LXI for Collider Signal Monitoring at CERN

David Owen, Business Development Manager at  Pickering Interfaces talks about an application in one of the most complex scientific sites on the planet.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), has come to the forefront of public attention recently with the discovery of the Higgs boson – the so called God’s particle. CERN operates a high energy collider 100m under the Swiss and French border near Geneva to explore the boundaries of high energy physics. It is high energy physics on a huge scale, matched by no other facility in the world.

The collider operates a pair of counter- rotating particle rings which have crossovers at four experiment sites where particles crash from opposite directions into each other and create the signatures that indicate the presence of short lived particles, and that has recently included the Higgs.

Much of the attention is focussed on the experiments which have to run to capture all the data available in order to identify new particles. However monitoring of the ring itself is also a major undertaking and this is accomplished through the Open Analogue Signal Information System, referred to as OASIS. Signals from the collider monitors can be tapped at many places to make sure all is well in the system.

Even a large budget operation like CERN though has to make sure that its budget matches the finances available from sponsoring governments (and therefore tax payers in many countries), so this system has to be cost effective. The OASIS system uses a set of digitisers to acquire the signals and this is relayed out to users over an Ethernet system, but the digitisers are expensive and there cannot be one digitiser for every monitor signal. A switching system is used to allow OASIS to select which signals to show from the variety of signals available, and that switching system has historically been based on VXI and more recently cPCI solutions, but that is changing.

CERN Upgrade
CERN is undergoing a major 2 year upgrade to its systems so the collider energy can be raised (almost doubled) and more new physics explored. The collider has now been closed down (as of February 2013) for this scheduled upgrade, and more upgrades will occur in the future. Inevitably part of that upgrade process requires the OASIS system to be upgraded.

The monitor signals present some challenges to a switching system. CERN concluded they wanted to be able to select up to 16 out of a maximum of 104 signals available for digitizing at each location. The analogue signals have frequency content to many MHz and there is potential for considerable differences in level from the different monitors. That put major constraints on the allowable crosstalk between channels as well as the bandwidth. If a signal from a high level source was selected and a signal from a low level source at the same time on a different channel then the large signal could breakthrough into the smaller signal and confuse the operators.

Another significant issue for CERN is the sheer size of the collider, you cannot walk from one location to another in any reasonable time – the tunnel is even equipped with bicycles to speed up transportation between locations. Management at a distance is an essential requirement for any solution.

Designing a New OASIS Switch
CERN approached Pickering Interfaces for ideas on a new switching system to be deployed during the scheduled upgrade. The basic requirement was for a matrix with 10’s of MHz of BW and a size of up to 104×16. Discussions made it apparent that crosstalk would be a major concern in any implementation, and the sheer size of the matrix required made it hard to use traditional approaches to solve the problem, meet the performance objectives and meet the budget requirements.

Clearly the cost of the matrix had to be significantly lower than placing a digitiser on each analogue signal. The preferred platform was PCI in an industrial computer but it became very apparent that the fixed modular structure of PCI did not lend itself to this sort of switching system, and the same problems applied to cPCI and PXI.

Figure 1. The CERN requirement requires a matrix to connect up to 104 analogue sources to up to 16 digitisers

To implement a high performance matrix of this type required the switching system to determine the form factor of the final solution – and that ruled out using anything which could be described as fixed modular format. A modular approach was needed to make the matrix system size scalable as different locations required different sizes of matrix – one location might require a 64×16, another might require a 104×16. Systems could also have their requirements changed with time as the number of sensors changed and more (or less) channels added. That strongly indicated that a proprietary scalable modular approach was going to be required, the modules sized to fit the design requirement of the matrix. That encouraged Pickering Interfaces to investigate an LXI route where there is a freedom of size.

LXI Route
LXI had some major advantages for CERN, much of their system was already running Ethernet data connections so using it to manage a matrix was not an issue. LXI control also means that they could access the matrix state over their network without intervening controllers by accessing the LXI products web server.

During discussions another issue arose, the experiments being conducted on the collider are large and expensive operations and the last thing that CERN wanted was to find that a switch in the matrix had developed a fault and was preventing monitoring operations. Knowing that Pickering Interfaces had implemented self-test in both LXI and PXI (called BIRST) CERN requested some sort of self-test in the switching system, and ideally because the switch needed coaxial connectors the test had to be capable of running with the inputs and outputs connected to a non-powered source/load. Being able to initiate and run a self-test remotely would also be a powerful tool for OASIS.

Figure 2. 65-110 wideband modular chassis 48×16 matrix, with the drawer system out the plugins can be added or removed

The solution arrived at for CERN was the 65-110 Wideband Modular Matrix. The switching matrix is based on a chassis which has a dedicated analogue bus system. Into the chassis a set of plugins can be installed, the left hand pair providing the 16 Y access connections required for the digitisers. A set of X plugins then provide the analogue signal inputs, 8 signals to a plugin module. The number of X plugins can be scaled from just one (8off X connections) up to 13 (104 off X connections), allowing the user to create a matrix of any required size within the chassis constraints. Not installing the second Y plugin allowed Y=8 systems to be created – though CERN had no specific requirements for that configuration other users might find it an advantage if they had smaller system requirements. The design is fully user configurable, plugin modules can be physically installed and uninstalled and the firmware in the LXI controller will recognise the configuration and amend the available matrix size to match the plugin modules installed. The web based soft front panel, a feature strongly encouraged by the LXI standard, allows driverless control of the matrix.

Figure 3. The soft front panel of the 65-110 can be accessed through the LXI configuration pages to either control or monitor the matrix settings. The LXI controller presents the matrix as a single entity, greatly simplifying the user understanding of the setting

The matrix is a modular solution, but the module size is scaled to fit the application rather than to abide by a particular standard. The 65-110 plugin and analogue bus system had to be very carefully designed to maintain the RF performance, and in particular the crosstalk, to ensure it was fit for the application. The RF BW in a typical configuration is above 300MHz, driven largely by the need for low crosstalk, and has excellent VSWR.

Like many modern instruments the modules communicate internally to the LXI controller via a PCIe interface and the LXI controller “virtualises” this as a single matrix, so the LXI controller makes the user task of programming the matrix much easier. The LXI controller hides the complexity of the switch system from the user, the matrix appears as just one entity to the user and not a set of separate sub-assemblies (modules). It behaves like a bench instrument rather than a modular instrument.

