HVAC/Mechnical Controls
- Thread starter mobil1syn
- Start date
grumpy356
bordering on illiterate
- Joined
- May 19, 2020
- Member Number
- 244
- Messages
- 1,167
I dabble, what are you trying to develop?
Johnson Control and BACnet seem to rule the industry.
- Thread starter
- #3
nothing as of yet. leveraging a few skillsets a move to that field seems like a good fit for me. want to start learning how all the pieces fit together. been reading up about BACnet and ignition.
The company I work for mostly uses Alerton Controls. I do the design work in AutoCAD, but really it's for submittal and install purposes. Programming of the controllers is done in Visio. Graphic backgrounds are created with Photoshop. The actual graphical user interfaces used by the customer are created with the Alerton software. Alerton uses the BACnet standard meaning we can read/write to other components/systems using BACnet. BACnet can be IP or MS/TP, different but end result is the same of communicating to other stuff.
Other controls such as Reliable, Niagara, Distech or others are similar but definitely different.
Other controls such as Reliable, Niagara, Distech or others are similar but definitely different.
I run the Wyoming operation for the controls division of the company I work for. We do Tridium/Niagara, Distech, KMC, Schneider, and Johnson Controls. We do both BACnet and Lonworks. I worked my way up from a tech/programmer through sales and now management. I can probably answer a lot of the questions you may have. What do you do now and what have you done?
- Thread starter
- #6
did service/plant operation for a water treatment company for a long time, worked on race cars for a bit, now i am an I&E project engineer/manager (no degree) for an OEM of refrigeration and gas compression systems for oil and gas. read the spec, design the system, buy the crap to build it, manage the shop guys and whatnot. enjoy the work, but would like to get into the programming side of things, but our work goes all over, so i have no desire to stuck on a plant startup for 2-6 months at a time.
rockdog57
Ghetto fab garage owner
The building I was over before retiring used Alerton. Most other buildings in our district use Yamas. I liked the Alerton for ease of use with backtalk.
Santa
Red Skull Member
Oldish bump while I was looking for another thread.
If you have been doing it a while, we have probably met. I worked for Sac city unified for about 13 years and I believe you are the only local Alerton dealer in Sac, or were at the time.
I dabbled in Alerton, Johnson, Honeywell, KMC and Delta. Now I tell people to fix all that shit
Oldish bump while I was looking for another thread.
If you have been doing it a while, we have probably met. I worked for Sac city unified for about 13 years and I believe you are the only local Alerton dealer in Sac, or were at the time.
I dabbled in Alerton, Johnson, Honeywell, KMC and Delta. Now I tell people to fix all that shit
I've been there over 13 years, but I think Sac City uses Johnson. Could be wrong but it's not Alerton.
I'll be doing Johnson for a different company in a few weeks, anybody got advice for me?
I've been there over 13 years, but I think Sac City uses Johnson. Could be wrong but it's not Alerton.
I'll be doing Johnson for a different company in a few weeks, anybody got advice for me?
Are you working for JCI, or an ABCS? JCI hardware is solid, and the name recognition makes it easy to sell. JCI corporate sucks in a big corporation way. It's all about shareholders. Working for an ABCS can be hit or miss depending on the company.
I and all my guys that have programmed JCI product hate it as it makes doing custom programming a PITA. It is definitely set up so the glorified janitor who also fixes HVAC can swap out a basic controller with minimal training. Programming by drop down menu shouldn't be a thing IMO, but here it is. The self tuning loops generally work OK, and that is neat.
JCI's product is set up to get specified by engineers using JCI sequences so that factory programming can be used with drop down menus and techs have to put forth minimal effort to program and tune. This keeps costs down across the board as it minimizes advanced skilled labor and results in time savings. I get why they do it, but I don't like it.
We have done several JCI jobs both with the Metasys line and the FX line. We have also brought them into Tridum head ends and JCI head ends. I try to avoid doing JCI work anymore as my guys hate it and would rather do Distech or KMC.
gunracer1
Collector of fine junk
I worked maintenance for siemens 12 years, walked in one day and bam. they contracted out all out work to cbre. I work as a utility operator now a days, better money but I'm stuck working on everything for air stats to programables to T.A.C and Niagara. hell I have a bunch of 40 year old air handlers I have been trying to get replaced. plus the boilers and pumps and towers.
Santa
Red Skull Member
I've been there over 13 years, but I think Sac City uses Johnson. Could be wrong but it's not Alerton.
I'll be doing Johnson for a different company in a few weeks, anybody got advice for me?
It used to be a mix of all the controls I listed
one of my last projects there was a federally funded auto DR upgrade to johnson in conjunction with SMUD. ~ a 2.7 million dollar controls project.