axcontrol, Author at AX Control, Inc.

What is Bang-bang Control?

Old thermostats used bang-bang control. — Thermostats like this old Honeywell model offered bang-bang control. Copyright M Kenney 2021

Mechanical systems offer many different control options. One of these is the oddly-named bang-bang control. This short blog post answers some common questions about this control theory.

What is bang-bang control theory?

Bang-bang control is a kind of feedback controller, meaning it has a type of cause-and-effect closed loop. Bang bang controllers switch quickly between two different states, for example, completely on or completely off.

Bang-bang control symbol. — The symbol for bang-bang control. ^{Sourced from Wikipedia, by Mik81 Public Domain}

Examples of bang bang control

You’ve probably used bang bang control systems all your life without realizing it. This kind of control offers an “on” state and an “off” state with no variable between these. Thermostats–at least older versions–typically use bang bang control.

PLC, HMI & SCADA: How They Work Together

If you work in any sort of manufacturing setting, you’ve probably heard the terms PLC, HMI & SCADA. But do you know what they all mean? More importantly, do you know what they do, when to use them, and how they work together within industrial systems?

If you answered “no” to any part of those questions, don’t worry. This tutorial will take you through a quick rundown of the what, where, when and how of these devices and systems.

A Quick Intro to PLC, HMI & SCADA

Before we get into how they interact, lets talk about the individual systems/devices.

How To Identify Components on Printed Circuit Boards

Close up view of a printed circuit board — It can be hard to identify all the components on printed circuit boards (PCBs).

If you’ve ever tried to work on your own PCBs, or printed circuit boards, you may have experienced the frustration of looking at a part and not knowing exactly what it is. After working with thousands of PCBs, we understand.

Luckily, there are resources that can help. In fact, lots of them. But they’re scattered all over. And many of the best aren’t even available online anymore unless you know how to use some special tools (Wayback Machine to the rescue!)

But rather than complain about this state of affairs, we decided to create our own tutorial to fix it. Bonus: you benefit, too.

Here’s our printed circuit board component tutorial, with lots of information and pictures to help you identify those individual parts.

Printed Circuit Boards: the Basics

Printed circuit boards are typically made from laminated composite material. This non-conductive substrate sandwiches copper circuitry that actually makes up the circuits the boards are named after.

substrate: /ˈsəbˌstrāt/; an underlying substance or layer.
mudcoders.com

These copper circuits, also known as signal traces, electrically connect and mechanically support other mounted components on the board.