AUTONODE

AUTONOMOUS CONTROLLER BOARD

CHIP PIC16C73

Boxes are placed IN or NEAR equipment.
Each box is responsible for it's nearby equipment.
Long wiring runs are eliminated.

The boxes communicate among themselves: no computer is required.

The boxes form an AUTONOMOUS NET.

All of the boxes form an autonomous net.

Small boxes hold hand wired boards. They have been working fine, but they should be replaced.

Boxes are placed IN or NEAR equipment

Some boards are ridiculously simple; Perhaps only a couple of outputs. But their value to the NET can be paramount in regards to communication. Their information to the community can be critical. Each board is part of a greater whole.

Here, a board is being prepared to replace a hand wired board in the Heat Exchangers of a klystron located at Tuscan. Hand wired boards are being phased out. The tiny wires can break due to equipment vibration. I have had several inexcusable and embarrassing failures due to broken wires.

I have made these boards, or others like them, in blue and green. I like "big" with discrete components, that I can see. Most equipment that I control is huge.

Output relays

OUTPUTS
Each Relay Output also has a visual onboard LED.

Alarm LED or Diagnostic LED.

Some boards have one, and some two, onboard LEDs for internal diagnostics. Otherwise, it takes a computer to "listen" into the board and "see". This LED indicates a board problem has occured in the past, and must be reset by a human. An operator can then view the diagnostic history on a computer, and reset the light. The light can only be reset by computer. The red LED light comes when ever a board first comes to life, or if ever resets during it's life. It comes on with brown-outs, firmwear errors, communication collisions that are not handled, and internal time-outs for functions taking too long. These are bad things, that I as an engineer need to look at.

But there is a "good" light too...
On boards that have an additional green LED, one can see good activity and "life" and special events without a computer. It is a nice touch.

The Order of Importance...

1) The sanctity of the NET is paramount.
The Collective Group defines the Function.
The consistency of individual units in purpose, and their harmonious relationships are the single most important aspect of this control system.

2)The human interface is trivial;
Although, I have spent a lot of time on it.
All the pretty computer screens, all the voices, and the logs are the part that actually "shows" in the eyes and minds of people.
The great and sophisticated control features are largely unseen.

8) I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
Job

But that is actually a good thing...
If people don't see the inner workings, that truly is a good thing. My goal has been to keep the workings of my control system transparent. My goal is to have the operators think that things happen by Magic. Magic is a convenient answere, and happens to be the Short-Answer, too.

Input section:

SIP 100k pull down resistors.
These establish an impedance, and disipate static electricity in cases of open inputs. I have some inputs that are opto coupled, and are the ultimate in analog measurements in difficult inviroments.

Also, inline parallel isolated 100k DIP safety resistors.
The PIC DOES have input diode protection, but you should not develop habits of depending on the diodes. Instead, inputs should be scaled before hitting the board. They should be scaled for zero to five volts. This has become the standard for all my newer boards, and is the responsibility has been shifted to the individual sensors.

Also, input caps on all inputs. On some inputs of my chips, the PIC artificially performs "capacitor" type actions, for example averaging of noisy signals. On the other hand, these physical caps are protective, and also do perform some conditioning and smoothing. And they kill stray RF Radiation that can be measured in volts! It is everywhere. At a broadcast site, there are constant EMP spikes, and constant high intensity RF Radiation.

It is all about reliability. I am so thankful that my control system was developed here in such a inhospitable control environment.

My boards have evolved in both a harsh communication enviroment, and also a harsh control environment, being exposed to High Voltage and RF, and airborn dirt and steam. And vibrations are bad with equipment hums and buzzings everwhere. And hundreds of feet of wire to connect the nodes, and dozens of feet of wire at each node; All vulnerable and exposed in their travel areas to the blue glow of corona and the threat of sudden arcs.

These boards were born from such an environment. The simple fact: They work! Through the 1990s, no one else has a control system like mine, even from a bland mondain environment. I was the first to design and build such a system - anywhere.

CognizantWire Systems