Wet Dreams
Did you know that farmers have wet dreams? They do, even the old cantankerous ones that you would think should be past it! So what fantasies disturb the night time slumber of these landholders? Why fleeting visions of naked irrigation systems of course, plumbing without the encumberance of wires! Some dreams are simple, like wirelessly controlling a pump and some seem fanciful indeed, say operating 350 irrigation solenoids from a desktop computer without cables. For the last decade McLean Automation has been taking the vague pencil sketches that come out of the fax the morning after those restless night time apparitions and turning them into vivid reality.
The interesting thing is the ideas are universal. It doesn't matter what you're growing, the desire to streamline water management on a property is a notion that has general application. So we've worked hard to come up with modular product that scales up when its needed. We started with vineyards and experience there was a hard teacher, first the test then the lesson. In the last ten years we've done tobacco plantations, fruit & veg farms, plant nurserys, dairy farms and broad acre applications. These days our systems have overflowed into in dust suppression in mining and wastewater management. Watermation, water automation without wires is an idea whose time has (red in the face & panting) come.
Custom Systems
Talk 'customising' & most people think of some obscure 'one off'. And God knows we've done enough of them over the years. But custom RC technology can be so much more than that! Applications specific systems branded with your company logo can be a way to differentiate your product from the competition. Not only that but you get to achieve it without getting involved in the detail of radio control. McLean Automation has extensive experience in developing specialist repeat order RC links for some of Australia's largest companies. For example;
A polling network for linking pulse output meters to a central on site PC. This system was developed for a major energy supplier to enable their customers to see total plant energy consumption in real time. This information is then used by energy management systems to limit peak demand and reduce high rate tariffs. A specialist hand held remote control pendant for automating the delivery of liquid explosive. Developed for a key player in the mining industry this device typifies a range of innovative remote control solutions for product delivery in areas ranging from water to wine. Customised RCs for feedlots, coal mines & shipping terminals have included unique 'learning' remote controls where receivers memorise a product delivery time or sequence on-the-fly. The incorporation of such 'smarts' into the RC eliminates downstream PLCs, greatly reducing both the project development cost & the repeat unit pricing. Numerous hyrbrid radio/PSTN solutions for local government & water supply authorities, mainly pump station monitoring & control.
For high volume applications we can supply card level product for seamless integration into your system. Because the radio technology is microprocessor based we can supply turn key solutions in areas that would traditionally require a separate controller. Successful applications to date include remote diesel start where the engine management is integrated onto the radio control card & actuator control boxes where the RC and motor control functions are combined.
Kiss TeleControl
Kiss stands for 'keep it simple stupid' and teleControl is remote control without wires, that these days can involve LAN connections and the world wide web. Sometimes I think people get a bit carried away & I'm left wondering why anyone would want an internet connection to check on their VCR? For the last decade we've been extending the range of our short haul radio licence exempt proximal radio links by hooking them into the telephone system. This approach is user friendly, affordable and reliable. These hybrid local radio-telephone systems involve the provision of turn key solutions that combine a robust auto dialler &/or mobile phone modem to extend the 5km range of our radio licence exempt monitoring & control systems. The dialler simply rings out an alarm which it delivers as a recorded voice message. If the called party does not cancel the alarm the dialler moves to the next number in memory. Numbers & messages are easily entered by the user on the dialler keypad. The GSM box sends text (or voice if linked to the dialler) messages & is user configurable using that same SMS facility in the reverse direction. Both telephone interfaces have some simple on/off output control although the applications to date have primarily been for remote monitoring.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
Low power radio circuits are a great alternative to cabling for many control & monitroing tasks. But the trouble with low power radio waves is you can't touch, taste, smell, hear or see them. The McLean Automation range test kit is a practical aid to help eliminate the frustration of working with the invisible! And you don't need to be an RF engineer to use the kit. There is an RF lamp, a little globe you can screw on to a transmitter output too see that there is actually RF energy appearing at the aerial socket. The range test transmitter has an inbuilt SWR meter to identify transmit antenna and feedline problems. The range test receiver has an audible signal strength beeper, the more beeps the stronger the signal. Both modules are battery powered by AA dry cells. The kits are available for hire at just $90/week with a laminated instruction card to survey a site prior to system purchase or for any customer experiencing radio link problems that can't be solved with a multimeter. Practical diagnosis is one of the corner stones of our customer care philosophy. Transmitters beep when they send, receivers that don't work a relay do too. Most applications sheets include a trouble shooting section & all systems are tested prior to shipping.
