The company president knows this 'awesome' electrician.

[TConnolly 13]

The untold story is still untold. Bob, how long are you going to keep us waiting?

[TimWilborne 108]

OK I'm interested too! Where's Bob?

[BobLfoot 302]

As Asked : <quote> And when it comes to the Electricains wiring the stuff, don't get the guys that just did an awesome job on the Company President's new summer home to wire your PLC. Make sure they have automation experience and references. You'll thank yourself later for doing it. And yes there's a story to the above comment I'll save for a later time. </quote> A Later Time Has Arrived. 1. Bob was working as a Cotnrols Engineer / Project Manager for a systems integrator at one point in his life and the project he was given was to commission a new warehouse product conveying system. 2. The Company president of the End Customer insisted that we use the Electrical Firm which had wired his summer house and all the Utility Service {aka lighting} for the new complex. They were after all "awesome guys" and would work "dirt cheap". 3. To give you an idea of the scope of this job it involved wiring 300 Allen Bradley Armorstart drives field mounted to the conveyors with Power, Devicenet and two photo sensors each. 4. The System Integration Company and I shipped all the parts and pieces to site along with schematics for everything was to be wired. I even asked the Friday before I was to drive to site that they double check their work. 5. So "little ole Bob" gets to site and tries to run the first VFD. Only to find out that the DeviceNet Trunk and Branch Connectors aren't the round style specified their a flat terminal strip. No One had questioned this and had wired the DeviceNet all wrong. 6. The "good ole boys" had about 3600 termiantions to redo. {300 motors times 6 wires times 2 ends to each wire}. 7. Needless to say End Customer ended up paying a hefty fee to the local union hall to get enough labor to finish the rewire in 2 days. 8. The remainder of the job was completed by the Cotnractor chosen by the SI not the end customer. 9. And I had a nice weekend of paid freedom to tour Beale Street while the "good ole boys" sweated the details in the summer heat. Good Enough Tim and Alaric.

[TConnolly 13]

As soon as you said drives and device net I could picture a disaster. The local residential electricians were in way over their head. The real moron in the story is the owner/boss for the residential electricians - he should have known they were in way over his head and told the customer so. Even some electricians that install the typical canned home automation systems will get in over their heads on a control system. I have a panel builder friend who decided to automate his new home he was having built with a ControlLogix and Panelviews. He built a big control panel, put it in his basement and home ran everything to it. When the city building inspector came to inspect the house he opened the panel doors, saw what was inside, and threw up his hands and said "I give up." He passed it solely because the work was neat, but he had no idea what he was looking at. Edited 14 Jul 2011 by Alaric