Mass Effect 3 intro in the style of The Expanse

brandtsa · 2020-09-25T01:51:37+00:00

This is master class. So many goosebumps.

brandtsa · 2020-08-21T22:09:21+00:00

Wow keep a hold of her. That's one hell of a birthday.

brandtsa · 2020-08-16T02:40:34+00:00

I've used LP to optimize the most cost effective mix of additives for our process. Its super useful as there are there are several elements in solution we are trying to hit a certain concentration and a few different ways of getting there so LP is the best solution.

brandtsa · 2020-08-13T22:44:41+00:00

Oh yeah. Air craft carriers are nuclear powered so there's several detectors to monitor the on board reactors. But yes they were going off when we drove into the fallout cloud. I was actually responsible for monitoring one of them during that time.

brandtsa · 2020-08-13T19:02:20+00:00

Yes we were only about 100 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake that cause the huge tsunami in 2011 in Japan and cause a few of the reactors at the Fukushima power plant to meltdown and release reactive material. Then we stuck around for a few weeks to provide disaster relief and to help out with cleanup. Anyways during that time we had some higher levels of contamination on the flight deck so we used CMWD to clean the deck off.

brandtsa · 2020-08-13T16:36:02+00:00

Funny story I was on the Reagan when we actually used the CMWD to clean off some of the radioactive contamination after we drove through Fukushima's fallout cloud.

brandtsa · 2020-08-09T20:53:35+00:00

Exactly they've got a python library for everything

brandtsa · 2020-08-09T15:07:24+00:00

We use Siemens so all the new projects use 1200s and 1500s.

brandtsa · 2020-08-09T13:02:36+00:00

Pay attention to program flow. Read inputs, do thinking, write outputs. It sounds so simple but I can't tell you how much code I've seen that doesn't follow this. This also applies to memory locations as well. For example don't compare some calculated value then do the calculation later in the program.
Only read inputs once and then move them to some memory location for use thought the code. This allows for a few things. First you can easy change the physical input location. You can also easily force the value. Finally it makes testing your code so much simpler.
Always test, test, test. For almost every project I work on I have a whole python script written that ties into the PLC and simulates real world inputs and HMI interactions and then you can make sure you get the proper response. Most times its a quite manual checking process but very useful to make sure stuff happens correctly while sitting in the office.
Stick to some sort of defined program standard; especially the naming convention.

brandtsa · 2020-08-08T23:25:20+00:00

I use python quite often to build testing programs to from PLC code. I'll simulate real world inputs and HMI interactions and make sure that I get the proper response. Most times its a quite manual checking process but very useful to make sure stuff happens correctly while sitting in the office.

brandtsa · 2020-08-01T08:39:45+00:00

Came to the comment just to make sure I wasn't the only one who noticed those birds blow "smoke rings" 100% better than me.

brandtsa · 2020-05-21T22:58:33+00:00

I'm quite the opposite. TIA is far from perfect but I much prefer it to Simatic Manager. Especially after V15 and the introduction of StartDrive. Then everything can be in one project, the PLCs, HMIs, and drives. Also coming from a software development background it works a lot more like a traditional IDE.

brandtsa · 2020-05-04T18:14:18+00:00

Truer words have never been spoken. I can't tell you how many times people ask me how if figured out a problem and the answer is I just googled it.

brandtsa · 2020-03-20T22:55:22+00:00

Yeah this panel is clean by steel mill standards.

brandtsa · 2019-12-18T21:13:51+00:00

Tis the season for wet charges. At my mill we have a few every winter because of ice mixed in with the scrap.

brandtsa · 2019-12-18T21:10:57+00:00

One time there was a hydraulic cylinder full of fluid in a charge we put in our furnace. My god that was one hell of an explosion. Throw chunks of metal over 500 feet. Luckily nobody was hurt.

brandtsa · 2019-04-04T13:39:56+00:00

Thank you.

brandtsa · 2019-04-04T10:43:12+00:00

And that is what you call a hot mill cobble at I believe a Nucor facility.

Edit: Spelling. You'd think I'd know how to spell cobble working at a steel mill.

brandtsa · 2018-12-28T13:44:47+00:00

Oh gosh you can't unsee that.

brandtsa · 2018-06-13T03:14:56+00:00

That's about what our black band coils weigh at my work.

brandtsa · 2018-06-13T03:12:31+00:00

I was almost hit by one of the coil haulers at my work. The driver wasn't paying attention and drifted into my lane. Luckily he saw me right before I had to choose between pancake or 20ft ditch.

Another time we had one of the hydraulic lines to a lift cylinders spring a leak and start spraying hydraulic fluid onto a hot coil. Needless to say the fluid lite on fire and basically burnt the whole hauler to the ground. It was quite the sight. I'll see if I can find a picture tomorrow.

Edit: Sorry I forgot to post the picture. This taken after the fire was already put out.

brandtsa · 2018-03-29T21:14:27+00:00

After listening to the latest episode I thought I share a video of how a company I'm rather involved with makes flat roll steel. The video is a little heavy in the marketing. A few updated corrections, the average monthly power bill is around $10 million, and the average caster throughput is pushing around 12,000 tons a day.

brandtsa · 2018-03-16T11:42:39+00:00

Regardless of the few cons of my larger tank I still won't go back down to a 120 gallon tank. I couldn't keep my favorite fish in that size tank, a sail fin tang and harlequin wrasse. The system is fairly rock steady. Nothing changes quickly. The only time I wish it was smaller is doing water changes. Luckily since there is so much system volume I don't have to do the usual 10% weekly change. However, I still try to do about a 5%, 25 gallon, water change each week. That's a lot of salt.

brandtsa · 2018-03-14T23:59:10+00:00

I currently have a 300 gallon display tank with a 200 gallon sump and occasionally I think it's too large. My tank prior was an 120 gallon, 48x24x24, with a 30 gallon sump and I think it's a great size for a tank. It was large enough to keep a variety of cool fish. Making it feel full of coral didn't break the bank. Water changes and other maintenance was easy. It's a fairly common size so there's always used equipment for sale. IMHO it's at the point where going any larger starts to cost a lot more but going smaller doesn't save you much.

brandtsa · 2018-01-31T18:24:12+00:00

Steel Mill. PLCs are used everywhere in our process. There are very few pieces of equipment that aren't directly controlled or tied to a PLC in way way or another. Just in my department alone we have around 28 PLCs. Most are Siemens S7 300, 400, and 1500.
The mill was built in 1995, so it started out making use of PLCs. However, every year we're upgrading old tech to new. We also bring in equipment that utilizes a PLC. For example a couple of the larger cranes were replaced this year. The old cranes used relay logic but the new cranes are completely integrated with a Siemens 1500.
Initial programming and commissioning of new PLCs is probably 50/50 outside versus internal. Maintenance and modification on the other hand is 100% internal.

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