http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/ About embedded electronic control systems. David Gibson, SPLat Controls en Copyright 2008 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:33:22 +1100 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Hi David Please --- is there provision on the MMi202 Board of a voltage supply to run the 0-20 mA current loop. I have a PT100 transmitter/amplifier which will run from 10 to 30v and is powered by the current loop itself and would like to be able to use this thing for temperature sensing for control. many thanks cheers]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/tech_support_420ma_input.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/tech_support_420ma_input.html Tech support questions 4-20mA current loop Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:33:22 +1100 I was talking to a gentleman in Louisville KY yesterday, and he politely told me off because our website is not explicit enough about our custom controller offering. Not that I mind such critiques - how can we make our message clearer unless people give us feedback? Anyhow, here's a shameless plug for our custom capability: We do make custom controllers. In fact, we make many more custom boards than standard boards, because we have some major OEMs as customers and make some of their products in very significant numbers. http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/standard_splat_or_custom.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/standard_splat_or_custom.html General Proof of Concept custom Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:01:05 +1100 here. Builder documentation ]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/new_program_management_tool.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/new_program_management_tool.html Programming Builder SPLat/PC modular programming Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:04:09 +1100 More on the CC18]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/upgraded_cc_has_analog.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/upgraded_cc_has_analog.html News CC16 CC18 LED analog Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:49:31 +1100 I'm working on a project where I need to control a motor, based on the feedback from an quadrature encoder. I'm trying to do on the fly speed calculations of the encoder but can't get my head around how to do speed calculations as I need to know the time constant between pulse readings. Any suggestions ?]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/tech_support_motor_speed.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/03/tech_support_motor_speed.html Tech support questions counting frequency motor speed quadrature rpm tachometer Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:19:18 +1100 Howdy, bought a controller off you last week and I was wondering how do you read the program back off the board? I have worked through the online tutorial (love it) and I couldn't remember what the last program I transferred was, and I couldn't find any reference to it in the SKB.]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/01/tech_support_reading_back_a_pr.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/01/tech_support_reading_back_a_pr.html Tech support questions Security upload Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:51:44 +1100 Here's an example of how a tricky problem can be solved by breaking it down into smaller pieces, in this case by using a separate MultiTrack task.

Rab has a MultiTrack program where any one of several independent tasks may generate an alarm The alarm results in a siren sounding. What Rab wants is for the alarm to have a Clear button, and when the button is pressed the siren will be muted for 20 minutes. How can this be programmed?

]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/01/tech_support_divide_and_conque.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2008/01/tech_support_divide_and_conque.html Tech support questions MultiTrack multitasking objects resource sharing semaphores Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:59:07 +1100 Rem fell in love with the town and decided to do something about it. When he told me what he had in mind I thought he had lost his marbles thinking he could move the mountains of entrenched indifference and sectional self-interest. I am delighted to tell you I was wrong. ]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/moving_mountains.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/moving_mountains.html General Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:47:08 +1100 Well, folks, Christmas is looming once more. To me Christmas is about people and caring, so I thought I'd cheer up your season with a tale of real caring. These are true stories, with only the names changed. A very dark cloud ... A young family of my acquaintance struck some very bad luck at Easter. Jack, the husband, suffered a serious stroke. The family, Jack and Jill and children Mary (5) and Peter (4) were already in trouble, due to a business that had turned sour. They had lost their very nice home, a city warehouse apartment, and were scratching for income. Jack, a former policeman, had taken a sales job that he really hated, and was just getting up to speed with sales and commissions when disaster struck him down. ]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/a_christmas_tale.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/a_christmas_tale.html General Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:26:33 +1100 In a Multi Tracking program with 4 Tasks and each task has the ability to turn on a (common) siren if in a trouble situation. How can I disable the siren output for a period (say 20 min) from a input and have the siren reset and be ready to operate again after the 20 minute period?]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/tech_support_resource_sharing.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/tech_support_resource_sharing.html Tech support questions alarms resource sharing semaphores shared resources Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:42:34 +1100 I will have no difficulty learning to use program however I need to use as many as five outputs on one line. I can not find the method in the tutorial. Great program]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/tech_support_several_outputs_a.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/12/tech_support_several_outputs_a.html Tech support questions OutputM binary count outputs Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:30:47 +1100 I have a new CC16. Is there a means of online communication with a PC? For Data Acquisition, setting control parameters, MMI connection etc.]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/tech_support_communicating_wit.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/tech_support_communicating_wit.html Tech support questions ModBus Xwire communications Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:38:14 +1100 My wife and I just got home from lunch at a nearby vineyard. This was no ordinary lunch, however. It was sponsored by the vineyard and other local businesses on behalf of a marvelous organization called Koto. Koto was founded by an Australian, Jimmy Pham, who visited Vietnam some years ago and discovered the vast numbers of street children whose futures are bleak indeed. So Jimmy did something about it.]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/making_a_difference.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/making_a_difference.html General Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:10:04 +1100 Is it possible to extract the elapsed time into W since the MARKTIME command or the actual time itself? And the GETTICK 10 & 100 commands, I do not quite get how they are intended to be used.]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/tech_support_supertimers.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/10/tech_support_supertimers.html Tech support questions GetTick SuperTimers timing timing errors Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:41:46 +1100 I'm setting MMi02 up to read 0-5V Pressure Transducers. I gather from SKB that no jumpers are required at all on the analogue input configuration pins for 0-5V Mode. Would you please confirm this? When programming for 0 - 5V does 10 bit range then refer to 5V equ 1.0 or do I still have to base the maths based on 10V equ 1.0? It's not clear to me from SKB. ]]> http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/09/tech_support_5v_analog_inputs.html http://www.splatco.com/blogs/david/2007/09/tech_support_5v_analog_inputs.html Tech support questions analog Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:54:38 +1100