Pillar to Post: Peter Welander's Blog 
Recent Posts
- Who's searching on "engineer?"
- Back to ExxonMobil and the skills gap
- Blackout plus five: Any improvements?
- Driving is down, biking is up
- Corn for ethanol sets record in 2008
- ExxonMobil helping plug skills gap
- EPA: Ethanol to stay
- Why drill for oil domestically?
- Reducing energy use, the hard way
- Gasoline stabilizes, now what?
Recent Comments
- Nancy McIntyre on ExxonMobil helping plug skills gap
- EPA: Ethanol to stay on EPA: Ethanol to stay
- MWegenka on Reducing energy use, the hard way
- Kirslis on Making gasoline out of coal
- John Rezabek on 3.6 billion gallons per day
Most Commented On
- Chinese pharma plants go un-inspected? (2)
- I am not a socialist (2)
- EPA: Ethanol to stay (1)
- ExxonMobil helping plug skills gap (1)
- Reducing energy use, the hard way (1)
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
Blog
Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)
Diagnostics / fieldbus, cause and effect
Writing an article like the March cover story (Fieldbus: Growing Globally) is challenging in that it has to have sufficient technical depth while being balanced to a number of competing interests. One area that I found particularly interesting was the notion of using diagnostic capabilities in networks with fieldbus as an enabler.
Fieldbus and diagnostics seem to go hand-in-hand, but I was left trying to figure out which was the cause and which was the effect. Fieldbus architecture supports diagnostic capabilities of instrumentation and delivers the data to a larger asset management system. However it is not the only way to do that. As the article discusses, HART can do the same thing over analog wiring, perhaps not quite as well, but well enough for most applications. So I concluded that users probably decide they want an asset management system and those diagnostics first, and then decide how to wire the instrumentation. Whether they choose HART or a fieldbus (or HART via fieldbus) the important driver is diagnostics.
It made me think of a presentation I heard some years back by a retirement plan salesman who was trying to convince us to sign up for the company's new 401k program. He said that people get stuck on the decision of how to invest their money and never get started. His point was the decision to go with money market investments or stocks was not nearly as important as beginning investment discipline and putting money away systematically. Similarly, some companies never begin using asset management or diagnostics because they get stuck on wiring and networking issues. The discipline of asset management, like investing, is more important than the means.
Diagnostics / fieldbus, cause and effect
March 18, 2008
Writing an article like the March cover story (Fieldbus: Growing Globally) is challenging in that it has to have sufficient technical depth while being balanced to a number of competing interests. One area that I found particularly interesting was the notion of using diagnostic capabilities in networks with fieldbus as an enabler.Fieldbus and diagnostics seem to go hand-in-hand, but I was left trying to figure out which was the cause and which was the effect. Fieldbus architecture supports diagnostic capabilities of instrumentation and delivers the data to a larger asset management system. However it is not the only way to do that. As the article discusses, HART can do the same thing over analog wiring, perhaps not quite as well, but well enough for most applications. So I concluded that users probably decide they want an asset management system and those diagnostics first, and then decide how to wire the instrumentation. Whether they choose HART or a fieldbus (or HART via fieldbus) the important driver is diagnostics.
It made me think of a presentation I heard some years back by a retirement plan salesman who was trying to convince us to sign up for the company's new 401k program. He said that people get stuck on the decision of how to invest their money and never get started. His point was the decision to go with money market investments or stocks was not nearly as important as beginning investment discipline and putting money away systematically. Similarly, some companies never begin using asset management or diagnostics because they get stuck on wiring and networking issues. The discipline of asset management, like investing, is more important than the means.
Posted by Peter Welander on March 18, 2008 | Comments (0)
Industries: System Integration
Advertisement
Advertisements
