How to improve my understanding of electrical and control systems?

[MartinLe]

See title. I'm with a consulting engineering firm and deal with mechanical stuff and machines around wasterwater treatment plants. I want to be more able to follow discussions and spot issues when it comes to the electrical and control side. The problem is that there are no EEs in the local office I work at, EE work is either done at other offices or subcontracted - so I can't pester collegues with odd questions at lunch.

I'm sure I'm not the first, and won't be the last, non-EE who wanted to improve their grasp on the control and electrical side of things. What have you done in my situation?

The goal is not to do the EE work, but to understand the challenges bether and be better able to communicate about control issues. For this I want a better understanding of typical components of a control system, how they play together etc.

Things I've considered:
fitting seminars - none found so far
Books - most likely option
OCW - not seen one that covers the breadth I'd prefer, maybe one you has a good idea?

So, any other ideas?

 

[GregLocock]

MIT has a bunch of free undergraduate and graduate level on-line courses.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/

I did one of their physics courses (MITx: 8.MechCx Advanced Introductory Classical Mechanics) and was very impressed by the content and effort that was put into it, and the unusual fact that they got all the answers right, after a bit of prompting. I can't tell you what the lectures were like, I didn't watch them.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[MacGyverS2000]

I would think the first couple of chapters in a decent SCADA book would set you on the correct path. Once you have an understanding of the system view, you should have the proper vocabulary to dig deeper into the problems you run into most often.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[tygerdawg]

International Society of Automation (wasn't this formerly Instrument Society of America?)

http://www.isa.org

has a lot of interesting looking online, online-with-instructor, offline training, and also a bunch of spiffy books.

https://www.isa.org/isa-training/computer-based-training/isa-online-training/

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[snarkysparky]

Which control do you mean.

1 How a computer is set up to control some mechanism or plant to make it function in a desired way.

2 Classical feedback control. PID loops, state space control, compensators , servo systems ..


To my thinking these are really separate things. For 1 you need to look up books on PLC systems and online tutorials.
For 2 you need to start with some fairly hairy math involving complex algebra and polynomials.

 

[MartinLe]

Thanks all around.

snarkysparky, I'm interested in 1.

MIT OCW is great but it looked like all the courses have more depth and less breadth than I want right now.

I'll look through the isa archives, could be promising (or not if they assume their target audience to be trained in the field already)

As I had guessed, it will be a book on SCADA and PLC systems. Let's see what my library can do for me.

Still open for suggestions.

 

[ScottyUK]

Have a look at the Siemens 'STEP' series of training notes:

http://www.industry.usa.siemens.com...k-step-courses/downloads/pages/downloads.aspx

 

[MintJulep]

http://www.amazon.com/Jacob-Tal/e/B00JBTHSXI/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

 

[Sparweb]

Inexpensive, accessible, easy to learn, PC-based, programmable, scalable... you could get yourself an Arduino.
It is not a kid's toy. If you have any prejudices about consumer electronic PLC projects, set them aside and get learning by doing.
After a few years tinkering with these on personal projects, I can now select and configure avionic logic modules needed at work (with a bit of supervision - I'm still not an EE).


STF