Olympics

Hello everyone, great site as always...A little off topic, taking a break from working and watching a bit of the Olympics.

Suppose there's a place for PLC's in the games? I suppose utility items like, pool pump controls,stadium ventillation control, etc... What do you suppose is scanning the touchpads, (what they touch at the end of the race), on the swimming pool? It would be such a terrible thing if they failed...

Any thoughts?


Greg

My thoughts.

Do you think a PLC is fast enough? I wouldn't use a PLC to start and stop timers. I would use some dedicated hardware.

You asked for any thoughts so here is another.

The US basketball 'team' should be embarrassed. The Puerto Rico team should be added to the NBA so we can see how basketball is really played.

I think at least 5 people were already shown how to play b'ball. lolis

A Modicon Quantum was used in the Sydney Olympics to control the flame lighting equipment. And we all saw how well that worked.....

PLC controlled robotic basketballers? (gaurenteed not to fail drug tests)

Doug

I would like to see how they controled the big head that seperated into flying pieces...really nice display,...so was the DNA in the fog.

I haven't seen any info on who supplied the pool timing controls, but it sure is dispelling what would have been ties a few years ago.

I only wish that NBC would show some of the less known(?) sports like jumping or the 3 day horse events...I guess its a throw-back to my days riding Open Jumpers...nothing like jumping 8 fences that can be 6 and a half feet high going flat out for a timed jump-off.

David

Congratulations to Puerto Rico - THAT is what the Olympics are about. Ditto to the USA women's softball and gymnastics TEAMS.

I'm sure there are a lot of PLCs involved in the building mangement and water supply and so on. Game timing - probably not much. I'll have to start lookng for the Omega logo - they used to dominate this kind of thing.

I only wish that NBC would show some of the less known(?) sports like jumping or the 3 day horse events...I guess its a throw-back to my days riding Open Jumpers...nothing like jumping 8 fences that can be 6 and a half feet high going flat out for a timed jump-off.

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I saw some of this on Bravo this morning.

I thought I saw a banner that said Swatch was providing the timing equipment for the olympics this year.

I don't have time to read it but it seems to say so here:

http://www.swatch.com/

I dont get it; Puerto Rico is a US territory. So why the compeating team??? This place is not a sovern country. I dont get it???

It is a commonwealth which means they internally have their own government.

This is not one of the richest places in the world to be from....regardless of their "status" allow them this small part in being part of the world.

Many, many PLCs were used at the Sydney Olympics. I personally installed and commissioned 6 PLCs for the emergency power systems for the International Broadcast Centre. The 6 systems were all soft transfer and co-generation systems.

I also design and build switchboards and control systems for pool filtration and features control, all with PLCs. Programs often include random patterns for water jets, controlled water features - you know the type - the water rises and falls in patterns, wave machines, etc etc. That is why I was interested in a past topic on random number generation in PLCs. I use random numbers in PLCs all the time.

Speaking of NBC, they are the greatest pains in the "a" when it comes to testing generator emergency power systems. Drove us nuts in Sydney for the Olympics. Glad when they went back to the US.

Just as a matter of interest, one of the guys from a company that used to be known as Showpower (now GE Energy Rentals) contacted me from Athens. They were the people I worked for setting up the Sydney IBC emergency power systems. They were trying to secure the emergency power contract for the IBC there. According to him, what we did in Sydney has been adopted by the IOC as the standard for all future Olympics. I was quite chuffed when I heard that.

Congrats to all you Auzzies out there! (Bob and Doug included)
Your collective performance at the games has been outstanding.
I think you guys are up to 15 or so medals (we have 1 bronze, but we have some hopefuls waiting in the wings).
Give em hell! With a population under 20 million? How do you do it?

Sliver said:

With a population under 20 million? How do you do it?

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They throw them out in the outback for a month, whoever comes back goes to the olympics.

No need to throw us into the outback. We are just GOOD!

Seriously though, there have been, as always, a few surprises. Jodie Henry has just won the 100M for women this morning. It could not happen to a nicer person. She really is the modest little girl next door and will never change. Things will change next week. We are not really very good at athletics. Swimming is great as we all learn to swim very early in life. The climate sort of dictates that.

The woman who won the trap shooting is from the country, as is the archer who was very unlucky to finish third. Only 17 years old.

I was extremely impressed with the American man (Hamm?) who won the individual gymnastics. He was down and out and then really worked hard and received his just reward. Exceptional!

All the other nice things like the swimmer from Trinidad & Tobago etc etc. You can never take things for granted at the Olympics.

I hate the fact that they are nearly always in the northern hemisphere and at bad times for most of us in Ozz. All the finals etc start at 1AM in the morning and continue on. Very tiring.

Congratulations to all the drug free athletes that have participated so far and will participate in the next couple of weeks. Winners and losers. It is an exceptional effort on their parts to even get there.

BOO to all the drug cheats.

Oh well, a couple more weeks of watching the heats in the afternoon and early evening, getting a couple of hours sleep and then watching the finals. The finals are usually still on tele when I have to start work.

Interesting