Seminars on PC-based control systems gain popularity

February 2002 Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring

National Instruments South Africa has just completed some highly successful seminars countrywide. The seminar entitled 'PC-based control and monitoring' was conducted in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban and was well received. It attracted record attendance and the feedback was positive.

PC-based control has been around since the advent of PCs and is gaining popularity. The objective of the seminar is to introduce terminology and technology native to PCs and show how these can be used to create complex control systems.

Major topics where the selection of operating systems like Windows, Linux, Unix etc highlighting the benefits and limitations of each. Other important issues included the selection of computing platform such as an industrialised platform like CompactPCI/PXI versus standard desktops computers. Another major topic is the selection of interfaces and how to interface signals to the computer platform. The major technologies discussed were PCI, USB, Firwire and Ethernet. More traditional interfaces like DeviceNet and Profibus where also described.

Sound and vibration

Another seminar series covered PC-based sound and vibration solutions. The first of which was held in Cape Town and the second one was held in Midrand. Both were well attended.

Vibration analysis is becoming popular in the field of predictive maintenance and machine condition monitoring. The ability to determine if a machine is operating outside its nominal vibration limits, which could lead to the malfunctioning, can save millions of rands by allowing proper maintenance plans to be set in place. Traditional vibration analyses instruments are very expensive and cannot be left on a plant. National Instruments DSA cards can be installed in a rugged PC platform like CompactPCI/PXI, with more input channels than traditional instruments and the ease of interfacing to existing scada systems it is now feasible to have permanent monitoring system in place.

National Instruments encourages those planning control systems to consider using a PC-based system.

National Instruments

(011) 805 8197

[email protected]

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