Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving

We've a lot to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, of course, our families, friends and health. We all have our individual families plus, our "family" at JH Technology.

We're grateful, of course, to our customers, but we also appreciate those of you who are interested in what we do even though you may not have needs or opportunities we can meet at this time.

We're thankful this year that we have grown despite the economy. We're almost back to where we were before last year's "dip". We appreciate our employees who took some temporary pay reductions last year and for our suppliers who were understanding when we ran behind on payments.

And, despite what your feelings may be regarding the politics of the moment, we're especially thankful to be able to live and work in America. We aren't perfect or always right and we have our problems and disagreements, but still we're fortunate to live in one of the best places in the world.

Give thanks - to your friends and family, to those who love you, to whatever god or deity you may believe in - and be grateful for what we all have been given.

Happy Thanksging

From Harry and all of us at JH Technology.

Speaking of Specials - - -

Pulse Amplifier:
Special Product - leads to a second special - then two standard products - and then yet a third special!

A bit of "fun" history here - our standard Models JH376 & JH377 were introduced  last year (blog entry October 10, 2009).

In 2001 an engineer at a Canadian company - lets call it "Company A" - contacted us. They were using another manufacturer's pulse amplifier which worked but was inconvenient to mount in their system. We quoted, designed and sold them a functional equivalent in a DIN-rail mount case. The engineer later left and the orders stopped.

The same engineer called us in 2004, now with a different firm ("Company B") and with a modified set of requirements. He needed different - and adjustable - sensitivity, different filtering and the ability to accommodate both mag pickup and logic pulse inputs. We worked with him to prototype and develop a new design. They ordered regularly for about two years but then, early 2007, the orders stopped. (We later learned he'd gone back to "Company A".)

So - we now had a design but no customers. We decided to "run it up the flagpole" as a standard product and see what happened. After reviewing both companies' requirements plus competitive products we revised the standard product's filtering and sensitivity specs a bit. Introduced a year ago, it's been a modest success including a new OEM customer.

And now. "the rest of the story". In August "Company B" called again. They reordered their version but really wanted yet a different set of requirements. We again worked with them to develop a new version which they have since bought. We also contacted the original engineer at "Company A" but their systems have changed and they no longer need pulse amplifiers.

Our standard products (with links):
Pulse Amplifier: Model JH376, optimized for use with mag-coil type magnetic pickups.
Pulse Converter: Model JH377, optimized for use with logic pulse and open-collector inputs.
Or, if you need specials, contact us - jhtek@jhtechnology, (800) 808-0300 or (941) 927-0300,

Our web site: http://www.jhtechnology.com/

Sarasota Arts Scene - Jazz

From Harry this week - personal interest.

For a small city, Sarasota has an incredibly vibrant arts scene. Here's an example.

My wife, Jacquie, and I went to a jazz concert at a local church. A six-piece group, they performed incredibly well. Their ages - 13 to 17 years old, and they've been around three years. From their publicity:

"They created the group three years ago, playing jazz in front of a local grocery store on Saturday mornings. Seeing how determined they were, Greg Nielsen, a jazz trombonist, took them under his wing and has been coaching them ever since."

They've made several television appearances including the Grammy awards and, this past summer, appeared at three European jazz festivals including Montreux in Switzerland. (The cost - $35.000.) The thirteen year old is the very petite female trumpeter/vocalist. It's surprising to see such power (both trumpet and voice) from such a small girl. An audience member told us she started the group at age nine. She's incredible - from the on-stage appearance it seems like she's the leader. Three previous members of the group have graduated and gone on to college.

Anyway, as I said, personal interest this week. If you're interested here's a link to their site, complete with videos.

http://www.jazzjuvenocracy.com/

Discontinued Action-Paks? Call us.

As most of you know, many years ago Action Instruments introduced plug-in "Action-Pak" transmitters and alarms.(Note: Action-Pak is an Action Instruments trademark.) Action grew, became a highly regarded company, added other product lines and were eventually acquired by Eurotherm. Their line still includes Action-Paks but some models are no longer available.

