The CT branch has just had a couple of very active weeks. Last week Thursday 9 May, we were lucky to have Michael Hutton of National Instruments in Jhb present to us. Michael presented a talk on PC-based control. This was different from some other technologies we have seen recently where the focus has been on 'Soft PLC'.
National Instruments have developed hardware solutions where the PC, Software and I/O interfaces are combined into a single entity that could be regarded as a PC. In taking this approach, they have further developed the entire PC, Software and I/O interface into a rack-mounted package. This product can be made mobile and portable including battery operation. This can be installed into applications, data and control implemented and then moved elsewhere. This would make it ideal for a test and analysis application.
National Instruments also provide interfacing into different bus technologies and Michael went some way to best explain the origin, merits and differences between them. Michael has worked for National Instruments in Texas, USA and his wide experience and knowledge was apparent during his presentation. Another crucial difference in the National Instruments approach was that of the speed of data collection. Some of their equipment collects data in the 100's of kHz ranges to allow the user to identify what the plant, process or equipment is really doing at any point in time. Michael demonstrated the visual software programming tools that they make available, which was a shift away from some of the more traditional tools we have witnessed in the past.
Members who attended were exposed to some very exciting, different technologies and approaches to data collection and control and some attendees requested further detail on specific applications from Michael at follow up visits.
On the following Thursday (16 May), we were also pleased to introduce the Jhb based team from Opus Technologies. As well as strong representation and support from the local team and other Jhb staffers, Paul Geng also gave a presentation on web-based reporting and some recent developments in this field. Paul explained why the need for web based reporting has come about and some of the approaches Opus has taken to provide solutions.
Opus Technologies are a South African software development house and Paul demonstrated their latest offering. It was a pleasure, and encouraging, to see the kind of achievements that can be made locally. Paul's demonstration made it obviously clear how simple it can be to develop reports for Internet/intranet consumption. Paul showed that the development of the report can also take place over the same Internet/intranet. This makes the product extremely flexible. Paul went on to stress the importance of security and data sensitivity in this environment and assured attendees that security had played a major role (headache!) in their development.
All those that attended were rightfully impressed and some were going straight back to their offices with the intention to implement trial packages.
Derwyn Oxley
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