|
The Thanksgiving Holiday has passed and most of you
probably spent time with friends and family hunkered
down over a feast of roast turkey. Though the US
tradition started in 1621 harvest festivals like
Thanksgiving have been around from prehistoric
times. From Australia to Zambia, gathering to
celebrate and give thanks is an important part of most
cultures.
As an important part of your control system, we at BEI
are happy to be welcomed into your place of
business. We know that earning your respect and
continued support is something we do every day and
we give thanks to you for the opportunity. We have a
lot of new products and services in the pipeline, so
stay tuned and enjoy this month's newsletter.
On Display
When we first started, nearly thirty years ago we just
made encoders. Then we added accessories. Next we
introduced electronic interfaces, intrinsically safe
barriers and power supplies. Along the way we added
more rotary encoder models and now linear encoders.
Each step of the way, we made sure that each
addition was designed to work well together and
integrate well into your control system.
Now, we're pleased to be introducing a set of digital
displays that can be used with linear or rotary
encoders. These seven digit displays are
programmable: the rotary model can display in
degrees-minutes-seconds or in decimal degrees; while
the linear model can be programmed in inches or
millimeters.
Either display model also has room for an independant
input that can be used as an auxiliary reference.
They also have provisions for error modeling, scaling
and incremental or absolute display modes. For more
detailed specifications check the link below where you
can download PDF's of the specification sheets.
Digital
Display Specifications . . .
|
|
If at First you Don't Succeed . . |
 |
Ever have a really great idea and then find out nobody
else but you can see how great it is? You're not
alone. Some very famous people just couldn't gain
traction in their early years. But they stuck to it.
Read on and see how even some well known
innovators started from very humble beginnings.
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this
amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and
what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to
you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come
work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to
Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need
you. You haven't even got through college yet.'" --
Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts
to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve
Wozniak's personal computer.
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in
order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be
feasible." A Yale University management professor in
response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable
overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found
Fedex Corp.
"Professor Goddard does not know the relation
between action and reaction and the need to have
something better than a vacuum against which to
react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled
out daily in high schools." 1921 New York Times
editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket
work.
|
|
|
Can You Solve This? |
|
Replacing old technology with the new can sometimes
be a little tricky and require some finesse. Here's a
recent case in point. A customer's encoder was about
15 years old and it was time for a replacement. The
output drivers on the data lines were an older IC style
that just wasn't available anymore.
His encoder operated on 24 volts, had differential
outputs (A, A/, B, B/) and was being fed into a
differential receiver. This was a pretty straightforwad
replacement, using a more up-to-date differential line
driver with built-in circuit protection. We shipped the
encoder off and didn't give it a second thought.
Once the new encoder was installed, though, it didn't
seem to work quite the same as the original. The
customer reported seeing additional counts on the
output - making it impossible to complete his homing
sequence reliably. What could have gone wrong?
Answer: Newer output drivers are "stiffer" with faster
rise and fall times on the data channels. In this case,
it resulted in some ringing on the data channels and
crosstalk from the A channel to the B channel and vice
versa. This was being picked up by the controller as
additional counts. The fix? Just put a resistor
between the A - A/ , and B - B/ channels. This
reduced the ringing and crosstalk below the detection
threshold for the controller.
|
|
|
Single Sheet of Paper |
|
This sounds like the challenge from a creativity
seminar: How many ways can you design, cut, fold,
or build using only a single sheet of paper? The
results produced by Peter Callesens are nothing short
of amazing.
The picture at left is just the start of your journey
into his delicate and inventive world of sculpture.
Clever and seemingly impossible, Peter's works are jaw-
dropping in their complexity and beauty. Check out
the link below and enjoy.
Single
Sheet of Paper »
|
|
|
Thanks for Reading |
|
|
We appreciate your reading our newsletter and hope
you continue to find it informative and fun. Just a
couple of quick notes: Remember to review the links
at the bottom of the page. These allow you to
forward the newsletter, change your subscriber email
address, or opt-out.
Thanks again, and be sure to send us your notes and
comments or give us a call at 1-800-ENCODER. See
you next month.
|
| Quick Links... |
|
|
