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Friday, March 28, 2014

IQ Power Xpert meters - Westinghouse, Cutler-Hammer, Eaton, INCOM - brought to TCPIP.

Have a bunch of IQ meters and/or switchgear? - maybe branded Westinghouse, Cutler-Hammer or Eaton?... Know the meters? - They are the ubiquitous first generation digital meters in practically every facility. Either one has never networked these meters (though one might have a blue INCOM line running between them one barely even recognizes), or one has soldiered through the ups and downs of the Power Xpert software gateway architecture running on PCs.

Have in mind that the only way out to the future is to upgrade the meters, but that would be a major project with shutdowns and swap outs. So one just sits and does nothing and waits for the meters to "inlast" the building; though that is rife with danger from normal maintenance failures.

Eaton has a little known solution/pathway for these meters.
It is called the Eaton Power Xpert Gateway PXG600.

How does it work:
- Upgrade set of meters to INCOM (sometimes with a PONI/IPONI = INCOM product operated network interface - often these are already in place).
- Run blue cable bus for INCOM between local sets of meters (up to about ten (best) to forty (pushing limits)) in a group. Often "blue hose" is already in place.
- Attach meter group(s) to the INCOM port(s) of PXG600.
- Attach PXG600 to a TCPIP Ethernet network system (attach like any common IP device).
- Setup PXG600(s). The PXG600 has internal template maps for the long history of IQ meters. It supports a variety of protocols like Modbus TCP and in some cases BACnet IP and SNMP.
- Get "middleware" together. One probably has systems that can consume and log meter data (HVAC, SCADA and such). One wants to convert the Modbus TCP data into such,  whilst also leaving openings for others to attach to Modbus TCP in parallel. Something like a Cimetrics B6035 does the intermediation job nicely. But it is also the case that many management systems will read the interfaces directly (especially if you have BACnet/IP in your building management system
or Modbus TCP in your SCADA system).
- Enjoy.

Too hard? Talk to Eaton. Eaton can set this up for you.
Too expensive? The PXG600 is "open channel" and supportable by third parties. Talk to someone like PWA - Physical World Analytics in their troubleshooting capacity or Cimetrics in their network-architecture design capacity. They too can set this up for you.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Continuous Monitoring Based Commissioning.

Article regarding Continuous Monitoring Based Commissioning.
http://w3.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies/us/en/Smart_Buildings/Documents/the-12-things-you-need-to-know-about-monitor-based-commissioning-a-siemens-white-paper-final.pdf

Most everyone knows about commissioning. For most systems the concept is straightforward, and the goal is universal - optimization - chiefly for reliability (be it economic or functional.. and this is not really an "or" at transcendence).

It is more nuanced what happens with re-commissioning a system... Is it a snapshot? Does one stop the process? etc.

Then after one gets the before/after understood... one is faced with understanding ongoing versus batch/jump. The real winners (sometimes better termed "non-losers") are the ones who can harness the power of continous improvement.

Here is Contiuous Improvement with a large "C". 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Green Tomato and Onion Chow.

Grama's (both family sides) green tomato and onion chow.
Goes by the name "chow chow" all over North America.
Closely related to Picalilly (relish). Unsure where this type of "pickles" comes from.
A close approximation is Habitant Chow Chow Green Tomato.
Habitant is a Smuckers brand.
Howard's Picalilli Green Tomato is reasonably close.

So looking for a recipe?
Chow [Yahoo Answers]
Bernardin Chow
Both of the above involve cabbage and peppers.

But for Canadian variants.
A. Mostly no one grew peppers (wrong climate).
B. Cabbages were relatively hard to grow (pests).

Here is a straightforward formula more in line with the version of my childhood
Elizabeths Chow Chow [Food.com]

Take any of the formulas and go with green tomatos and onions (roughly equal portions - less onions) and make them up to the "other" veggie totals. Omit all other veggies. Use the spices you favor, but the core is made up of mustard and tumeric. Boiling/cooking longer to soften the tomatoes and onions, and evenly embue them with tang/spices, gives a better product by my tastes. Proportions of sugar, salt and vinegar control sweetness and tang. Cornstarch is there to thicken if you wish. Leave it out and cut the water for authenticity, though it might then end up less smooth if not cooked until the tomatoes soften.

Recap of rough ingredients:
Green tomato, onion, sugar, water, vinegar, salt, cornstarch, mustard, turmeric.