The design uses an analogue bus underneath the plugin modules rather than being at the back of the plugin which is normally the case with modular systems – in a matrix it makes much more sense to have the X and Y signals lines at right angles to each other to improve crosstalk and isolation. This is a feature of LXI – there are no particular restraints on the size of the modules or the placement of an analogue bus so Pickering Interfaces were able to design a modular structure to suit the switching requirements.

Figure 4 The web interface on 65-110 allows easy access to the self test facility through the standard LXI cofiguration pages.

The 65-110 includes a self-test facility checks all the signals paths for failed relays (closed, open or high resistance). The design uses low level signals so that the user connections do not need to be disconnected in order to run the test (a time consuming process with over 100 coaxial leads connected, and not very practical given the distances involved) and the self-test can be initiated over the LXI compliant web interface without the use of an external controller program while a user is many kilometres from the matrix. The user simply initiates the test, the embedded LXI controller runs the test and the results can be viewed over the web interface or reported to the user as a file.

References:
• Animation shows LHC Data Processing
• Engineering at CERN
• The Accelerator Complex
• Project OASIS

A monitor facility is also included in Pickering Interfaces LXI products that allows a user to graphically display the matrix setting without having any program access to the matrix – LXI systems allow the easy creation of systems where multiple controllers are present. One controller can be setting the switch, a different controller can be monitoring what is the settings are without disrupting the programming.

Summary
The CERN requirement shows why LXI provides an excellent platform for the creation of difficult switching systems where the performance objectives are high, the switch is complicated and easy remote access is required. CERN will be making full use of the LXI aspects of 65-110 as part of the OASIS system during its next rounds of experiments running at ever higher collider energies.

No boxes with magic pixies at Westminster!

“So many great presentations today at #NIDaysUK …. We’re like a bunch of kids in the sweetie shop!” (A tweet on the day!)

Robert Morton, MD of National Instruments UK & Ireland welcomes delegates.

Youth, excitement and enthusiasm! These were the first impressions at the event organised by theNational Instruments Ireland and UK organisation in the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre just across from historic Westminster Abbey and its famous school.

Releases at NIDays
• Among the best in the world!
• Customisable Monitoring and Control Systems
• PXI programmable resistors
• Finalists in the 2012 Graphical System Design Achievement Awards
• Labview 2012: New version improves scalability of measurement & control systems
• First all-hybrid PXI express chassis features 8 Links to Every Slot
• NI unveils industry’s fastest PXI embedded controller with 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor
• Software defined radio module used in leading 5G wireless research
• Co-operation with Cardiff University on nonlinear RF network analysis technology
• Vector nnetwork analyser cuts cost of test
• Spectrum monitoring receiver
• DAQ system for high-performance embedded measurements and logging
• 3-D Vision for seamless hardware and software integration
• Support for USB3 Vision Standard

Although called NIDays (the US equivalent is NI Week which takes rather longer!) it was in fact held on one day, 20th November 2012 although the number of threads or tracks (eleven in all) meant that one had to be very aware of what exactly one wanted to attend and indeed in our experience there were some unavoidable clashes which we have had to try to catch up on using twitter. (NI Days are held in many venues throught the world and we are giving our impressions on the one for Ireland and Great Britain.)

Keynote one
The event opened with the keynote address from National Instruments co-founder Dr James Truchard, who is President and CEO. Dr T as he is known throughout the organisation gave an interesting run down on the development of the company and the technology leading to the 21st centuray offering presented today. Moore’s Law is a computing term which originated around the 70s; the simplified version of this law states that processor speeds, or overall processing power for computers will double every two years. What occured during the history of National Instruments was quite revolutionary in that the unit in the process control loop of sensor – instruments – final control element, has changed. Thus the central item, the instrument, is no longer hardware but software and it is no longer separated but embedded within the system. This has an important impact on process and testing procedures not always understood within the automation sector.
He encapsulated the impact of the technologies. “To do for test and measurement what the spreadsheet did for financial analysis.” and “To do for embedded what the PC did for the desktop.”  In the end it is all “about virtual instrumentation.”

As part of this introductory session NI’s Regional Academic Marketing Engineer, Graham Green, presented exciting insights ito several developements including such diverse applications as CERN, Astronautical applications, to academic projects which while apparantly had little practical application they did help train the engineers of the future in learning the possibilities of what can be done.

Mathew Surridge, Portsmouth University, explains the Quadcoptor (on right)

One of these was presented by a student from Portsmouth University, Matthew Surridge, who with his collegues produced an unique flying macine model – the Quadcopter – using FPGA( field-programmable gate array) and a Real-Time Processor, Digital & Serial I/O and LabVIEW. The actual unit was on stage and was allowed show some of its paces but, for health and safety reasons, and to the disapointment of at least one attendee, its flying was confined to a small transparent container. However we did see a short video of the unit in controlled flight.

Stig at NI Days!

In another memorable demonstration this time of in-vehicle logging using racing cars an apparantly anonomous Racing Driver (right) came on stage to opearate the system for us. This was later revealed to be the indefatigable Dr T. (We learned a new term “Stig” here and displayed our ignorence of current British television programmes!)

There was a brief presentation on the delivering of clean power developed to enable mobile comms infrastructure in rural Africa by Dr Mike Rendall with Diverse Energy’s  ”Powercube.” And two medical Doctors showed passive acoustic detection using LabVIEW and NI FlexRIO to improve ultrasonic tumour therapy.

This keynote was catagorised well on twitter: “Stimulating start to #NIdaysuk with exciting short presentations, medical, scientific, industrial, academic, environmental, and fun apps!”

That it certainly was!

Panel
Unfortunately we missed the panel discussion,“Are New Engineering Graduates Ready for Industry?” This formidable panel comprised Mike Sutton, Technical Fellow at Lubrizol, Jose Lopes, Head of Technical Excellence at Jaguar Land Rover, Prof Martin Levesley, Director of Teaching & Learning at Uni of Leeds, Dr Rhys Morgan, Head of Secretariat to E4E, Raspberry Pi co-founder, Dr Robert Mullins and NI CEO, Dr James Truchard. The panel was moderatored  by John Pullan, Editor of Environmental Engineering.

