On Sun, 18 May 2014 06:55:10 -0500, Pete Keillor
wrote:
--snippage
The Amphenol connectors came on my first cart rig, where I could roll
carts with different capabilities in and out to the main line. The D
connectors were much easier to use, because we used them on ribbon
cable. I also had a few failures on the Amphenols due to faulty
insertion or removal techniques. My last rig in that style had about
1000 individual wire terminations in the main cabinet. I'd land the
ribbon cables on a breakout board, cross wire to the computer I/O
boards. Made it easy to add and modify instrumentation.

Wow!


The networked rigs were a quantum leap forward. I was able to make
location independent carts which could be used (or not) anywhere in
the pilot plant, and no long runs of signal wiring anywhere other than
the coax or optic fiber network.

Yes, a vast improvement. Long runs of wire are -so- easily affected.


There was talk of wireless when I retired, but I concluded that was a
bad idea in the chemical industry. Maybe I was just too old
fashioned, but the thought of someone interfering with a potentially
dangerous process with a cell phone or appliance, or intentionally by
some other means made me very nervous.

That's a sane approach, Pete. Precisely why I favor hard-wired
sensors over wireless in home security, too.

--
We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is
no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.
--Henry David Thoreau