Issue 13 – 2009

In each issue of the Automation Notebook we feature a section of brainteasers. These are the brainteaser answers from 13, 2009 of the Automation Notebook. The brainteaser questions are repeated in black. The answers to the brainteaser questions are highlighted in red with explanations. You can view the brainteasers from Issue 13, 2009 without the answers here: http://library.automationdirect.com/brainteasers-issue-13-2009/…

1. Think Tank  If the area of the floor of a tank is six square feet, and the tank contains 9 inches of water, how much does the water level rise if a 1 foot cube is placed in the tank? How much farther would it rise if another identical cube is added? 2. Close…

Visit our primary Web site at www.AutomationDirect.com and take advantage of the information and assistance available to you with the click of a mouse, including obtaining quotes and real-time stock checks. If you are a registered user, you can access additional details such as pending orders, processed orders and invoice history. For even more time savings, check…

Who: Joseph Michael Blakely (Joe) From: Toledo, OH, USA Attending College: University of Washington (Seattle, WA) Major: M. S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, graduated December 2008 What first got you interested in your area of focus? I have been deeply fascinated by air and space vehicles for as long as I can remember. When I was a young…

The Problem I am a member of a small alternative energy group in Ohio. Many of us generate our own power using wind turbines. These wind turbines vary widely from low power to high power and from homemade to high-tech. Among all of this diversity, we had one common problem – we were looking for…

Pyromatics Automation Systems of Crystal Lake, IL, was contracted by Durex Industries of Cary, IL, to develop a Life Cycle Test Station for its electric heating elements. After extensive research, Pyromatics chose AutomationDirect as the primary supplier of hardware and software for the project. This test station needed a user-friendly graphical interface to give operators…

Let’s say you want to improve safety on a remote section of highway through a mountain pass via a road condition monitoring system. A small automatic weather station beside the road plus several cameras in key locations could provide a good approximation of road conditions. This information could be posted on dynamic message signs along…

Those of us who have worked professionally in the U.S. electrical control industries have a good understanding of, and a certain level of comfort with, NEMA standards; most notably as they pertain to electric motors, motor controllers and enclosures. For the most part, American-based companies require that the electrical components and enclosures used in any…

Will the CLICK PLC work with my C-more and C-more Micro graphics panels? Yes. Currently the CLICK PLC driver is available in the C-more Micro panel with firmware version 0201001 or later, so native CLICK addresses are available. The CLICK PLC driver for C-more touch panels is currently under development and scheduled to be available soon. You can communicate…

PLC Speaking has something new and exciting to talk about. AutomationDirect® and our parent company KOYO Electronics have released a new line of stackable micro brick PLCs – the truly innovative CLICK™ PLC. You get a stand alone CPU/PLC with eight digital inputs and six digital outputs which is easily expandable up to 142 I/O….

In part one of this two-part article, we discussed the types of Allen-Bradley PLCs that are supported by the AutomationDirect C-more HMI and covered in detail which protocol should be selected for your application. We also covered the various Data Types for Tags that are supported. The latest group of C-more drivers (seen below) supports the A-B…

After the economic decline at the beginning of this decade, many companies started looking for ways to cut costs. One such expense was travel – whether sales or training, needs were evaluated and budgets were cut. Web Seminars During this time, many new ways of online training emerged – one being Web-based seminars. Many companies…

I did my thesis work in the ZaP Flow Z-Pinch Lab at the University of Washington. ZaP Flow Z-Pinch Experiment The ZaP Flow Z-Pinch Experiment is a basic plasma physics experiment which investigates the effects of sheared flow on the stability of magnetically confined plasma in a Z-pinch configuration. Possible applications of this technology include…

Legendary Oilman, T. Boone Pickens Is On a Quest to Convert How America Propels Its Economy The issue of energy, what it costs, what it is going to take to find more of it, and what it is doing to the planet is a hot topic. So hot that there are a million voices clamoring…