Friday, September 18, 2009

Day 125

Morning
I worked on finishing up my last unfinished projects. Dean grabbed me for a talk from Olsson controls. It wasn't anything really new, but I had a good talk with Dean on the walk over. I wrote up a document for the Tobin bench when I got back. I then backed up all my files for Tony. Matt invited me out to lunch at Humpties; he even said he'd buy!

Afternoon
Not much got done. I chatted with Tony about Mecop, hit up the electric shop, had a sendoff in the conference room with cake. Dean had a few good quips, but it went well. I had a few talks with Tobin, then bs'ed with Tony and Chris until now.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Day 124

Morning
Tobin test bench. I went over to try to troubleshoot that thing. I started by using hard jumpers and low tip limits, but the DC trip was still strange, and the AC trip never worked. It was very odd. I ended up putting another trigger board in and trying again, but the results were identical. I never figured it out, and I also never got the toggle switch to work. It was a little frustrating, but I did get the hold switch installed and a few more things labeled. I also did the troubleshooting. I left Ray a present on the door.

Afternoon
I tried to make up some drawings for the panel. I got the control power one done, and a crude layout as well. I'll finish those up tomorrow morning so there is a record of the bench. I also need to draft a paper. There was a safety drill. They sounded all the horns and everyone assembled.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Day 123

Morning
I got started by gathering everything I need for across the street. I made some labels with Dean's label maker, laminated a sheet with all the P1223 TRG information, got together all the tools, soldered female header jumpers onto the signal wire, and grabbed my documents. I went over there and started the wiring. I pulled the two new cables, labeled, and swapped out resistors. The only problem is the switch didn't work. The DC trip just keeps going off. I ran out of time in the morning, so I'll have to troubleshoot later.

Afternoon
Tony was over here, so we just got started on the Mecop basic knowledge review. I had a good idea on most of the items, but he brought up good points with things like input impedance (0-10VDC signals should have high impedance, 4-20 mA should have low impedance, etc.) and sizing (NEC code book). I was able to answer a number of questions fairly well, but I still learned a lot. I started the drawings for the test bench rather than go back over for just a half hour.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Day 122

Morning
I got to work cleaning out my last project folder: the welder project. It wasn't too bad really. I found some old emails that I printed for inclusion. It was good to go back trough and take a look at everything. That really completes my folders. They should all be clean now. Nothing much was going on over here, so I went across the street and rewired the test bench. The resistor that was already mounted was a 10k (not 5k), so I need to make a small update, but the wiring itself is solid.

Afternoon
I ran back over and drilled out a hole for the second pot. The battery was dying in the drill (and it just took me a while), so I was late back over here for my exit interview with Corey. When we finally got over there, he didn't even know we were meeting. It was all good on the forms, nothing bad or underrated. We came back over and I sketched a few drawings for the bench before quiting.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Day 121

Morning
I did a little work on the choke research. I made sure that my document was up to snuff, then I cleaned out the project folder that I had. It got moved, but into an incomplete folder just because we never really did much with it. The research was nice, but I don't know if the solutions will work at all.

Afternoon
I went across the street twice and worked on the test bench. I got all the necessary wire and resistors that I need for the modifications. When I tried to get it wired in, I ran into some problems. There must be a better way to add resistance between terminal strips. I might just suck at it too, but something needs to happen because that just won't work the way I have it. The voltage level for the analog trip is working though.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Day 120

Morning
I came in and got to work on the Tobin test bench. I asked Tony about the analog trip setting, which prompted a long examination of the board and the input signals. I think what we determined was that we should just use one channel (phase) to trip the board and you may need to multiply by 3^(1/2) for a correction factor. I also muddled around my desk a little and cleaned up a few small things on projects. I got a call in from Frank Susnik that my drawings are approved, so I got Tony and Matt to sign off so they can get into the system.

Afternoon
The entire afternoon was spent up in plant engineering talking with Frank Davis about the old bliss press project. I actually contributed a small amount when it came to the panel because I had been involved with the previous discussion some months ago. I didn't really say too much, but I did observe and learn some. When we got back (Dean included), I emailed off the final prints and called it a week.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Day 119

Morning
I got started by heading across the street to work on Tobin's bench. I tried to wire up the scr's to match the ones on ebw4, but that didn't get the 480 heater on. I tried a bunch of different things, but no dice. The wiring all looked good, and the board was even firing correctly (based on led indication), but the scr's were not being triggered. I came back across the street to grab the o-scope close to 11:00 when the monthly engineering meeting was. It was mostly covering projects.

Afternoon
I looked up the scr datasheet, along with the datasheet for 4ebw. The information showed that I needed to be more careful of how I was hooking up the scr's. I spent a lot of time tracing the leads until it was all ready to go. I needed to make a few changes across the street, but once the final wiring was done, presto! The heater came on and I got 480 output. It was adjustable with the pot and everything. The next step is to get all the trips to work. I need to grab some more wire and work out how I am going to lay it out, but I think I can get it done.