer [cyber] based control systems and are designed to protect against malicious attack and denial of service.
• Supervisory Systems provide remote supervisory control, however through the use of necessarily public or unsecured communications systems require the use of securely authenticated communications protocols to protect communications.

The combination of all systems relating therefore to maximizing availability, maximising personnel safety and maximizing system security while protecting the installed assets make sense and this therefore represents the core of the Foxboro Evo : PROTECT system.

PROTECT activities can also be extended into the application layer for particular industry segments.  In upstream oil and gas for example, the following protection activities can apply:-

• Environmental Protection - Leak Detection in Pipelines [Transient]
• Environmental Protection - Blowout prevention on Wells [Transient and Permanent]
• Personnel Safety - Safety Shutdown of Well Systems with H2S entrained
• Communications Protection - Use of DNP Secure Authentication Application, Use of secure Wireless Communications

Key Benefits of Foxboro Evo PROTECT

• Ensure continuously safe, available, secure operations
• Prevent an incident before it happens
• Enable fast responses to faults at every level
• Unify safety and control user experience, without jeopardizing hardware integrity

Key Capabilities

• Intelligent integration of the world’s leading emergency shutdown system provides an option for integrated control and safety functionality, available through a single operator interface
• No single point of hardware and software failure
• Pervasive redundancy in hardware and software optimizes system availability and reduces risk
• State-of-the-art cyber security hardening is designed and implemented throughout the system to enhance risk reduction

With Foxboro Evo we believe it is important to understand the way in which multiple systems integrate without compromising function in order to provide the complete protective system.  Cyber security, Safety and Protection systems combine forces to provide a complete protection of people, assets and information in order to maximise safety security and availability.  Think over the change in the way of looking at things with Foxboro Evo by reviewing the link.

This changing of the guard topic is a useful anchor for any commentary on the new methodology of Foxboro Evo Protect. If you have any constructive comments these will be published alongside this blog posting.



Photo Attrib. CC Indigo Girl : Flickr.com

At the launch of Foxboro Evo

Beyond the great Gatsby ! some of the team of Evo genius at the launch in San Antonio this week!

This changes Everything !

As does the neon shirt !

With Foxboro classic Steven Golemme as Evo Genius , Chris Smith as The Alamo and Rod Wetcsh, Steering us around the change.

Water wheel Art Fashion in Brunei

Forecourt Fountain in Gadong Brunei

Spent a few days in Brunei just now.  Invensys has longstanding customers and installations there.

 

The hotel forecourt in Gadong had an interesting water feature. Curious I went out into the early morning sunshine and was attracted to it's design combination of Arabic and Asian ideas.

 

Soon, there came a young lady dressed in a kind of brightly colored neon Arabic dress who was carefully cleaning around the outside of the fountain. Curious to see the dynamics of the fountain, I leaned over the edge to try to rotate the chrome plated water wheels on the sides of the dry glass columns.

 

"Does this fountain have water in it sometimes ?" I asked, kind of worried that I was probably not supposed to be messing around with the little water wheels, and maybe it was guests like me that broke it in the first place.

 

"I don't know.. but how are you Sir?", she said, smiling and happy conversing with a strange guy in a suit and tie, balanced on the parapet of the obviously dry water feature.

 

"Clearly a maintenance issue" I thought. "At least the wheels still turn !" I said.

 

"Yes, It was nice talking to you !" she said.  "Hope to see you again !"

 

Next time I must wear some brightly colored neon shirt and jump in !

 

 

 



More thoughts on the Hyperloop

Dear Hyperpassengers,



Static Electricity Demonstration in a Tube

Enjoyed reading the Hyperloop Alpha document on the slow old train yesterday. I had a few extra thoughts about some features not yet documented.

Static Electricity
The tube pressure is like stratospherically low.  About 1/1000th outside air pressure.  Such a low pressure would result in a extremely hyper dry air inside the tubes, since it is also significantly lower than the vapour pressure of water at that same temperature.  The pods in the hyperloop will carry us forward at sub-sonic .98 Mach speeds in a near vacuum. The electrodynamics and impact of the ultra-dry air inside the tube are not represented in the Alpha document so far. Look forward to gold plated pods which would conduct well enough to reduce the static effects transferred to the inside of the pods.  Love those electric fields in the lab, but you would not want the trip to be too hair raising.

The Sydney Canberra Aeolian Hyper Boomer Loop - Perfect Timing

Dear Bloggers,

Rail and Telegraph : The Overland Telegraph Australia originally joined 1872

I'm excited by news of Elon Musk's Hyperloop, the 'Air' tube building on the inspiration of the Medhurst Aeolian Engine from early 1800s. Political and Economic roadblocks [can you have a roadblock for a Hyperloop ?] could easily be circumvented if Elon brought the idea through to Australia. What better place to try an Aeolian solution than a high speed link between Sydney and Canberra ?

Perhaps you've been reading the naysayer's commentary, or otherwise following it on twitter. My suggestion is to follow @mollywood 's great CNET article on that topic. There is a right time for an idea as well, the drive technology has to be right, the need, the public readiness for change and the materials technology has to be economic.  When all these factors line up, then you can see the right things happening.  I'll admit Right of Way can be costly, but this should not be a problem in Australia between Sydney and Canberra at least.

A Tale of Two Genius

2 genii speak key notes at automation events next month.