Tweets emintaing from this were very stimulating: “Who should be doing more to graduate engineers ready for industry? Companies? governments? universities? Who is at fault.” “Dr Rhys Morgan, Education for Engineering (E4E) raised chuckle in #NIDaysUK panel discussion ‘computers not just boxes with magic pixies in..’” I was sorry to have missed this however later on the press people had a discussion with Dr Robert Mullins and the unique Raspberry project which helped fill in some of the matters raised.

Display
All through the day the exhibition areas were open and were well attended throughout and there were also multiple opportunities for hands-on technical sessions.

This is it! Costs less than €30.00

Keynote two
The keynote in the afternoon was delivered by Dr Robert Mullins, who is a co-founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This  isa charity, of which this writer was unaware to foster the interest of  school-going youth in  computer science in particular and in the almost unlimited possibilities available through this discipline. The Raspberry Pi computer has sold in the hundreds of thousands since its launch earlier this year (2012). The hope is that these flexible low-cost machines will help build a generation that can confidently control, adapt and exploit the digital world. This talk described the Raspberry Pi story so far, the motivation for the project and the journey since launch. He described some of the projects that are exploiting the Raspberry Pi and the significant challenges that must be overcome to ensure the original goals are met. His Foundation created the Raspberry Pi computer with the hope of helping to inspire, enthuse and educate the next generation of scientists, designers and engineers and it appears that the success so far extending far beyond Britain shows the validity of this hope.

We than heard Kyle Voosen, appointed last year as Marketing Director, NI UK & Ireland, then explored the frontiers of LabVIEW. Examining an exciting variety of applications, prototypes and research, from mobile measurements and cloud integration to high-level synthesis and multirate digital signal processing.

All in all it was a worthwhile experience with measurable excitement and the ageless exuberence usually associated with youth.

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Other Reports NI, Raspberry Pi and the next generation of engineers (Electronic Product Design 21/11/2012) Industry must attract more graduates, says NI’s CEO (Electronics Weekly 26/11/2012) National Instruments CEO Dr James Truchard (Jon Exell, The Engineer 27/11/2012)

Communications, steady as she goes while Galway parties! ‪#volvooceanrace‬

It is unusual for us to have an application on these pages right on our own doorstep. The Galway based European HQ of B&B Electronics provided us with an opportunity share with our visitors a momentous occasion in this part of the world.

The excitement of two years ago has returned to Galway, City of the Tribes, capital of the western capital of Connaught with the opening of “The Volvo!” or the Volvo Ocean Race. Last night thousand gathered to welcome the surviving heros as they completed their epic journey, passing the location of the Read-out offices, on the north shore of Galway Bay, at around midnight.

There were 10 Host Ports the locations of which give an idea just how gruelling a competition it is. It set off from Alicante (ES) last October and then travelled to Cape Town (ZA), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (PRC),  Auckland (NZ), Itajaí (BZ), Miami (USA), Lisbon (P), Lorient (F) before finishing up in Galway (Ireland).

The Route of the 2012 Volvo Ocean Race!

And boy was there a party in Galway last night when the intrepid yachts finally made port? The winners in the most tightly fought race were the French Groupama team.

B&B Electronics Europe has provided an extensive fibre, cellular and wireless communications network for the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Grand Finale, the nine-day festival built around the final leg and finish line of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 in Galway, Ireland, June 30 – July 8.

Based in Galway, tey previously provided network expertise for the Galway leg of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2009.  According to the Grand Finale website, the skippers who raced in 2009 chose Galway as the 2012 end port because they “had never experienced such a spectacular stopover as they had in Galway.” The 2009 event drew large crowds (some 600,000 visitors to the Race Village and 120,000 spectators along the shores of Galway bay), and the 2012 event is expected to attract more than 800,000 visitors to Galway. The six boat fleet racing the final 550 miles from Lorient was due into Galway sometime between midnight on Monday and 3am on Tuesday, July 3rd.

They are again providing and monitoring the physical communications infrastructure including internet access and a ruggedized network used by the race teams, media and Galway event management team. Fergal Concannon, the B&B Electronics engineer responsible for the network both in 2009 and for the current event, said, “It’s the most difficult network project I’ve ever managed in my life.”

The network, deployed across 10 event locations including the docks area, event headquarters, media centre, Race Village, Global Village and seaside resort of Salthill, supports security, crowd management, web feeds, live TV and radio broadcasts, video streaming, credit card and point-of-sale facilities, commentator feeds, big screen displays and interfaces to Volvo’s own IT Group. B&B worked with the Galway event organizer, Let’s Do It Global, in providing the network.

Fibre, cellular and other wireless communications technologies were used to make difficult remote connections and to ensure network redundancy. The 20km of fibre in the docks area includes sections micro-trenched into the ground as well as marine fibre installed by divers.  The company used its GhostBridge Wireless Ethernet Bridges to create point-to-point equipment links across the harbor and to establish internet connectivity at remote locations where wired infrastructure was not feasible.  Other network equipment included B&B Electronics’ ELinx Ethernet Extenders, ELinx ESW Series Ethernet Switches, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) Switches, and Cellular Wireless Routers used for failover connectivity.

It has drawn from its recently-expanded portfolio of industrial networking products including long-range, last-mile fibre acquired from IMC, and cellular technology for M2M device connectivity acquired from Conel.

“This installation really pushes the edge,” explained Jerry O’Gorman, managing director of B&B Electronics Europe.  “Our engineers are increasingly asked to help connect M2M devices being deployed in increasingly challenging locations, and where network boundaries are being relentlessly stretched to reach them, but this project takes the cake.”

And Galway still has another week to party! And boy can we party!

#prod11 38.5 thousand from 80 countries saw 1234 exhibits in Munich

productronica, (international trade fair for innovative electronics production 15-18 November Munich D), closed its doors after four days having posted a substantial rise in the number of visitors. 38,500 visitors from more than 80 countries represent an increase of around 34% compared with the previous show. This indicates that the industry has greatly recovered in the last two years and is back to the level in 2007. The proportion of international visitors rose from 39 to 48 per cent.

