Petting Zoo : CUMC Princeton One Year Anniversary

CUMC had their one year anniversary this last weekend, and had a petting zoo as part of the celebration.

Posted in Family | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Concrete Foundation for Shop

After months of delays due to rain, and then delays caused by the delays, I finally have the foundation for the new shop poured.

These are the templates I made for the anchor bolts

IMG_20150207_174136078

70+ cubic yards of select fill moved in to make a pad   Continue reading

Posted in Events, Life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Aiden Turns 4 Years Old

Our little one is getting old!

Posted in Family | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trip to Johnson Space Center NASA in Houston

Here are a few pictures from our recent family trip to NASA in Houston.

IMG_20150720_094344429

Boeing 747 with the Space Shuttle piggy backed on the top.  They are creating a new exhibit with this, which should be fun to see when it is complete! Continue reading

Posted in Family | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Troy Bilt Chipper Shredder Review

Since we have been thinning out the trees and brush around our house, the piles of cut limbs are getting taller and more numerous.  I was planning on renting a big chipper over a weekend and taking care of it all at one time, but I decided to buy a small residential chipper for about the same price to see if I could make it work.

I found a decent one on craigslist, and after replacing the needle valve seat in the carburetor it runs well.   It is a Troy Bilt Model 24A-424B766 (CS4265) with a Briggs & Stratton 6.5 HP engine model 121312-0322-E1.  It is advertised to chip up to a 3″ branch.  In reality, a 2″ is about all it will handle.  I was able to push in long branches (10′ long) and it will eat them up with no problems.  It does lag down with some pieces of wood, like the Osage orange tree branches, where are very hard and dense.  Common replacement part numbers are below the video.

Continue reading

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Computer Time

Inside a computer, the definition of time gets confusing, because we haven’t always agreed on the definition of time and we periodically add bits of time (usually seconds) based on unpredictable events that occur with a giant water-covered rock flying through space around other huge rocks and stars.  Here is a chart of a the popular forms of time in the digital world:

Posted in Information, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Program to Email Memory Contents of Redlion HMI for Troubleshooting

The Redlion HMIs have the capability of creating and deleting files on the flash memory card and emailing out files.  The program below is called from a button on a diagnostics screen.  This is used to collect the contents of a group of memory tags (variables), format them so they can be read with a spreadsheet program, store as a file on the flash memory card, then email that file out.

// program to store all the current regression data in a file and email it out

cstring line;
int FileNum, index;
 
//delete old file
FileNum = OpenFile("RegDiags.csv", 1);
Sleep(500); 
DeleteFile(FileNum);
Sleep(500);

// create the file
CreateFile("RegDiags.csv"); 
Sleep(500);
// wait for file to be created
while(GetDriveStatus('C') != 5) {}
// open the file and write the 'main' header information
FileNum = OpenFile("RegDiags.csv", 2); 

//write memory contents to text file
WriteFileLine(FileNum, "Regression1.lastTimeStamp");
WriteFileLine(FileNum, Regression1.lastTimeStamp.AsText);

WriteFileLine(FileNum, "Regression1.period");
WriteFileLine(FileNum, Regression1.period.AsText);

WriteFileLine(FileNum, "Regression1.slope");
WriteFileLine(FileNum, Regression1.slope.AsText);

WriteFileLine(FileNum, "Regression1.slope_scaled");
WriteFileLine(FileNum, Regression1.slope_scaled.AsText);

WriteFileLine(FileNum, "Regression1.slopeValid");
WriteFileLine(FileNum, Regression1.slopeValid.AsText);

// build up heading text line for spreadsheet viewing
line = "Sensor1x,Sensor1y,Sensor2x,Sensor2y,";
// write the line to the file
WriteFileLine(FileNum, line);

//write a line for each element in the array
for (index = 1; index <= 1500; index++){
 line = Regression1.x[index].AsText;
 line += ",";
 line += Regression1.y[index].AsText;
 line += ",";
 line += Regression2.x[index].AsText;
 line += ",";
 line += Regression2.y[index].AsText;
 line += ",";
 WriteFileLine(FileNum, line);
 };

CloseFile(FileNum);
Sleep(500);

//email file to list 1
SendFile(1, "RegDiags.csv");

Notes:

  • The Redlion HMI retains the contents of variables that have the ‘retentive’ option checked, even when a new database is loaded.  Because of this, I was able to load a new database containing this program, and extract all the data I needed.
  • The “.AsText” suffix can be used with any tag to represent the value (integer, float, or binary) as text so it can be written to a file.
Posted in Industrial Automation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bryson – Wolf to Bear Crossover

Bryson’s den had their crossover ceremony last night.  They graduated from wolf cub scouts to bears.

Posted in Family | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

IDEC PLCs and HMIs

While the info is fresh in my mind, I thought I’d make a few notes from the 3-day training class on IDEC PLCs and HMIs.

In General:

  • Excellent hardware quality
  • compact size
  • low cost
  • software is inexpensive (free with purchase of kit or training class)
  • support is included (no support contracts)

The PLCs available are in 2 groups:

  1. The FC5A (MicroSmart Pentra) – ($199 to $500) flagship model of PLC, about to be replaced with the 6 series which will come out in a few months
    1. FC5A-D____(E) – SlimCPU, up to 15 expansion modules (only 7 analog or comms).  (E) suffix has Ethernet port, capable of MODBUS/TCP
    2. FC5A-C_____ – built in power supply, some can have up to 4 expansion modules, Ethernet not available
  2. FT1A (SmartAXIS and SmartAXIS Touch) – lowest cost model (start at $155)
    1. FT1A-B___ – built in power supply, with or without LCD screen, some have Ethernet, some have serial ports, relay or transistor outputs
    2. FT1A-C___- 3.7″ touchscreen with I/O, Ethernet

Pros: Continue reading

Posted in Industrial Automation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Use Linear Regression to Find Slope of Many Datapoints

438px-Linear_regression.svgHere is the implementation of a program that analyses several days worth of data coming from a sensor that might change a tiny amount over that time.  We were interested in how much of a change over time occurred, so I ‘fitted’ a line through the data points that would fit the best and calculated the slope of that line using linear regression using the recommended formula for the sensor and process used: Continue reading

Posted in Industrial Automation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment