Automation Consulting, LLC Open House
When I started this blog back at the end of 2010 I really just did it for fun. At that time I wanted to make sure it contained useful information and was non-commercial in nature. Then I went back into …
Author: Frank
Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.
Fabricate – Panel Preparation
Today’s topic is on exactly what happens before you start wiring a control panel. It will also serve as an update on my progress on “My Little Factory”, which has drawn a lot of questions from my readers. As I …
My Little Factory – Innovate
The week before last I talked about how I make some of the mechanical things for My Little Factory. A quick update on that: I have managed to make some progress on fabricating the escapements for the indexing conveyor, but …
My Little Factory – Fabricate
A couple of weeks ago I started a series called “My Little Factory”, describing a system I am building for training purposes. I plan on updating the progress on this project monthly, but today’s topic is also related. As those …
Sensors 102: Signal Conditioning
Today’s post is about what goes on between an actual detection device and the input of a control system. In many control applications you don’t need to think about what goes on inside of a device. The signal is converted …
My Little Factory – April 2017
This post is the first in a series I am writing about a project I am working on, hence the “April 2017” designation. As most of my regular readers know, I have spent much of the past several years teaching …
Automate/Promat 2017
Earlier this week I had the privilege of attending my second Automate and Promat show in Chicago. I wrote an earlier post on the Automate 2015 show, but when I went back and re-read it I realized that I actually …
Birth of the Programmable Controller
Today’s post is extracted from my new “generic” PLC course manual, PLC Hardware and Programming – Multi-Platform. In the manual, I also cover the origins of the computer, beginning with the Babbage Analytical Engine, all the way back in 1823! …
Sensors 101 – Control System Inputs
In today’s post I’m going to ask you to think of sensors in a different way. Most engineers who are specifying equipment think of sensors as discrete or analog devices, proxes or photoelectrics, flow or pressure sensors, thermocouples and the …
Sensor Resources
When I got up this morning, I had fully intended to write a post on sensors and sensing techniques. I was even going to title it “Sensors 101”, similar to the series that I started on PLCs several years ago. …