Norbert Bargmann, Deputy CEO of the Board of Management of Messe München said that productronica had “once again confirmed its leading position as the world’s leading trade fair for the global electronics production industry. Following the weak event in 2009 caused by the economic crisis, we held intensive discussions with the industry. The cooperation with our commercial and industrial partners and representatives is now bearing fruit: the highlight themes, the special show, Battery manufacturing and power electronics, and the PCB Community Area were magnets for both new visitor groups and exhibitor target groups.”

Rainer Kurtz, Managing Director of ERSA, Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board for productronica and Chairman of the Productronic Association in the German Engineering Federation (VDMA): “In 2011 productronica also again proved to be the main platform in providing a further boost to the current economic climate. The trade fair is regarded as the marketplace for the electronics production industry: anyone who regards this as important must be present here. The expertise of visitors is outstanding – a large number of specific inquiries are discussed during productronica.“

38000 visitors from 80 countries!

In addition to Germany, the countries with the highest number of visitors included Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Compared with previous events, there was a pronounced increase in the number of visitors from Israel, Poland, Hungary and the Russian Federation. The representative visitor survey conducted by TNS Infratest revealed an overall satisfaction level of 96 per cent on the scale ranging from “excellent” to “good”. 75 % of respondents said they would be attending productronica 2013.

Peter Haan, of Siemens AG, said “The “Automation Systems” business area of the Siemens Industry sector took part in the ‘battery production’ special exhibition. We see the automation of battery or battery cell production as an important topic for the future. The special exhibition gave visitors the opportunity to be able to observe production and the automation it requires as almost all the important process steps were demonstrated by representatives of the appropriate engineering companies. It was possible to conduct numerous technical discussions and establish or build on relationships. All in all our assessment of the special exhibition is positive.” While Ulrich Eckenberger, General Manager Test&Measurement Europe, Rohde & Schwarz said “productronica offers Rohde & Schwarz a good opportunity to cultivate international contacts and generate new leads. We are therefore seizing this opportunity to showcase our latest product highlights at this leading trade fair and doing so – as a Munich company – virtually on our doorstep. After the first two days of the trade fair this year we had already posted approximately a 30 per cent increase in visitor numbers compared with the last productronica.”

Kristi Schilloff, Universal Instruments Corporation added “The productronica show was an excellent venue for Universal to showcase our newest product line introductions. The show was also an ideal forum for us to share our knowledge on both the traditional and emerging electronics industry markets.”

The Innovation Forum and the productronica Forum were very well-attended throughout the duration of the trade fair. Together with the VDMA, Munich International Trade Fairs repositioned trend themes such as “Organic and printed electronics“ or “Energy storage manufacturing” at productronica. One of the Forum highlights was the CEO Round Table. Johann Weber, CEO of Zollner Elektronik AG said, “A large proportion of the audience rated the Round Table as, outstanding‟ since it also focused on the German electronics industry and looked into the future. These forums are decisive and important. The people attending them obtain an enormous amount of information.”

A representative survey conducted by TNS Infratest among exhibitors primarily revealed a significant increase in their level of satisfaction. Over 90 per cent of exhibitors rated the internationality and expertise of visitors, in particular, as “excellent” to “good”. This was also clearly reflected in the overall level of satisfaction among exhibitors: 89%t assessed the outcome of productronica as “excellent” to “good”.

A separate communication platform for the printed circuit board segment – the PCB Community Area – was initiated in close cooperation with the Central Association of the German Electrical and Electronics Industry (ZVEI). Christoph Stoppok, Managing Director of the PCB and Electronic Systems Association in the ZVEI remarked, “We were especially impressed by the Speakers Corner in the new PCB & EMS Marketplace. We would like to congratulate Munich International Trade Fairs on this attractive innovation. With its first-class speakers, the CEO Round Table on the topic „The future of industrial production in Germany and Europe‟ during the productronica Forum provided visitors with an interesting look at future developments, opportunities and risks.“

1,234 exhibitors from 39 countries presented their innovative products and solutions on a net exhibition area of 41,016 square metres (gross exhibition area: 77,000 square metres). This represents an increase of just under 15% in the number of exhibitors compared with productronica 2009 (1,106 exhibitors from 36 countries).

The increase in the amount of net exhibition space was also around 15%, of which approximately 32% of the total area was occupied by international companies. In addition to large numbers of exhibitors from abroad, there were joint stands again this year at productronica, for example from Austria, France, Hungary, Japan and Romania.

We leave the last word to Dr. Eric Maiser, Managing Director, VDMA Productronic who said “Full halls, an excellent mood among exhibitors and visitors – productronica 2011 is really fun. Our highlight themes in the innovation Forum enjoyed a very strong response and the battery production special exhibition in particular was a big hit! We are very satisfied.”

The next productronica will be held in Munich from 12 to 15 November 2013.

"productronica 2011 is really fun!"

Playing football will never be the same! Armac plays the field!

Measuring precisely leads to knowing exactly

In the Netherlands, we are told, people live by the thought that measuring is the key to knowing. This grew from the wish to keep everything under control. Numbers don’t lie, so they measure everything. Even in the most popular sport in the Netherlands (and the world): soccer (sorry America!), voices are rising to take all variables in hand and rule out the factor of luck as far as possible.

Thus standardisation of circumstances is the solution! One of these standards is being achieved by making the field with artificial grass instead of the unreliable natural grass. When this grass then is measured in quality and other parameters, a “standard” field is on it’s way. This now is made possible by Deltec, in close corporation with Armac!

The number of football fields with artificial grass is steadily growing, but it is still an expensive commodity for most clubs as well as community or public sport providers. Natural grass needs a lot of attention but artificial grass is only optimised when it is installed correctly and adequately maintained. This is important in creating a perfect artificial field, that increases the pleasure of playing, lowers the chances of injuries and prolongs lifespan considerably.

But how is the quality of an artificial field determined? This light weight, handy, user friendly unit helps out sport clubs, sport sections of city and county councils as well as installation companies, which want to know the quality of the playing field. The Club Set gives values on:

The brain of Deltec’s Club Tester, made by Armac, is capable of registering and processing over 10.000 variables per second!

• ball rolling
• vertical bounce of the ball
• infill level (thickness)
• shock absorption
• vertical deformation
• energy restitution and
• surface evenness.

