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Motion Control
Round-Up
News and Views from the World
of Automation.
May, 2008
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| Dear Reader, |
For many of our readers, Memorial Day has just passed. It is a
good time for us all to remember and honor those who have died in service to
their country.
As 2008 marches on toward the half-way mark, May is a time
of transition between the seasons. Traditionally it has been
considered a time of rejuvenation, marked with festivals celebrating life
and rituals designed to ensure a fruitful year.
To ensure a
fruitful year for you, BEI wants to make sure that your motion control needs
are being met. In addition to providing high quality encoders,
interface products and service, we want you to know that we are dedicated to
helping you solve your applications problems as well. We have five
full-time dedicated applications specialist that can help you specify and
integrate our products into your system.
Make sure you're taking
advantage of all that we have to offer and give us a call today. We're
always happy to help. |
| Killer Serial |
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 Here's a
special preview just for BEI newsletter readers. It's of an
upcoming product that a lot of you have been waiting for. If you have
an absolute encoder with an SSI output or an incremental encoder with a
quadrature output and you want to get the data into your PC - this "black
box" is your ticket.
Built around our standard, DIN rail mountable EM module form factor,
the Dual encoder to USB converter will accept up to two sets
of input signals, either SSI or Quadrature and allow you to access
the data directly through your PC.
With all the power of a PC behind your signal processing you can now do
data acquisition and analysis, monitoring and control by using this simple
interface tool. SSI versions are available for shipment in four weeks
or less and Quadrature versions are available in eight weeks or
less.
To check out a PDF specification sheet, just click the image,
above. |
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 Humans have once again sent a
exploratory spacecraft to another planet. Last Sunday the Phoenix
lander touched down in Mar's northern latitudes in search of water
ice. As a tribute to the engineering that goes into space exploration,
this months' quote page showcases quotes about space and space travel.
"New horizons have been discovered and old boundaries pushed back. It
proves that there's never a time when we should stop dreaming. We will
continue to challenge our imagination and aim high. The ultimate frontier of
space will be a quest for mankind's highest aspirations - the opportunity
for individuals, cooperation among nations, and peace on Earth." -
Ronald Reagan
"The view of the earth from the moon fascinated me--a small disk,
240,000 miles away.....Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars,
pestilence don't show from that distance...." - Astronaut Frank
Borman
"A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would
have to ask an engineer to do that." - Engineer Gordon L. Glegg
"Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at
new worlds, to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation. Your
vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but by what your mind can
imagine... Make your life count and the world will be a better place because
you tried." - Astronaut Ellison
Onizuka |
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Can You Solve This? |
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 Welcome to this month's brain
teaser, where we challenge you to put your applications expertise and
experience to the test. This month's challenge came to us from a
customer that had two identical encoders in the same operation. One
kept failing, while the other seemed to be just fine. Both encoders
were fairly standard H25 models using a cable output with a cable gland seal
at the encoder body. The environment was a known wet environment which
made the possibility that moisture intrusion might be the
culprit. We received both encoders back in our repair facility, tested
the encoders and verified the failure.
Next, we opened up the failed encoder and sure enough noticed moisture
intrusion into the printed circuit card, which eventually led to the
failure. However an inspection of the shaft seals, O-ring seals, and
the cable gland seal, along with observations of the wetting pattern
indicated that none of the sealing surfaces had failed. The only
difference we noticed between the two encoders was that the working encoder
had a band of duct tape wrapped around the cable end. We asked for
some digital photos of the installation and the problem was instantly
revealed. What was it?
Answer: Typically, when terminating a sensor cable,
especially in a wet environment, the cable end is brought into a junction
box. In this case, the cable was terminated with a connector that was
open at the cable connection end. This meant that any moisture present
could find its way into the small spaces between conductors within the cable
jacket and, through capillary action, eventually end up in the
encoder. The duct-taped version had enough sticky adhesive around the
conductors to provide an effective barrier, at least for a long
while. Two possible solutions were presented: terminate the encoder
with a sealed connector on the body of the encoder and carry the signals
through an environmentally sealed cable connector assembly or use a longer
length of cable that would reach to a dry part of the environment -
preferably a sealed junction box. |
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Now you see him . . .
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Be prepared to drive yourself a little crazy with this one. This puzzle
is maddening because the solution is very subtle. This is an animated
image - so be patient. If it doesn't animate properly in your browser,
you can just click the image and it will lead you to a page with a link to
this animation.
To get started, count the number of people in the small crowd and
you should get 12. Keep watching, and as the top half of the image
gets switched around, a 13th person will magically appear. It's true,
it really does happen. If you want the very detailed explanation of
how this works, then click on the image and you'll get a very thorough
explanation of how this problem works. Good luck.
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A special thanks to Michael Patterson who sent me that last
puzzle. I hope you all got a lot from this month's newsletter.
Feel free to forward it on to your friends using the links, below and
contact us anytime if we can be of service.
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Thanks for your time,
Scott
Orlosky
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email: Scott
Orlosky
voice: 805-968-0782
web: http://www.beiied.com
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