Ever silently congratulate your self?

[Ronnie Sullivan]

More of a lighter note for seasoned programmers.

A few years ago I did a conveyor system to deliver mattresses to various wrapping machines. (different size mattresses went to different wrapping machines) The conveyors marshaled the mattresses to the correct machine.
It has all worked perfectly until......

The wrapping machine engineers came over from Italy for a problem and slowed their in conveyors right down. They solved their problem and went back
leaving me with a problem.

As it is/was, when a mattress is at the wrapper it waits for a signal from the wrapper to say it is ready for the next one. My conveyor starts and delivers one into it. Once the wrapper has the mattress inside it turns off its 'ready signal and the next mattress waits for the signal again.
But now, with their in conveyor going so slow, the next mattress on my conveyors arrives while the ready signal is still on.
This causes my system to push another in and the wrapper can't handle 2

When the in conveyor was going fast, the ready signal went off in 3 seconds and there was no chance of another mattress arriving in that time but now it is on for 20 seconds.

So, the crux of the tale is, I had to change the program so that the next mattress waited even though the 'ready and the 'mattress at wrapper signals were both true.

I sat at my desk and tried lots of ways but each time, I couldn't get a properly working solution.
Then just like Archimedes, I shouted eureka while walking my dog.
Fancy that, walking a dog and still doing logic in your head - only programmers do that.

I put the alterations in, to no fanfare but inside I was cheering myself lol.

 

[PLC Pie Guy]

More of a lighter note for seasoned programmers.

A few years ago I did a conveyor system to deliver mattresses to various wrapping machines. (different size mattresses went to different wrapping machines) The conveyors marshaled the mattresses to the correct machine.
It has all worked perfectly until......

The wrapping machine engineers came over from Italy for a problem and slowed their in conveyors right down. They solved their problem and went back
leaving me with a problem.

As it is/was, when a mattress is at the wrapper it waits for a signal from the wrapper to say it is ready for the next one. My conveyor starts and delivers one into it. Once the wrapper has the mattress inside it turns off its 'ready signal and the next mattress waits for the signal again.
But now, with their in conveyor going so slow, the next mattress on my conveyors arrives while the ready signal is still on.
This causes my system to push another in and the wrapper can't handle 2

When the in conveyor was going fast, the ready signal went off in 3 seconds and there was no chance of another mattress arriving in that time but now it is on for 20 seconds.

So, the crux of the tale is, I had to change the program so that the next mattress waited even though the 'ready and the 'mattress at wrapper signals were both true.

I sat at my desk and tried lots of ways but each time, I couldn't get a properly working solution.
Then just like Archimedes, I shouted eureka while walking my dog.
Fancy that, walking a dog and still doing logic in your head - only programmers do that.

I put the alterations in, to no fanfare but inside I was cheering myself lol.

These little victories are the only reason IV been doing this so long. From the first one, its like a high you only get after solving a problem like that. Its got to be, I know haven't been doing this all these years for the hours, days, weeks and months of headaches that can come from the industry as well.

 

[drbitboy]

... - only programmers do that.

tru dat.

 

[Puddle]

Mine are less eureka moments and more a case of "I've been an idiot for two whole days and finally a brain cell has shown signs of life"


...This also generally happens in the car on the way home on a friday.

 

[parky]

Apparently, it happens in dreams, I had a problem been working on it all day, went back to the hotel, a few drinks & meal went to sleep, woke up at about 2:30 am with the answer, I must have been still working in a dream, perhaps the alcohol made my brain cells do some work.

 

[mylespetro]

Apparently, it happens in dreams, I had a problem been working on it all day, went back to the hotel, a few drinks & meal went to sleep, woke up at about 2:30 am with the answer, I must have been still working in a dream, perhaps the alcohol made my brain cells do some work.

My boss says that I often call him with a problem and talk it out (mostly to myself) and then hang up... And then call back 5 minutes later to tell him I figured it out. Sometimes you just need to change your way of thinking (or stop thinking) to figure something out.

 

[jstolaruk]

Only if I don't get a phone call after a year in production. But by then, I've forgotten it; too many other projects have crossed the desk.

 

[Chris_M]

My boss says that I often call him with a problem and talk it out (mostly to myself) and then hang up... And then call back 5 minutes later to tell him I figured it out. Sometimes you just need to change your way of thinking (or stop thinking) to figure something out.

One of my programmer friends mentioned this to me years ago. Their industry calls it Rubber Duck which gives me quite the amusing mental picture.

 

[mylespetro]

One of my programmer friends mentioned this to me years ago. Their industry calls it Rubber Duck which gives me quite the amusing mental picture.

Yeah I've heard about that before too, and realized that's essentially what I'm doing, it's definitely useful for me.

 

[Manglemender]

I remember once having a team of engineers commission a large piece of equipment in sourthern Italy. They had been working all day trying to sort some problem or other before, at about 8pm, they called to ask for my advice and I told them: "Pack up, go back to the hotel and have a beer". The problem was sorted in the morning.

This industry definately attracts people who get a buzz out of solving problems. One of my personal favourites was a single HMI with only 6 pages that controlled 20 individual production lines - pointers and scripting were stretched to the max.

Nick

 

[Tom Jenkins]

This is what I call my "Master of the Universe" feeling. I usually got it when the system was wrung out, process working, training done, and the operators saying "Wow". It is the true reward for creating the magic we do.

 

[JLand]

One of my programmer friends mentioned this to me years ago. Their industry calls it Rubber Duck which gives me quite the amusing mental picture.

I have a rubber duck on my desk, gifted to me by a coworker for this precise reason. It sometimes attracts questions, but once explained it's always well-received. In truth, at this point, I am a bit ashamed to say I am not splitting my salary with it, it's been so helpful

 

[I_Automation]

Fancy that, walking a dog and still doing logic in your head - only programmers do that.

When I got brain freeze while programming something technical or sitting at the computer too long I used to ask "Who want's Dairy Queen" and while sitting eating a Blizzard, not thinking about the program or issue at all, the answer would suddenly pop in my head.


As for self congratulation - every time I get something running that their guy there couldn't figure out, or do something a programmer that's been around longer than me tells me is impossible. One example is a SLC run processing line with an iFix HMI. The line had about 40 faults to check but the programmer knowing the HMI could only display ONE fault only looked for one, then stopped looking. I figured out how to check and log them all, then scroll through all the active alarms.



He wanted to know how I did it, saying he has another line he has to do this way - but just wanted my work for free to sell to the other customer.

 

[johnd_125]

Its a war with small failures and successes. If the successes outweigh the failures then someone will let you continue to do this work and you'll continue to get paid.

In this example, the real triumph comes with the next project where you apply what you learned to future proof the next system. "Yes, it works now but if that conveyor is sped up, what happens?" If the answer is mattress mayhem in the wrapper, why not go ahead and put proper handshaking in to prevent that, from the start? Most programming I see stops as soon as it just barely starts to work and there is not always time allowed for error proofing and the what if's. So management sometimes needs to be brought on board with what is needed to make equipment reliable.

 

[NetNathan]

This is what I call my "Master of the Universe" feeling. I usually got it when the system was wrung out, process working, training done, and the operators saying "Wow". It is the true reward for creating the magic we do.

That is why we are sometimes called "Maintenance Magicians"...

Yes... sometimes we can only pat ourselves on the back. No one else understands what we did.... it just works now.