Armac plays the ball
One of the devices within the Club Set is the Club Tester, which Armac has designed with extreme precision to measure the exact values of a simulated descent of a foot on the field and the particular behaviour of the artificial grass as it happenst. Due to high demands on the precision of measuring, the company used its creativity to its full potential in hardware and software engineering.

As a result, results that are accurately filtered from 10.000 variables in one second, in which the sensitivity of the acceleration sensor on 10 millivolt per G (falling force) must fall within a range between -200 and +200 G. “It took us quite some patience and accurate working to “catch” the highest and lowest values from such enormous range of data”, says software engineer Marcel van de Kamp of Armac all who as about the project.

The close cooperation between Deltec Metaal and Armac in the Netherlands has resulted in a way to compare easily the artificial grass field variables with the official FIFA guide lines, which are the international standard.

With the Club Tester a field is monitored and so injuries are minimized and the club enjoys longer a perfectly kept artificial grass field.

Maybe eventually we can predict exactly how the ball will role … or when a goal is not a goal or when a hand ball really ocurs

Fostering discovery and innovation!

Releases!
Most of these releases were embargoed and were published during the course of NI Week.
In the meantime their “Field Architects” have launched a blog journal appropriately called The Labview Journal. (25/7/2011)
See also: Unoficial guide to NIWeek fun (29/7/2011)The Releases:
New Levels of Productivity With LabVIEW 2011 (1/8/2011)
National Instruments extends leading PXI RF test performance to 14 GHz (2/8/2011)
First Multicore CompactRIO with Intel(R) Core™ i7 Processor and smallest NI single-board RIO devices (2/8/2011)
CompactDAQ Platform expanded (3/8/2011)
Marketing guide for engineers (4/8/2011)
Donation of design tools to MIT (4/8/2011)

Your correspondant has had a certain “grá” for National Instruments when, in 1988, at an exhibition in Dublin, he saw a young man from Austin (TX US) give a demonstration of LabView on a Macintosh computer – probably a MAC II – which basically set the mouth watering because of its simplicity. At that time MS Windows was probably hardly a twinkle deep in eye of a not very well known Bill Gates so the concept of virtual instrumentation was really only possible on the MAC.

We were therefore delighted to recieve an invitation to a press event organised by them in London which rather intreguing told that we would “find out, under embargo, about the launch of LabVIEW 2011 and the latest cutting edge NI software and hardware for test, control and design!”  It also invited us to “See how NI UK & Ireland, through Graphical System Design, is committed to the future of engineering and is helping to solve real-world engineering challenges!”
Well! What could we say?  A pre-launch launch is always a tempting offer to a journalist. So we immediatly booked our passage on the relatively new service of Aer Árann from Galway Airport to Southend! Where? Yes we didn’t know there was an airport in Southend either, or indeed where exactly Southend was but now we do and it is in fact an incredibly hand service for getting into London City with a direct rail link into the heart of the city in about 40 minutes. Beats the packed tube from Heathrow or the uncomfortable bus ride from Luton any day of the week.

But this is not a travel article so to the business in hand!

Speakers at NI press events in London 20th July 2011. From Left: Robert Morton, Graham Green, Jeremy Twaits, Tristan Jones and Kyle Voosen.

There was almost a full house with the great and the good of British and Irish technical publications present with one or two notable absences. Things got off to a start more or less on time.

The recently appointed Kyle Voosen, NI’s Marketing Manager in Britain & Ireland, led off with an introduction and a graphical representation of the elements of systems that need measurement and control, a sort of thought process leading to the final solving a problem as practised in National Instruments. He said that “Tools should not limit discovery and innovation,” was to be the theme of the conference. Tools are their to help rather than hinder invention.

Presentations first described the technology and them proceeded to give actual application examples. Since there is an embargo on the new products, which will be released at NI Week (early August 2011) we basically give a brief run down here of applications more than actual product specifications and upgrades. These will be release over a few days starting on the first of August and we will advise each release on twitter , our Facebook Pageand on LinkedIN.

First off the blocks was Graham Green, Technical Marketing Engineer who spoke on meeting the needs of mission-critical applications. (We had actually met him earlier in the year at a symposium in Dublin in February.) He stressed the essential investment in testing both man hours and with their beta testers. These largely independent users lead to useable and therefore successful products. He quoted some comments from these trials which indeed looked very promising for the new LabView 2011. He then did a quick demo of the product which seemed to be having problems but he quickly realised that it is a good idea to have your PC hooked up to the equipment for a good demonstration! And it was a good smooth demonstration. He gave as practical and contrasting examples of applications. One was the measurement of tornadoes – from the inside where the opportunity for taking measurements is in an unrepeatable time frame. The other application was in the operating theatre where critical pressure pressure measurements are used in reducing the risk of lung deterioration after surgery.

Tristin Jones, who is Technical marketing Leader with NI, opined that tools should not limit embedded design. He mantained that they are one of the few companies that supplies “the complete solution with unrivalled hardware integration, complete, low-cost data acquisition, embedded control and monitoring, PXI and modular Instrumentation.” He quoted company founder Dr James Truchard, their aim was “To do for embedded what the PC did for the desktop!” He then described what happened historically defining the PC and how it now provides the basic platform for everything. He defined the embedded system: “An embedded systemis a computer system designed to do one or a few dedicated and/or specific functions. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts.” The diversity of applications is impressive and is growing as the architecture becomes more and more versitile. Again he gave applications using deployed systems in the measurement of wind for powering remote villages and in innovative devices in medical imaging.

The new era of Aautomated test was enthusiaistically greeted by Jeremy Twaits, Technical Marketing Engineer. Increasing test complexity paradoxically requires testing which has lower cost and faster. In the old order a single test instrument was sufficient for testing.  Since then test engineers are faced with a plethera of test instruments. National Instruments are in the forefront of developments here.  He quoted Mohammad Ahmad of Thales Communications “NI PXI hardware and LabVIEW software are essential technologies for test automation productivity and reuse.” and from Analog Devices makes another point on this change, “The shipping container for the previous ATE system alone would cost as much as our entire new PXI test system.” He pointed to the difference in cost, footprint, weight and facility where substantial reductions are achieved – more than a factor of ten in the cost and one of up to sixty six in weight. As they say in America, “Do the math!” National Instruments is not unique in this assessment of the market. Agilent Technologies states “PXI is currently the dominant standard for modular instrumentation. It’s a mature technology and is widely used.”

