Uni Stuff > The University Journey Journal
Jamon Being an Adult
jamonwindeyer:
Weeks 17-18
Another two week update! This one was less of an active decision and more of a, "Crap, I haven't journaled yet," sory of thing ;)
So these two weeks have been spent working on another SCADA project. Same sort of stuff as before, but new project. This one is for a big aluminium smelter. They want to automate (partially, you always need some human input when dealing with huge vats of molten metal I guess, aha) the process of filling up their pots with the different raw materials. For this, we've grabbed signals from some key points in their electrical circuits that will tell us useful data - We then process this to send signals to other parts of the equipment. Essentially, we are taking what used to be a manual switch, and sticking a controller in there without adding too much additional circuitry. However, we still need to monitor the process, so this SCADA system will basically be displaying diagnostics for all 840 pots in their site, and other info too. All this also needs to get logged, and cross checked - Gets messy.
It has been an interesting project to sink my teeth into - Primarily because it's gotten me doing a tonne more programming. I've been writing a lot of Cicode, the programming language behind the SCADA software itself (which I've been told bares resemblance to Pascal as a language). It's mostly simple stuff in terms of programming concepts - Populating arrays, comparing values, etc. It's just that because it is with live data from the field, you've got to do all this conditioning and be really clever with how you handle it. Additionally, it's a unique situation because we are guaranteed to lose communication with our controllers in this project. They communicate via radio and sometimes they just get in the wrong spot. So, we need to be careful that we let the correct failures go without an issue, but still catch errors when they happen at the wrong time. Interesting stuff.
I've also done some stuff with SQL (which I've never touched, so really enjoyed that). Also doing a bit in VBA - Namely, writing some macros to automate the insertion of data into the SCADA software. I'm very glad this is possible - I didn't fancy entering the data for about 17,000 different tags by hand. Automation rules.
jamonwindeyer:
Weeks 19 (In New Zealand!)
Exciting update this time!! Didn't want to mention it earlier because it was still in flux, but I spent this week (last week at time of writing) in New Zealand with my supervisor, commissioning/installing the new SCADA PCs I had been working on! This was a really cool chance to see my work actually end up as something used in the real world.
We spent Monday travelling and had meetings and simple setup on Tuesday. We'd shipped the PCs from our office so needed to make sure they hadn't been damaged in transit. We ran some checks on their network to make sure nothing would clash with our new PCs when they were switched on. Took backups of their existing system, just in case.
Wednesday morning, up at 3am (1am Sydney time, erghhh...) to be at the train station to swap over to the new PCs before the station opens. Can't swap over with people there, just in case something weird happens. Like, we were changing the PCs that interface with the stations control systems, not the controllers themselves. So realistically, even with no PCs at all, station would run fine. But have to be safe - So we worked from 4am to get the station ready for a 5:30 open.
Thankfully, it all went really smoothly. Seeing green lights starting to pop up on our screens was a huge rush of relief.
Thus began the testing. We did about 8 hours of it on Wednesday, then a bit more on Thursday. Have to satisfy the client, and ourselves, that the system works perfectly. Especially important here, because if something goes wrong, it's an international trip to get over there to help.
Thursday night/Friday morning was emergency tests (that is, testing our systems capability in emergency scenarios). This one was done late at night (tests started at midnight). We needed to tell the Emergency services about it, just in case we accidentally called them during our simulations (the system is designed to call automatically, but we unplugged that connection before we started). Again, all went really smoothly - Managed to be back in the hotel room and asleep by about 3am. Friday was lots of small little fixes. Pop ups appearing in the wrong spot, getting their printer working on our new network (way more complicated than it should have been, go figure, the thing that takes the most time is a bloody HP printer lol).
All in all, it was a really incredible experience. It taught me a lot about how Engineers work with operators, the people who actually use their designs and equipment. Really, they are the experts. For example, at one stage I was disabling some alarms and it was taking ages to look each one up in the database. My supervisor suggested, "Just ask ______ (operator)". She knew exactly what I needed straight away - This tiny little detail of this huge system and she just knew it, like that. Ultimately, the people who use your systems are the ones who know it best - Which makes them hugely valuable when you are installing and (particularly) troubleshooting. You can't look 'down' on the people you are designing for, they probably know your stuff better than you do :)
Exhausting week - Crashed for 12 hours on Saturday night. We're at the tail end of the placement now though - 5 weeks left! It's flown by!
jamonwindeyer:
Week 20
A much shorter and less exciting update than last week.
We're in the awkward spot now where I don't have long enough left to start a new proper project, but five weeks is still enough time for me to be decently useful. Thankfully, I've found a new project!
First though, I did some tidy up work on the SCADA System we installed in New Zealand last week (paperwork and such), and did some additional configuration for the other SCADA network I touched up in the meantime. That second SCADA system is now done as well, and I helped demo it to the client on the Friday (well, I was there to make sure it didn't break ;)).
The new project has me doing some programming in Visual Basic to develop some new business management systems. Essentially, the accounting/financial software package that the company uses is pretty... Bad. My supervisor said something to the effect of, "If we designed this we'd be out of a job really quick."
So essentially, the approach is to minimise the time we spend using this package. Record the data in there and do the bits it needs to do, then export the data for viewing and actually working with it. I'm designing that - Mostly just a series of Excel sheets with some nifty little VBA macros to do some parsing and filtering. A little bit of work in Visual Studio to develop an actual interface. This is stuff I'm reasonably comfortable with, having done a fair bit of it at previous placements and at uni, but definitely a cool design challenge nonetheless!
jamonwindeyer:
Week 21
Work continues on these new business management systems. I'm working more closely with a colleague now (a UNSW grad, actually!) and we're starting to make things a bit more sophisticated, getting rid of some bugs, tidying up the actual front end interface rather than the back-end functionality. The tool I've designed is for financial reporting and forecasting; the next step is to have that interface with a bid management system.
Not a whole lot to talk about really, think I'll be a bit of a code monkey these last few weeks, which is certainly fine by me ;)
Starting to do little bits of pack up at my apartment. I've been counting the food I have and only buying enough to get me through exactly to the end of my placement. I've got like half a tub of ground coffee and way too many cans of baked beans, though. Down to my last packet of razorblades, so that should time just about right. Wow, I'm really boring hey 8)
Kind of crazy that it's all wrapping up to be honest - It's gone really quick!
jamonwindeyer:
Week 22
(sorry in advance for the short update)
So much code, so much wow.
Essentially sums up my week! Have done lots of coding and still have lots of coding to do before I finish up in two weeks time. With so little time left, I have been extra mindful (and I like to think I'm mindful of this anyway) of writing really maintainable, easy-to-understand code so that it can be taken over by someone else if it needs to be. That said, my aim is to be finished before I leave!!
Right now I'm working with:
- A VB.Net application
- An Access database
- Various spreadsheets each with macros designed to interface with the database and the application
So lots of juggling balls, developing each in parallel because they are all fairly dependent on each other. Enjoying myself immensely! :)
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