Whether you get your 'Spurs' on for the  Foxboro Triconex Global User Conference, San Antonio, or swing with the 'Saints' down at the ISA Sales and Marketing Conference in New Orleans. You just can't decide ? Never mind !.  Come to both events. Two great industrial automation events in one week. It's tough but it can be done.  Automation, once the province of enlightened engineers and university research bodies, now extends to professionals and amateurs in myriads of plants and small enterprises world wide. We've all become part of a global community alike through the ubiquity of the Internet.  We all can share information, ideas, translations and comment on progress of ideas daily.  Social networking has allowed people like myself in far flung corners of the world to connect and interact immediately with nearly anyone who can speak the language.  So how then do user groups and conferences play out in relation to their new online world ?

Lawbreaking - In a P.E.R.F.E.C.T. way !



In 2009 The DARPA Red Balloon Challenge made headlines, but I didn't take a lot of notice at the time.  I didn't see any red balloons either.

However...

In Oct 2012 : MilitaryAerospace' Editor John Keller reported on the  advent of PERFECT.

The DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) last week awarded a $6.3 million contract to SRI International in Princeton, N.J.; and an $8.7 million contract to Reservoir Labs Inc. in New York for the Power Efficiency Revolution For Embedded Computing Technologies (PERFECT) program, which seeks to overcome power efficiency barriers that limit the capabilities of military embedded systems.

Englebart and Bose As We Might Think and hear Mr Mouse..

As we might think of them...

This last month, July 2013 saw the passing of two great American electrical engineers of our mum's and dad's generation. We read obits. about Amar Bose and Doug Engelbart, both pioneers of the development of new technology for our next industrial information revolution.

Testing Ophelia - the emergence of the cloud lenticular

Lenticular Cloud over Mt Youtei [Japan]

I doubt Shakespeare's prince of Denmark ever climbed Mt Youtei, let alone discovered cloud computing. Certainly Ophelia looked up to him with increasing wonder... was either she or he going mad ?. Did Rosencrantz and Guildenstern really change the game ?

One wonders with the BETA test phase now in full swing on the Dell Wyse Ophelia project whether the use of the name Ophelia is a reference to Hamlet's famous quote:-

 'To be or not to be ?, that is the question !". 

Why ? because this newly enlivened Ophelia, the USB connected cloud computing connector really sounds like the end for the consumer PC.   This post postulates a use case and gives handy references to the press articles that are most relevant.

Shipping news - export clearance for RTUs required

IBM 604 Calculator from 1948 - a very very low APP.

Invensys industrial automation teams have been engineering large scale automation of production fields and pipelines for many years.  Recently much investment has been turned toward renewing and improving existing sites rather than applying for big capital to create greenfield projects.  Many older sites need a lot of new gear to get the most efficient production from them in times where sometime cash is not so freely available. Of course all the new gear is based on more modern chip technology with higher MIP ratings and .. yes... you guessed it.. even controllers and Remote Terminal Units have to be cross-checked for their Ajusted Peak Performance [APP] ratings before getting export permission to ship to some destinations.

I search therefore I am ! -- I think. - Google vs Bing to win the mind of Siri

Digital Assistant's pondering the impact of competitive pressure

 

A long time without newpapers flying Sydney to Los Angeles.  A lot can happen in a day. Last night managed to read the usual hotel lobby papers down in El Segundo. Some articles caught my eye.

A striking thing - Apple's Siri [bless her cybo subtlety] will switch to Bing rather than Google. Is it really necessary ? Does it make the product [the iPhone] less effective using Bing for Siri rather than Google for Siri ?  Will this make Siri's personality different ? Will people want the old Google powered Siri pesonality back -- because I search therefore I am ?!?!?.

Reflecting on IP/Ethernet

"Backstage" - Reflecting on EtherNet / IP / Ethernet

I started out this blog post after reply to a somewhat confused sales person about the use of the trademarked EtherNet/IP protocol with their local telecomms provider. "Could we order a driver for it ? " After several cross-country exchanges we figured out, politely almost, that perhaps the problem was that he was thinking Internet Protocol, best described by DARPA in 1981, but writing EtherNet/IP which refers to the more proprietary Industrial Protocol originated by Rockwell some 20 years later.

How best to explain this .. without being too long suffering about it.

For readers of this blog, the following excerpts from descriptive information found on the web may be a reminder of the difference.

We engineer SCADA for Crude Oil Pipelines.

More land based production means more pipelines.

There is movement in the Crude Oil status quo. Not only did Invensys recently obtain an order to provide a SCADA system on a crude oil pipeline in the UK, but also there is a rapid growth in the production of crude oil in land based formations in the USA. The means more pipelines and more automation to protect the environment. Invensys provides that kind of automation.

We have engineered many SCADA systems on crude oil pipeline networks in the past, having quite large networked SCADA systems installed in China.  It's good to see that pipeline activity is ramping up for us again in the UK.

Welcome to 2013 - A Great New Year and Ready to Rock

Downunder in Australia we get real vacations, middle of summer.. with the start of Christmas and usually people get back to full gear by the end of January.  Well - It's February and after a few weeks warm up we are back in full swing.

• You may have read about fires -- killer gigantic bushfires but the New Years fireworks were awesome.
• You may have read about floods - enough rainwater to cover most of the East Coast and a lot of damage, but the waves were great.

Social Networking

Normally I have been posting information using this blog, and following up with a tweet or two to followers.  This year I have decided to split the twitter account into two.  One focussing on what I might be doing or thinking generally. Another focussing on references relating to SCADA, SECURITY, TECHNOLOGY etc.. thus providing a more focussed publication for followers.

Also I have been kind of technically coerced into signing up with Google+ since it is auto-connected to this blog as well.  There will be a Google+ circle setup for discussion in this regard.

So in starting the year, I would recommend my current automation style twitter friends please follow me on:-

Twitter : @ChrisJSmith_PE

Blog: invensysscada.blogspot.com