HAND-IN-GLOVE
A radio control &/or monitoring system should be a precise match to the application it was designed for, a hand-in-glove solution. Functionals like default condition on power up, switching format (latched, momentary, single code toggle, dual code on/off), LOS (loss-of-signal) response, latency, broadcast redundancy & power consumption have to be tailored to the task at hand. Furthermore decisions about which functions should be available over the radio circuit, system expansion and user friendliness need to be factored in too. Many decisions (like power up status) aren't always what you would think at first glance. At McLean Automation we attempt to hide these complexities by offering numerous variants on a theme, a range of systems all based on modular product to keep the cost down. PivotLink is a case in point. It was developed in response to electric pivot operations characterised by 24v~ only supply on the pivot with timer switched or off peak tariff supply at the pump. PivotLink is one of dozen different flavours of fail safe radio link targeted at travelling irrigator or pivot management. The 2 wire transmitter runs from 24v~ fed directly from the stop switch & transmits once per minute whilst powered. The single code working receiver, which switches to off two & half minutes after loss of signal from the trasnmitter, wires between the mains timer or off peak tariff switch and the pump. When the timer iniaties a cycle the receiver powers up in the on state, giving the pivot a couple of minutes to get moving. The pump stops if the pivot fails to start, or looses power, or ends the run or the transmitter fails. The pump will automatically restart after power outages during a cycle or if a stopped pivot is reset. Other systems in the range have mixtures of remote or local only reset capability & differentiated responses to differnt types of alarm. All of them aiming at seamless integration with the system they are designed to work with.
TIME TO THINK?
Early man was too busy worrying about where his next meal was coming from to think about a better way of getting a feed. And today, a million years later, some managers are so busy running the farm they don’t have time to get past the day-to-day problems. You would think that technology might come to the rescue? In industrial situations SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) has largely automated the production process. But in the rural sector most off the emphasis has been on the DA portion of the bigger SCADA picture. Devices like soil moisture loggers (some of them radio equipped) have sought to improve irrigation practice with the provision of information on soil moisture. Alas this attempt to supplement traditional ‘rule-of-thumb’ watering wisdom with reams of data to wade through has, in many cases, simply made the job more difficult. Data collection is pointless if it only serves to document processes that are not ‘best practice’. Good data deserves better than simply viewing in an historical context. SCADA is about using real time data to manage the quantity being measured automatically at that time. To automate a process it is necessary to close the control loop by using the data to directly control the measured quantity. To do this requires reliable communications and a control system capable of accepting operator input to manage the outputs. We call SCADA capable technology with these features FADEC (Full Authority Digital Equipment Control). FrostLink Analog (for temperature based frost abatement) & Puppet (for soil moisture driven irrigation) both employ solar powered remote transmitters to send data to a relay equipped receiver. This receiver has an LCD (liquid crystal display) to show the values & a single switch input for setpoints (user established operating limits). Both FADEC networks can control up to 4 pumps using data from up to 4 remote sites. The comprehensive easy-to-read user manual is easier to understand than most irrigation controller hand books and system setup can be done in just a few minutes by non technical staff. If you want to get past the day-to-day routine to focus on the bigger picture a FADEC system could be the answer for you. This is no nonsense, cableless, variable hysteresis control for busy people that does not require a desk top computer. Simple operator inputs allow seasonal changes of operating limits and there are no graphs or data sheets to pore over. For the technology wary, FADEC systems can be used in alarm only mode.
Click here if no menu side bar McLean Automation 518 Terrace Rd, Freemans Reach, NSW, 2756 Australia phone 0245796365 (+612 45796365), fax 0245796942 (+612 45796942)
This page was last updated Nov 2005
