axcontrol, Author at AX Control, Inc.

Industrial Automation Terms You Should Know

Industrial Automation panel with digital technology and LEDs — Industrial Automation covers a lot of ground.

Here’s a list of industrial automation terms you may need to be defined as you’re looking at our extensive catalog of parts.

AC (ALTERNATING CURRENT)

The commonly available electric power supplied, an AC generator and is distributed in single or three-phase forms. AC current changes its direction of flow (cycles).

AC MOTORS

A motor (see motor definition) operating on AC current that flows in either direction (AC current). There are two general types: induction, and Synchronous.

ACTIVE IRON

The amount of steel (iron) in the stator and rotor of a motor. Usually, the amount of active iron is increased or decreased by lengthening or shortening the rotor and stator (they are generally the same length).

AIR GAP

The space between the rotating (rotor) and stationary (stator) member in an electric motor.

AIR PRESSURE SWITCH

Used on motors with blowers to measure the difference in pressure across the filter so as to detect a clogged filter.

AIR TEMPERATURE SWITCH

A device used in air hooded motors to detect the temperature of the exhausted air. When used in this manner an air temperature switch will detect blockage in the cooling air system or long-term motor overload.

ALTITUDE

The atmospheric altitude (height above sea level) at which the motor will be operating; NEMA standards call for an altitude not exceeding 3,300 ft. (1,000 meters). As the altitude increases above 3,300 ft. and the air density decreases, the air stability to cool the motor decreases – for higher altitudes, higher grades of insulation or a motor derating are required. DC motors require special brushes for high altitudes.

AMBIENT TEMPERATURE

The temperature of the surrounding cooling medium, such as gas or liquid, which comes into contact with the heated parts of the motor. The cooling medium is usually the air surrounding the motor. The standard NEMA rating for ambient temperature is not to exceed 40ƒC.

ANTI-FRICTION BEARING

An anti-friction bearing is a bearing utilizing rolling elements between the stationary and rotating assemblies.

ARMATURE

The portion of the magnetic structure of a DC or universal motor which rotates

ARMATURE CURRENT, AMPS

Rated full load armature circuit current.

ARMATURE INDUCTANCE, MH

The armature inductance in milli-henries (saturated).

ARMATURE REACTION

The current that flows in the armature winding of a DC motor tends to produce magnetic flux in addition to that produced by the field current. This effect, which reduces the torque capacity, is called armature reaction and can affect the commutation and the magnitude of the motor’s generated voltage.

ARMATURE RESISTANCE, OHMS

The armature resistance is measured in ohms at 25ƒ C. (cold)

AXIAL THRUST

The force or loads that are applied to the motor shaft in a direction parallel to the axis of the shaft. (Such as from a fan or pump)

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Coil Whine: Stop that Whining!

Let’s talk about coil whine.

Have you ever wondered why some of your electronics make noise, such as a low-level hum or a kind of squeal? If you have misophonia (a severe dislike or hatred of specific sounds) it might be the type of thing that drives you up a wall, even if it doesn’t register at all with your co-workers.

Close up of a power bar and an electric plug. Coil whine begins in electromagnetic coils inside electronics. — Coil whine begins deep within your electrical components.

What causes coils to whine?

No, you’re not imagining the sound. It’s something called coil whine. The problem happens when the electrical current around the inductor coils in your computer increases beyond a certain point, causing them to vibrate and produce a sound similar to a boiling teapot located in a distant kitchen.

Coil whine happens because of AC power conversion. Components like transformers or inductors use electromagnetism to convert AC mains power to the DC power used by most electronics. If functioning properly, these switched-mode power supplies operate at a frequency well above human perception; however, a poorly designed or defective power supply may create a subharmonic frequency and produce noise as described above.

Other components can cause noise as well. Capacitors are also well known for ‘singing’ under certain conditions.

Is Coil Whine Dangerous?

While all this noise may be annoying, it’s not necessarily dangerous. However, since noise can sometimes be a sign of a defective load, it’s not a bad idea to test equipment that consistently emits any kind of unusual whine. You can also use thermal pads over the inductor coils to lessen the vibration causing the noise.

Please follow all proper safety procedures for your components, and always err on the side of caution when working on any kind of electronics: it’s better to ask for help than to risk injury!

For any kind of equipment repair, please feel free to contact us at 1-800-991-7026, or email us at sales@axcontrol.com.

Designing with FPGAs

What does FPGA Stand For?

FPGAs, or field-programmable gate arrays, are more complex than typical integrated circuits. “FPGA” stands for field-programmable gate array. The higher number of I/O pins on an FPGA requires forethought in design and layout and considerations in regard to system needs.

These integrated circuits are more complex than your average IC. Reconfiguration is possible with FPGAs. An FPGA can function as a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) then used later as a processor or video encoder. FPGA hardware and circuits allow many reconfigurations. This is not possible with standard chips.

Reconfiguration occurs through gates or flip-flops, using configurable logic blocks, or CLBs. Just remember there are thousands of CLBs on a typical FPGA.

What’s the difference between FPGAs and CPLDs?

A CPLD, or Complex Programmable Logic Device, is based on EEPROM architecture. It typically contains only a few thousand logic blocks and may have significantly fewer. FPGAs have up to 100K logic blocks and is a RAM-based digital logic chip.

How to use FPGAs

Field programmable gate arrays are versatile. Some common uses include:

As a graphics processing unit
As part of an SDR transceiver
To upscale video

Also, a wide range of applications use FPGAs. This includes video, military, and industrial applications.

How Do FPGAs Work?

FPGAs act as parallel devices where each independent task has been assigned to a specific and independent part of the chip, which is created out of programmable silicon chips that include programmable logic blocks that have been surrounded by I/O blocks. You can visualize this as a downtown city block with many independent businesses located in individual buildings; each business goes about its own work without any impact on the performance of the businesses around it.

What Are the Advantages of FPGAs?

FPGAs offer many advantages, not the least of which is their flexibility and functionality. For example, advantages include

Ability for adaptation after delivery if updates are required in programming
Accelerated prototyping because hardware development is part of the IP core.
Cost-effective software solutions for complex tasking via parallelization and adaptation to the application.
Real-time OS calculations are ideal for time-critical systems.

Budget for Power

Your board should work consistently with a 20% margin above and below the operating frequency and with a 5-10% margin on voltage and temperature. These margins can be achieved by keeping trace lengths as short as possible, by reducing the number of vias on your board that will impede your signal quality, and by ensuring there is a good return current path for every signal transmission path.

FPGAs are used as part of a PCB design. — FPGAs can be programmed to carry out one or more logical operations.

It is also important to make sure you have sufficient power supplies to handle your system needs. FPGAs have multiple power supplies of differing voltages. Each of these power supply voltages should have its own power budget within your design.

Properly Clock FPGAs the first time

Most FPGAs use a global clock pin that distributes the clock throughout the chip, and other pins that confine the clock to particular regions. These embedded clock management systems are powerful and facilitate the design. But the improper choice of a clock pin will create a system-level design issue that will allow the board to work most of the time, but not all of the time. This type of marginal error is extremely difficult to find, debug, and fix. It is easier to avoid than to fix later.

Find out more information about FPGAs and other integrated circuits in our printed circuit board tutorial.

We maintain lots of ready-to-ship PCBs, especially for GE Speedtronic Turbine Control Systems. Talk to our team today.