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Sirianni Hardwoods, Inc.
came to PCSI with the desire to make accessing their 11 conventional
kilns (with 900 MBFT drying capacity) an easier task. They have
three groups of conventional kilns on their Painted Post, NY site
separated by air-drying sheds, parking lots, offices, etc. They
have underground utilities, and for the most part paved surface, so the
conventional method of connecting their kiln controllers to a
supervisory computer via wired RS-485 was out of the question.
Enlarge Outside the first control room.
PCSI researched the available technology and selected a robust 900Mhz
solution: four wireless radio modems to allow each remote kiln control
room to communicate with the office supervisory computer. A
wireless ethernet router and bridge was also installed in the office to
reduce the labor of routing ethernet cable, and provide outside access
through their high-speed Internet connection and pcAnywhere remote
access software. Enlarge Inside the third control room.
The wireless radio modems allow a conventional RS485 Modbus network
to extend through all of the myriad of obstructions in a secure and
robust manner. Once the Modbus network is routed back to the
supervisory computer, PCSI's Kiln Control software allows easy access
to the conventional kiln control setpoints and provides the operator
with very comprehensive historical logs: in short, it allows the
operator to manage the kilns from the comfort of home on those cold and
snowy New York weekends!
Enlarge Typical radio modem mounting. Enlarge Inside the first control room. Enlarge The antenna for the master RS485 device.
Enlarge Inside the second control room. Enlarge View from the second control room. Enlarge View from the third control room
Some of the control rooms were rather far from the
office, and all of the modems needed to punch through at least one
aluminum wall.
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