The final segment was a study of tools for students. Tools should not limit students from becoming the innovators of the future. “Tools should not limit experimentation” said Robert Morton, MD of National Instruments in Britain & Ireland. We must foster innovation and experimentation and he drew example from Thomas Alva Edison, possibly the greatest inventor of the modern era. What are the obstacles nowadays to duplicating his work and his labaratories? They are cost, accessibility and ratio. In the 80s a solution of sorts was found in the emergence of simulation but again it was realised that this had limitations and since the mid-nineties we have witnessed the the resurgence of hands-on, project-based learning. Present day graduates have the opportunity experience of actual physically handling test equipment and conducting experiments at home with NI Elvis and myDAQ, the so-called “Lab in your bag”. He quoted the Director for Teaching and Learning at his alma mater, University of Manchester, Dr Danielle George said “A major contributor to this success has been the adoption of a standard teaching platform from National Instruments…” as well as the somewhat more robust comments from students like: “I love it when ELVIS is in the building ” “Why didn’t we get a myDAQ in the first year??” or “ELVIS II has really enhanced my learning!”

Kyle Voosen concluded the event again stressing their message that National Instruments is about “Equipping engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate innovation and discovery.”

There was ample opportunity to discuss particular aspects with the presenters and other National Instrument people. Also present were Ian Bell, their Business Development Manager and Mark Gradwell (@mjg73 on twitter) their Marketing Communications Manager.

Final control elements and other stories

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Loose Insert: Metrology Systems & Services

The April/May 2010 issue of Read-out, Ireland’s journal of instrumentation, control and automation, highlights final control elements.

Steriflo’s Mark 96 pressure regulator, marketed by Manotherm, is used in sanitary applications. Emersons Fieldvue digital valve controllers are used in an Australian chemical plant “saving us thousands of pounds,” according to the instrument technician on the site. Also featured is Festo’s range of ultra-fast jet valves and Tyco’s EBCO valves to provide full flow replenishment to storage tanks in, for example high-rise buildings.

The front page article gave details of the new marketing strategy of Irish company Biotector Analytical, who have appointed Hach as exclusive distributor in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe for their range of on-line liquid analysers. Another company with a presence on the North American continent, Qumas, has won the Deloite Best Managed Company Award. This company is a provider of compliance solutions.

There is a report on the Ireland Section of the International Society of Automation visit to the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology where a large assembly of first and second year students participated in a talk on combined heat and power. These students are hoping to qualify with a BSc in Sustainable Electrical and Control Technology. The purpose of this course is “to equip students with the skills and knowledge to embark upon a rewarding career in sustainable engineering within the construction and manufacturing sectors.”

The National Instruments scheme to support micro and SMEs in embedded development is discussed. This is in the form of training and grants of up to nearly €30,000 in software, support and training. “National Instruments…is committed to supporting innovation!”

John McAuliffe, in the InSide Front article, “Cracking the Safety Code“, discusses the poractical applications of the new European Machinery Directive (SI 407/08). that came into force in January. John is Managing Director of Pilz Ireland.

Among the new products highlightes in this issue is Yokogawa’s DXAdvanced DAQSTATION range, Phoenix Contact’s PSI-Bluetooth ProfiBus set, E+H’s Liquiphant M density meter and Blue-White’s new junction box and connector arrangement on their Flex-Pro A3 peri-pump.

Read-out is published every two months and distributed throughout Ireland. Advertising rates, which have maintained their 2004 levels are on the website in Euro, Pounds Sterling and US Dollars.

The next issue for June/July will concentrate on Flow measurement & Control.

The recently opened facebook “fan-page” lists most stories we receive even those not included in our printed publication. Click if you like us!

Power from the sea

Floating off the Conamara Coast looking west on Galway Bay

Prototyping a Wave Farm Energy Converter Using LabVIEW, Compact FieldPoint and CompactRIO

By Eugene Doogan, Wavebob.

Ní minic a bhíonn seans againn tuairisc ar thógra inár áit dúchas. Ach seo tógra i gCois Fhairrige atá thar a bheith spéisiúil.

Just eleven miles east of the Read-out offices is a winking presence bobbing on the waves of Galway Bay a little distance from the shore. This article from Eugene Doogan of Wavebob tells us what’s its doing and how they keep tabs on what is happening out there.

How Wavebob works!

The Challenge:
Developing a control and data acquisition system for a wave energy converter (WEC) to achieve efficient power extraction in varying sea conditions.

The Solution:
Rapidly creating a highly integrated, rugged system for real-time control and data acquisition for a WEC prototype using NI LabVIEW, Compact FieldPoint, and CompactRIO.
” In particular, the versatility, speed, and simplicity of coding in LabVIEW, as well as excellent diagnostic and debugging tools, made it an obvious choice.”

Wave Energy
Since 1999, Wavebob Ltd, one of the world’s leading wave energy technology companies, has been developing a prototype WEC for deployment in offshore “wave farms” that are similar to wind farms. Our goal is to develop a commercial WEC that can produce significant electrical power for the onshore grid on coastlines with a suitable wave climate.

Invented by Irish physicist William Dick, the Wavebob WEC is a unique dual-body point absorber in which the two bodies move relative to ocean waves and to each other. The two bodies are coupled by hydraulic cylinder pumps, which are used to extract power from the relative motion. This part of the WEC is known as the power takeoff (PTO).

WEC development involves trials at different scales: at small-scale in-wave generating tanks (one one-hundredth to one-tenth) and then a larger scale (one-fifth to one-half) with fully operating PTO systems. The development team administers trials with the small-scale WECs in a sink, bath, or pond. When all trials are complete and successful, the team builds a full-scale WEC prototype.

To control the PTO in extreme sea conditions while maintaining efficient power extraction, the WEC requires a rugged and sophisticated control system. In addition, each stage of product development has its own requirements for the data acquisition and supervisory control system, which changes throughout the development cycle.

Hardware and Software Selection
The WEC prototype trials aim to successfully demonstrate the Wavebob WEC technology and gather data, which would inform the design of a full-scale Wavebob WEC.

