"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
On 06/24/2010 03:53 PM, RogerN wrote:
"Karl wrote in message
anews.com...

snip

I was thinking about something on that line. At work we have Siemens
(among
others) controls and have Siemens form Germany to go online with our
equipment for programming. I'm not sure of all the networking details
but
Tom could probably set up a PC that I, or anyone he wanted, could VPN
into
and program his equipment. He would need someone that could wire
switches
and coils but once that was done the program could be downloaded,
troubleshot, and improved all by VPN (We use UltraVNC, free and works
great).

Y'know, that works great for some things. But there are just points in
the design & debug process where I want to be close to the power switch,
so I can slap it off if things start melting.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

Yeah, for the major part of the programming and start up the Germans were on
site, it would be kind of dangerous messing with 5000HP worth of motors and
drives from a long distance, then again you don't want to be too close
either.

In my programming experience I've learned from mistakes and I made a lot of
them so I guess that means I learned allot!(?) :-) The programmer doesn't
necessarily have to be on location but there has to be someone there to
operate the machine, make sure it's safe, and stop it in an emergency.

It seems like the Germans that program our equipment have a goal to make
something as complicated as possible, they seem to think it's cool if no-one
understands their program. I'm the opposite, I like to make things so
simple that even I can understand them! For the machine in the video, the
electrician at the plant was able to understand the program and add
additional parts himself. Product options included 1 or 2 filaments and
clear or amber bulbs. The station after the bulb insertion has 2 banner
mini-beam photo eyes, a red one could see through clear and amber bulbs and
detected if the base wasn't fully seated, the other photo eye was blue and
detected amber bulbs.

RogerN