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Creating a Homebrew Industrial Process Monitor?

Posted by Cliff on from the doing-it-yourself dept.

pionzypherm asks: "I work at a glass plant for a major beer company. My job entails monitoring the furnaces that melt the glass. I have been working on a project on the side, collecting data from various sources and compiling it into an easily used form for the higher ups. I've finished two of our three furnaces, but one remains. This furnace uses technology from the early nineties. There is no networking, the hardware is completely closed and unavailable for any screen scraping. Two of the items I'm looking to monitor (and would appear to be the easiest starting point) are two valves for a gas and oxygen line which will provide data on a portion of our energy usage. I was thinking of a microcontroller board or something similar tied in to monitor the positions of the valves. I'm unsure where to begin though. What books, microcontroller boards or alternatives would you recommend for someone new to this? What suggestions would you have for such a project, and what pitfalls might I run into?"

3 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Use nature by Timesprout · · Score: 2, Funny

    Put a toad in the furnace and then ignite it. If the toad does not jump out then clearly the furnace is not heating quickly enough. For day to day management use a dragon. They are very good with high temperatures and will be able to help out with your energy bills by giving your furnace the odd blast. One safety tip with the dragon though is that if your name is George its probably best not to let the dragon know that.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  2. Need sleep by glwtta · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read that as "Creating a Hebrew Industrial Process Monitor?"

    Really wouldn't know where to begin with that one.

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  3. Re:Industrial automation is a business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If all humans were like you, we'd still be hunting with spears, because "hunting is for hunters, doing it with your half-assed bent stick and string that throws a small spear is dangerous."
    Dear Slashdot:

    OOg want to catch buffalo. OOg never catch buffalo before. OOg only seen buffalo once, from far away. But OOg has good idea to catch buffalo with coconut. Can anyone tell OOg good books to read about coconuts?

    Also, OOg live in North America. OOg only have acorns, and no coconuts. Can anyone tell OOg how many acorns it takes to equal one coconut? OOg got finger bit off by dingo, so OOg only able to count to nine. Will nine be enough acorns for OOg to catch buffalo?

    Please tell OOg soon. OOg real excited about catching buffalo. OOg going to ride buffalo like pony.