A control and data acquisition system for the trials required real-time control of hydraulic valve switching according to sensor input, as well as data acquisition from a variety of sensors at appropriate sample rates. The requirements are similar to those of many industrial controller applications, but also include the unique challenges inherent to operating in varying sea conditions. These include operating in a marine environment, consequent dynamic effects on equipment, operation from DC source (24 VDC batteries with charging systems), the need for deterministic control (real-time OS), and relatively high-channel-count data acquisition and digital I/O.

In addition, the WEC prototypes include a variety of sensors, and the digital I/O includes solenoid switching with significant power requirements. Rapid code development, easy-to-modify control software, code versatility, and standard interfacing are essential.

After extensive research into the various options on the market, LabVIEW graphical design software was a natural fit for the PTO control system. In particular, the versatility, speed, and simplicity of coding in LabVIEW, as well as excellent diagnostic and debugging tools, made it an obvious choice. In addition, the range of hardware available from NI and its seamless integration with LabVIEW offered real benefits to the project.

The team selected LabVIEW coupled with Compact FieldPoint and CompactRIO for the control and data acquisition system to achieve the following benefits:

• Hardware/software integration
• Rapid development using LabVIEW
• Real-time hardware and OS
• Compact, rugged, and adaptable hardware
• Upgrade path and distributed system capability
• Excellent technical backup, particularly via National Instruments website

Control and Acquisition System – WB 06-07
During the first two trial phases for the Wavebob WEC, the team used Compact FieldPoint with LabVIEW and LabVIEW Real-Time. While the system performed extremely well, both the complexity of the control requirements and channel count increased in the subsequent development phase (MK3). As a result, the limits of the test system were approached on the second prototype. The MK3 prototype would require more processor power and faster acquisition rates.

MK3 Prototype
The scale of the WEC prototype in this phase of development, also known as the MK3 prototype, is a quarter of full scale with a fully operable PTO. Given the increasing complexity of control and additional sensors, the team selected CompactRIO hardware, LabVIEW, LabVIEW Real-Time, and the LabVIEW FPGA Module. In addition, they constructed a one-seventeenth scale model for rapid trials of structural and other changes. We had to build the new control and acquisition system into this model for data acquisition.

We selected CompactRIO for its integration with LabVIEW as well as its processing power and acquisition rates. The hardware offers the ability to run control and data acquisition loops at much faster sample rates without compromising the timing integrity of the system due to processor overload. All control and I/O functions can be programmed on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) in the CompactRIO backplane and can run simultaneously. The controller only has to read the resulting data when logging. The small footprint and low power consumption of the CompactRIO system also facilitated incorporation into the one-seventeenth scale model.

Just as in the previous prototypes, LabVIEW was the ideal choice due to its tight integration with the selected hardware. The graphical programming language is easy to use, versatile, has a myriad of modules and tools available (including the ability to target a real-time embedded OS), and very good support.

electronica 2010 – wireless & fireside chat!

No country organises trade exhibitions like Germany. The names of many of their cities are synonomous with various aspects of industry because they organise THE trade fair of a particular field. Today is the turn of Munich, the beautiful capital of Bavaria and the industry is Electronics.

Energy efficiency, environmental compatibility, cost reduction and flexibility are just some of the challenges facing the electronics industry today. At electronica 2010, the global electronics industry will demonstrate how it will rise to these challenges in the following months and years. The show will be held at the New Munich Trade Fair Center (D) from November 9 to 12, 2010. Over a period of four days, the exhibition halls will once again be the place where companies meet at the world’s most important trade fair for electronics.

Automotive with the main theme of electromobility, displays and e-signage or digital signage, embedded systems with hardware and software, medical electronics, MEMS, photovoltaics and renewable energies are just some of the topics that will dominate this year’s trade fair.

It is to cover the entire spectrum of technologies, products and solutions of the electronics industry: from semiconductors, sensors, measuring and testing, electronics design, passive components, power supply, PCBs and other non-mounted circuit carriers through to EMS.

hybridica 2010 (development and manufacture of hybrid components), will be staged alongside electronica 2010 with close synergy effects and will present the latest developments and production processes regarding hybrid components.

Automotive – the future of markets and technologies in the trade fair, forum and conference
With a 3-pillar concept including the trade fair itself, the automotive forum and the electronica automotive conference, electronica 2010 will feature a wide range of automotive information.

The key topics of the electronica automotive conference on November 8 and 9, 2010 will be electromobility, driver assistance, communication and global growth markets. The first day will be dominated by strategy lectures by leading managers in the semiconductor, supply and automotive industries. The second day will be reserved for pioneering technology developments and will be aimed, in particular, at technical executives.

Wireless Congress – wireless applications as a driving-force for research and development
The conference program on the following days will be devoted to the topic of wireless. The “Wireless Congress 2010: Systems & Applications“ will clearly illustrate the special importance of wireless applications as a driving-force for research and development in the electronics industry.

CEO Round Table and Munich Electronics Summit – top-level networks
Top executives will exchange ideas and opinions during the CEO Round Table, a public podium discussion, during electronica 2010. The CEO Round Table will again be one of the highlights of electronica 2010.

electronica is directed at business leaders from large international enterprises through the new event “Munich Electronics Summit“. An exclusive fireside discussion has been created solely for this group of persons and will be an opportunity for CEOs and managing directors to informally exchange ideas and network with one another.

Forum program – geared towards the needs of the industry
The talks during electronica 2010 will be spread over a total of five forums: the automotive forum, the embedded forum, the e-signage forum, the electronica forum and the ZVEI forum.

Technical talks and discussions will be the focal points of the application-oriented forums. The electronica forum and ZVEI forum will concentrate on general technology topics and other applications such as MEMS, medical electronics, wireless, organic electronics, photovoltaics and renewable energies.

Trade Fair Success Initiative – optimum use of the trade fair budget
The aim of the new exhibitor service is to continually increase the positive effects for companies through attendance at a trade fair. The service package includes a trade fair-related program of workshops, online training courses, IT-based work tools and numerous services to help exhibitors prepare, implement and follow up their participation in a trade fair.

A large number of services from the Trade Fair Success Initiative are offered free of charge in order to ensure maximum success for all trade fair participants through optimum support.