One of our favorite stories - a company called us desperately looking for a special version of an old Action module. They told us, not only could Action no longer make it, they insisted they never had! The customer forwarded us a copy of Action's user's manual.

OK - a special - a one-piece order - we had to charge for some engineering, but we did it. They've ordered a few more since.

Over ten years ago another company came to us because Action no longer made some of the (standard) products they used regularly. Our product line included them (still does) and that company has become one of our better customers.

We're not trying to knock Action. They are a well-respected, quality company. But if you need plug-in modules they no longer offer, e-mail or call us. We probably can help. (And, our customers rave about our service.)

Signal Conditioners - our web site: http://www.jhtechnology.com/
e-mail: jhtek@jhtechnology.com
Phone: (941) 927-0300 or US toll-free (800) 808-0300
Fax: (941) 925-8774

Political Ads - Lying is Legal

From Harry -

Here in Florida we just finished a typical primary campaign featuring two Republican candidates for Governor, and two Democratic candidates for Senate, heaping piles of dirt on each other. I got to thinking - somewhere in the past I'd read that court decisions had declared lying in political ads to be protected by the Constitution.

After strenuous research (meaning 30 seconds on Yahoo) I found I was right. What's worse, the Federal Communications Act prohibits broadcasters from refusing to run specific ads - even those known to be untrue - unless they refuse all political advertising. If you're interested, here's a link to a 2008 Time Magazine article on the subject.

Truth in Advertising? Not for Political Ads

Don't believe everything you hear!

Thermocouple Application Note

Unusual Thermocouple Application

Our customer's client had a large spa facility. The controls had been located near the spa, but the client felt they should be moved to a more benign environment, several hundred feet away. The system included four thermocouples. Sending thermocouple signals this distance is expensive, since thermocouple wire (not copper) must be used. Even more basic, sending weak millivolt signals hundreds of feet leaves them subject to interference and signal degradation.

To boost the signals, four standard thermocouple transmitters (our Model JH4130) were added near the spa. Their 4-20mA current signals easily traveled the distance with no degradation. The system designers opted not to change the control system, so it was necessary to convert the current signals back to their original thermocouple voltages. "Reverse" thermocouple transmitters, 4-20mA input, thermocouple output, were needed.

We provided them. We modified our Model JH4300 DC input, DC output transmitters to have the proper millivolt outputs. The most interesting challenge was, the millivolt outputs needed to be connected to thermocouple wires (not copper) for proper connection to the system's thermocouple inputs. This called for the reverse of cold junction compensation (we called it "cold junction un-compensation"). A temperature sensor embedded in the output terminals and some properly-designed circuitry solved the problem

Temperature Transmitters & Signal Conditioners - our web site: http://www.jhtechnology.com/

Application Note

AC to DC Translation Monitors Shaker Motion

Here's an application we did 10 years ago for a major manufacturer of membrane-based filtration equipment. They're still using it.

The need - to monitor and control filter movement. Motorized systems are used to oscillate large filter elements back and forth. Peak-to-peak motion is controlled using motor drives. Motion is continuously monitored using laser-based displacement (position) measurement equipment.

The problem – the laser’s output represents instantaneous position, varying continuously as the filter shakes back and forth. The company needed to convert peak-to-peak displacement to 4-20mAdc input current for the motor drive controllers.

The solution – our Model JH5600 AC Input Transmitter. Because the filters are large and driven by rotating equipment their motion is purely sinusoidal so the relationships between average, RMS and peak values are well known. In this application an input range of 0 to 3.536 volts RMS (odd ranges are not special for us) corresponds to 0 to 10 volts peak-to-peak. We have in the past created special modifications for true peak-to-peak measurement, but this was not required for this application

For those who prefer plug-in style modules, the same function is available in our Model JH6010I.

Click here for a link to a pdf of this application note.

AC Input Transmitters, Signal Conditioners - our web site: http://www.jhtechnology.com/
 
JH5600 data sheet: www.jhtechnology.com/dinrail_tx/jh5600_5610.htm