We are spirits
in the material world
-The Police
Dear Friend & Subscriber:
Halloween and its less-famous counterpart, All Saints Day, are both celebrations of the invisible and immaterial.
There is more to the world than what you can see and touch.
Remember Poltergeist? "They're heeeeere!" To us, just static on the TV, but the 5 year old girl coaxes meaning from it. A friends cat Lolly had been missing for a week and yesterday morning his 6 year old, Caden, says, "Dad, I understand cat language." He asked the other cat, Adam, where Lolly was.
Adam replied, in cat language, that Lolly was out exploring the world.
Then last night around 8 o'clock, Lolly appeared on their doorstep. A little skinnier than before and a torn ear, but otherwise fine.
Lolly was exploring the world, yes, indeed she was.
How many radio signals pass by us at the speed of light every day, with us oblivious? What if you could listen to or see them? What if you could hear cat language like Caden does? What if the spirits could talk to you on All Saints Day, and you could listen?
At B&B Electronics, the boss Don Wiencek is a stern taskmaster. So explorations of the supernatural and paranormal (and even interpretations of Cat Language) are only allowed during lunch breaks. The rest of the time I have to settle for the "ordinary" immaterial world, the invisible world of industrial protocols and digital handshakes and wireless signals.
But even the ordinary wireless world is not without reward. For example we just put the finishing touches on our Zlinx Wireless Modbus I/O. The world has been wanting wireless Modbus I/O for a long, long time! Why run a cable when you an send the signal through the air? Here's how it works:
-You can connect up to 255 slave units and control with standard Modbus RTU.
-It's plug and play with all popular software packages, most PLC's and process controllers
-Free configuration software (downloadable at http://www.bb-elec.com/WirelessModbus) does network configuration, Modbus addressing, and alarms
-Distance up to 20 miles line-of-sight, your choice of either 900MHz or 2.4 GHz
-Analog I/O - 0-5vdc, 12 bit resolution
-Discrete Inputs -- 10-30Vdc dry contact, Frequency count - 5KHz
-Discrete Outputs -- 10-30Vdc transistor
Product Page is at http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=308
and there's more info in our catalog, page 34a-34c. PDF version is here:
http://www.bb-elec.com/bb-elec/catalog/pg34A-34D.pdf
I was at the ISA show in Houston a couple weeks (and got to meet many of you and have a couple Heinekens). But I was more than just another pretty face in the booth - I was also security. It seemed that everyone wanted to walk off with our new isolated USB<>232/485 converter because they thought it was so cool. If you ever connect your laptop to a real-world device in the field, you've got to have one. Small, isolated, self-powered, slick terminal blocks:
USB to isolated RS-232:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=30
USB to Isolated RS-422/485:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product.asp?sku=USOTL4
Did Lolly really tell Adam she was going to go out and explore the world? And did Adam really tell Caden? And does Caden really understand Cat Language?
The sophisticated among us might sneer at that... but then again the only way to find out is to investigate. And the only way to investigate is to assume Caden just might be telling the truth.
Happy Halloween and a blessed All Saints Day, and a toast to our wonderous, mysterious, immaterial world.
Mike Fahrion
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