SPS/IPC/Drives

Major show in the heart of Europe

Wading through SPS/IDC/Drives 2009

Entrance to show

The biggest city of the ancient tutonic dukedom of Franconia, Nueremburg, is the site of one of the largest automation exhibitions in the world – SPS/IPC/DRIVES
In the English speaking world an electric automation show that presented 1,237 exhibitors to 48,595 vistors sounds like an impossible dream.
These exhibitors – manufacturers of electric automation technology – presented products and services from the following sectors: Control Technology; IPCs; Drive Systems and Components; Human-Machine-Interface Devices; Industrial Communication; Sensor Technology; Industrial Software; Interface Technology; Electromechanical Components and Peripheral Equipment.

Apparently impervious to the ills that other shows like Interkama – now subsumed and swamped in three sections of the Hannover Fair called Industrial Automation, and ISAExpo, which finally closed its doors this year, SPS/IPC/Drives seems to grow from strength to strength. Though we are all suffering from the effects of the global financial chaos this show managed to increase the attendance from last year by 490 – admitedly a small increase but an increase nevertheless.

The organisers reported after the first day “The rush for the exhibition is unbroken in 2009. According to the first analysis the same number of visitors as in the record year of 2008 came to Nuremberg on the first day of SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2009.”

We had selected to attend the Houston Show this year so we have had to rely on tweets and other “social media” to compose this commentary. Unfortunately there was not an agreed hash tag for the show so it was difficult to see the tweets under one heading.

We conducted three searches as follows: #SPS/IPC/drives SPS SPS/IPC

Carl Henning of ProfiBus US was tweeting from the show and also told us how he was tweeting from a blog post entitled “Trekker Tweeting Technology” He uploaded a few pictures as well, though unsurprisingly these were mostly of the PI stand!

ProfiBus at SPS

His first SPS Report 1: The Show was posted on Friday 27th, and on the Saturday he posted SPS Report 2: PI Booth Tour (some videos here including a booth walk through!), and during the following days he posted SPS Report 3: IO-Link, SPS Report 4: PROFIsafe, SPS Report 5: PROFIenergy and SPS Report 6: Walking the Show Floor.

Of course ProfiBus were not alone at the show. Fieldbus Foundation took the opportunity to reflecto over it’s positive marketing achievements in EMEA and launch a new Report from the ARC Group called The Business Value Proposition of Control in the Field.

John Rinaldi’s Realtime Automation blog published a brief report on SPS Show-Nurnberg.

Examples of tweets in English from the show were:
“I’m standing at the Aerotech stand at a very busy SPS Drives show in Nuremberg”
“Presentation by Hilscher recognizing the value of social media – like Twitter..”
“Exhibiting new sine wave filters and low-leakage EMC/EMI filters.”
“…Show is extremely busy-so busy I didn’t have time to Tweet until now. Exhibitors are really happy. 1 said “almost too busy!”
“…a great day at the SPS/IPC/DRIVES exibition & congress in Nurnberg – web automation is on the rise”
“..Just returned from a visit to SPS/IPC/Drives show in Nuremberg. Massive show and very busy which is a good sign for a recovery next year!”
“Wrapping up 3 fantastic days at SPS/IPC/Drives in Nuremberg. Thankful for the opportunity to meet with new and long time customers.”
“…that was SPS 2009. SPS 2010 will be Nov 23 – 25..”

Not surprisingly many of the links here are in languages other than English. These have been indicated by the prefixes (D) for German and (RU) for Russian. We may have links in other languages later. We suggest that those who do not read these languages use GoogleTranslate German to translate the German pages and GoogleTranslate Russian for those in Russian.

Shortly before the opening of the show Control Engineering issued a digital issue of their magazine, “You now have the opportunity to view our unique ActiveMagazine prior to the start of SPS in Germany!”
The Australian publication Motors & Drives reports SPS/IPS/Drives exhibition enters its 20th year.
DS Europe SPS: congatec Presents APIX Starter Kit

Another publication was the German language (D) konstructions praxis.de. This publication also conducted a number of video interviews in German.
Channel e (D) SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2009 eröffnet
Pressbox (D) Neuer SPS-Connector stellt direkte Verbindung zu SAP-System her
DerWesten (part of the WAZ media group) (D) Kostal Industrie Elektrik aus Hagen präsentiert Neuheit auf der Messe SPS
IW -online (D) Neuer SPS-Connector stellt direkte Verbindung zu SAP-System her und Innovationen von HARTING auf der SPS/IPC/DRIVES
The Swiss epublication Megalionk (D) SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2009: Bühne der Innovationen
Maschinen Markt MM (D) SPS/IPC/Drives 2009 – die Welt der elektrischen Automatisierung unter einem Dach
Elektrotechnik (D)490 Besucher mehr als 2008
Automation.net (RU) ткрылась выставка SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2009
RussKabel.ru (RU) Продукция компании “Belden” на выставке SPS/IPC/DRIVES

There were a number of people on the floor taking photographs amont these were vanveeteren who gives a blog address of Notizblog (German). However the Industrial Ethernet Book surpassed themselves with pictures which give a flavour of the show. This picture of the Siemens stand, from neumsn, gives a good impression of a well attended show.

FDT on iPhone: You don’t believe it? We’ll show it to you!

An interesting press conference we would like to have attended was by Andreas Börngen, Director Sales and Product Marketing at M&M Software. In it he discussed FDT 2.0: Advantages, Benefits, Implementation. One of the things they promised to show was FDT on the iPhone. Is there anything these gadgets can’t do?

Company Press Releases

Micro-Epsilon to exhibit its thermoMETER CT ratio pyrometer at SPS|IPC|DRIVES exhibition

Energy efficiency and power density from ebm-papst

Belden releases new Eagle 20 Tofino line of Plug-n-Protect™ industrial security products

LEM’s portfolio of comprehensive battery monitoring components

ifm: Compact pressure sensor for applications in robotics and handling

Pictures by Indusoft

(D) Engineers Lounge This is a collection of information in German on products launched or displayed at the show.

(D) Siemens präsentiert neue RFID-UHF-Komponenten

(D) Balluff Presseinformationen zur SPS 2009

(D) TRIMOD: revolutionäre USV-Anlage von Meta System auf der SPS/IPC/DRIVES in Nürnberg

The next SPS/IDC/Drives is scheduled for 23 – 25 November 2010