MTEC 2007

MTEC 2007 was very positive for the Alliance, with lots of interest especially in the forthcoming ASi-tech event.

We appear to be the sole survivors of the fieldbus wars (that is, along with PROFIBUS of course) in the Industrial Fieldbus for Open Controls section of the show but our new location, right in the center of things, paid off. Helen Thewlis and her colleagues at Trident deserve a big 'thank you' for supporting us. We repaid her by delivering a 1 1/2 hour workshops on AS-Interface, the slides for which can be downloaded here:

1. Andy Verwer, MMU: Introduction to AS-i and 'Hands-on the Yellow Cable'. (Comment: Like 2006 this was an enjoyable glance at AS-i, including a section of Yellow Cable being cast around the audience, along with slave devices and screwdrivers, so that a working network could be assembled, including configuration. You can't see that happening on these slides of course, but if you come to the forthcoming ASi-tech event, you can have another chance to watch! The benefits of the new V3 specification were also outlined.)

2. Peter Cheetham, Sigmapi: Installation - Getting it Right! (Comment: Peter is an AS-i evangelist and always provides an informative and useful presentation. This one had a few surprises. It's the prototype for two papers he'll present at AS-tech 2007. He's threatening a humorous and irrerevant look at the challenges of right/wrong installations there so, look out for fireworks!)

3. Ken Davies, LC Automation/FSE: Ken's presentation on the issues of Functional safety using AS-Interface was thoughtful and informative. Unfortunately, he hasn't delivered us a copy yet but as soon as we receive it we'll post it here.