Happy Rodeo Houston & Cookoff

Hey Man,

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has begun, The world championship BBQ Cookoff is done, the Daytona 500 was run, Toby Keith stirred people up at his show and I have electrical equipment to sell.

Let us begin electrically.
In ABB news Automation & Power World is fast approaching, are you going?
The new 2013 LV Product selector is now available to download http://www.abb.us/lowvoltage .
Vintage catalogs are now longer offered on the public web site.

In Siemens news we now have our 2013 prices for the new V20 VFD. It is compact and easy to use.
Yes that also means low cost.

In EATON news, last week EATON had an open house in Houston with some good seminars.
I intend to follow up with a futhur post on some of their newer power quality offerings.

The Daytona 500 was last weekend. Jimmy Johnson once again proved to be awesome. In NASCAR terms he is more like Ned Jarret than Dale Sr. But to me he seems almost like a stock car racing Rick Mears. Both had off road racing roots in Southern CA. All in all the new Gen 6 car looks like an improvement for the fans and the drivers.

Here in Houston it is RODEO time. What's the big deal you ask? Rodeo Houston has more shows than the NFL Texans at home and fills Reliant Stadium. https://www.rodeohouston.com/
You have to go and see it, feel it, hear it, and yes smell the stock show part of it.
It takes over 27,000 volunteers to put it on.

Rodeo Houston kicks off with the World Championship BBQ Cookoff.
My team is the Cougar Cookers, we are a University of Houston alumni group.
While we have not won overall, we have placed for our chicken in the past and we are competing with over 300 teams. Yes over 300 teams and over 263,000 people came to the event this year.
Houston IS the BBQ capital of the world and don't you forget it.
Toby Keith opened Rodeo shows Monday night with what sound like a rowdy show.
What better way to start a Rodeo?

cheers,

the ElectricAlan

Happy post Singleness Awareness Day post.(Feb14th)

Hey Man,

The weather was wonderful today in Houston Texas, I hope you  enjoyed your day wherever you are.

It is NBA All Star Weekend here in Houston and the famous Galleria was so crowed last night it was shut down early! Find some YOUTUBE of it, it was amazing. A buddy went there yesterday to meet her brother for lunch and she said the entire mall smelled of cologne and weed.
But true to Houston form, no fights, no injuries. There were lots of counterfeit party tickets to be had.

This past week one of my clients explored using the T&B LU Form 7 fitting. Thomas & Betts claims it replaces, the LB, LL, LR and C body for a four to one sku reduction. In the field it looks like three to one for my client as he still wants to use standard C fittings.
Take a look for yourself http://tnblnx3.tnb.com/emAlbum/albums/us_resource/gm8189lr_tc1.pdf

Today at Daytona Danica grabbed the pole for the Daytona 500. The new Gen 6 car is a great platform. Last night in the Sprint Unlimited it proved to be a good design. The drivers are still learning the car. Trevor Bayne qualified third for the Woods Brothers. Remember when the Gen 5 car first appeared at Daytona he won. Trevor learns new cars and new tracks quickly.

I'll keep it short tonight, The Houston Rodeo Cook off is this week for after hours fun and there are lots and lots of daytime meetings this week.

cheers


The ElectricAlan

Happy Year of the Snake and internally Happy Fiscal New Year!

Hey Man!

I hope you are enjoying the fiscal new year, that brings us the year of the snake.
I don't know if the snake is bearish or bullish.

The EATON secret part of the week is the 10935H series reset.
When you look for a mechanical 30mm reset you will have problems in EATON catalogs.
Start looks for 10935H and browse VISTA if you have that access with EATON.
Some of that family is still offered.
I have a bad copy of a 1978 catalog page 235 taped to my wall for this.

ABB is making a breaker lug kit change that will contradict what the catalog says.
So I attached it below.

ABB is making improvements to its Tmax lug kits, which will bring them into alignment with the rest of ABB’s global offering. The following lug kits are affected:

• KT4TN and KT4TN-4
• KT5TGD and KT5TGD-4
• K8TL and K8TM

The changes for all kits will be phased in as we deplete our present stock. Please note the following dates:

• T8 lug kit changes starting in February 2013
• T4 and T5 sizes transitioning in April 2013

During the transition period, ABB will make every effort to ship orders complete with one style. You should, however, advise customers that they may see an order with different styles of kits during this transition period.

Details for the change to each size are provided in the attached. The changes will not affect pricing or performance of the lugs. All other lug kits will remain unaffected.

For additional information, questions or concerns, please contact ABB Low Voltage Products' customer support at 888-385-1221 or lvps.support@us.abb.com.

This change will cause confusion for decades to come.

Next we will do a brief shout out on movies. I saw Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters in 3D yesterday. It was fun with some good looking witches. Then I went to see my Houston Cougars blow a big lead on Tulane and loose at home. Did they bring vodoo dolls of us or what?  

I would see the movie again, I hope I don't see my Cougars play that poorly again.    

Have a good week. The Houston Rodeo Cookoff is this week, so things will be hopping.

 

cheers

 

The ElectricAlan

 

Post Super Bowl Post

Hey Man!,

I hope you had a good weekend.

We had inventory at my office so I got my yearly inventory sinus infection. The count went really well as always. I stayed home form the party & lost the football pot as well. Oh well.

Electrically the most interesting part of this Super Bowl was not be the half time show by Beyonce, but who will get blamed for the power outage. There was some work done there recently, so improper medium voltage cable preparation could be a factor. If you need MV cable termination training let me know alan.powell@hdsupply.com. If you are in my area I can get you hooked up with some sharp factory reps for this with 3M or Raychem.

We have a new Siemens  V20 drive coming out for basic applications.
Sinamics V20 Drive
This has a simplified program set.

The Cloud and network security are hot topics this week in many of the news letters I see.
Here are a few of my thoughts.
The Cloud is a target for hackers, from a lone wolf to a state sponsored pro.
If you use The Cloud you may be hacked as collateral damage.
Do you want to be in The Cloud with others that are a target?
If you are a small tech firm with state owned competitors from overseas, The Cloud might be more secure than what you can afford on your own. However, it is a target rich environment.
Do your plant operators really need to control anything from off site on a smart phone?
I will give you four things to think about.
The iPhone 5 was said to be left in a bar prior to it's release.
Your young plant operator will be downloading iTunes and playing the juke box for his favorite bartender with the same phone that holds your secrets.
Your young, bright hard working, engineer gave her 4 year old a iPod Touch with a game that looks a lot like any process control screen.
The stuxnet virus came in on a flash drive.
Sweet dreams on security now.


cheers

The ElectricAlan