Rugged MIL-STD-810 Monitors for Extreme Environments

The Talon Series of COTS rugged monitors from EIZO Rugged Solutions are ready to be deployed in extreme environments, and can be customised to meet specific requirements. Be it applications for the very latest systems or retrofitting legacy systems, Talon can be tailored to suit your project.

Talon monitors are built to survive harsh environments.

• All monitors come standard with MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-461
• LED backlight for a long lifecycle 
• Optical bonding for improved durability and visibility 
• IP65 protection against dust and water jets

EIZO Talon Displays Brochure

All monitors come with various features to make installation easy in any setting, including standard interfaces such as 3G-SDI, DVI, RGB, USB and serial communication, as well as a 19-inch rack mounting option. Standard panel sizes of 21.5-inches and 24-inches are available, other sizes can be provided on request.

As well as easy installation, the Talon monitors come with several features that make usability super easy. Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture allows users to display multiple inputs at once, and a projected capacitive (PCAP) touchscreen option with 5-point multitouch or analog resistive touch option makes using the interface straightforward and intuitive.

For more information about the rugged Talon range please speak to one of our engineers - they know all about these products and would be very happy to discuss your application requirements...

Green Month Feature - Wind Turbine Technology from United Electronic Industries

Did you know that the UK is the windiest country in Europe?
*Insert your own joke here*

Wind has been the fastest growing renewable energy source in the last decade. China plans a 60% increase in the next three years, and the US a massive six-fold jump by 2030! The EU wants to produce 20% of its energy through renewables by 2020, with the majority coming from wind. One wind turbine can generate up to 6.5 million units of electricity each year: enough to run a computer for 2,250 years. Thats quite a long time.

It's really very simple -

• Wind turbines convert kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy.
• The blades catch the wind and turn the rotor, which is connected to the nacelle which houses all the workings for the turbine.
• The rotor turns a shaft which is connected to the gear box.
• The gear box is connected to a generator which converts the mechanical energy into electricity.
• The electricity is then sent to the National Grid.

With all this going on, it's really important to ensure these turbines operate safely, so strict monitoring is necessary. This usually involves a variety of sensors, including accelerometers, encoders, temperature sensors, oil/liquid level sensors, particle counter, voltage, current and humidity sensors.

UEI Cubes, and in particular, the UEIPAC, are ideal solutions for monitoring and controlling wind power generators. They are powerful enough to provide control for everything from blade angle to output voltage, and log everything from wind speed to power output. The UEIPAC’s easy access to Ethernet means it can easily run as a slave to a primary host PC when desired, but can take over and run stand-alone if anything happens to the primary communications link. The Cube’s rugged environmental specification eliminates the need for any heating or cooling in the control rack.

The standard UEIPAC cubes are tested from -40° to +85° C, at 50 g shock, 5 g vibration and altitudes up to 70,000 feet. All the I/O is also fully isolated from the controller, so the UEIPAC is almost totally immune to the glitches and spikes commonly seen in the grounds of an industrial environment.

We've also been speaking to customers who use UEI’s Cubes and RACKtangles as remote communications links in wind farms, where the system needs to consolidate RS-485 data from a series of turbines and send the data to the supervisory computer.

If you are working on an application that might benefit from a little more knowledge please get in touch with the Sarsen team on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email.

Have a great weekend!

Saving Water with Trunkminder and VersaLogic

Despite the recent floods, water conservation has never been so important, and with around 3bn litres of water being leaked every day by our water companies, early detection of pipeline failures is imperative.

Syrinix Ltd, based in Norwich, has developed the Trunkminder, a fully automated data acquisition system designed to continuously monitor water pipelines, in order to detect leaks before they become a major problem.

Trunkminder uses an array of sensors attached to pipelines to provide instant alerts if a leak occurs, and to gather data which provides real-time information on what is happening in the pipe. Working at a significantly higher level of sensitivity than traditional pressure/flow-based devices, alerts can identify the site of a leak to within one metre.

The VersaLogic Tomcat provides the Trunkminder with a CPU boasting 800 MHz performance and very low power draw, due to its use of the highly integrated Vortex86DX chip. With no moving parts, full industrial temperature rating and soldered-on RAM, all on the compact PC/104 form factor, it is ideal for operation in applications like the Trunkminder, where size and weight are critical factors.

With a 5 year+ production life guarantee, and a standard 2 year warranty, the VersaLogic Tomcat is an ideal choice for applications needing exceptional reliability and long term availability.

For more information on the VersaLogic range of embedded SBCs please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Embedded Enviro-Tech - the way forward?

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways that people affect the environment.

Huge advances have been made in the technology we use for environmental monitoring, in particular the electronic devices used to monitor, control and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.

When it comes to harnessing renewable energy, increased operating efficiency is achieved when embedded computing platforms are tasked with monitoring and controlling assets such as wind turbines, solar panels and transmission grids.

Trenton Systems Inc supports Smart Grid applications with its range of embedded motherboards, SBCs and backplanes.

Mark Lovett of Trenton Systems has written a White Paper titled 'Embedded Computing Enables Smart Grid Technology'.
It's full of great info about how this technology area is helping shape the future of power generation and management.

Check it out here!

Have a great weekend, check back on Tuesday for our new Spotlight section. First up, Robbie Burns!!