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Winding down another project at the day job.


Rsquared

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So a couple of our other guys and I have been working at the NOAA home offices in Silver Spring Maryland for the last couple of months. We've been doing pretty much a ground up Re-Fit on the control systems for their central plant in one of their four buildings that they have here. Just like the other building that we did for them last year, they got all new chillers, pumps, cooling towers, freq drives and control valves. It always makes me laugh a little. Because, being a Re-Fit on a live, functioning system. You kind of have to attack these things in a caveman type of way. They have to stay somewhat functional, but yet you still have to rip everything out and replace it with new, modern equipment. Meaning, at some point, the place looks like an ABSOLUTE train wreck, with $hit running or dangling everywhere as you try to overlay the new stuff in place of the old.

I could go on for days about this process, but I won't kill you guys with all the mundane details. I'm just rambling anyway. So I'll just show a little of what we had to deal with, and what we're about to walk away from as a finished product.

First of all.....what we had to start with. Yep....pretty fugly huh? No reason for a control system running a chiller plant to EVER look like this.

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Obviously, this was after we had ripped the old panel down, cut in a trough for all conduits coming into the new panel, and custom building the new panel. I was probably about half way through the new wiring of the panel at this time, with just some baseline programming running some pumps.

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More wiring done. Stuff starting to come together.

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All wiring done at this point. Covers in place to help "clean" it up. Software maybe about 2/3 (ish).

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Just about everything buttoned up. Still tweaking software at this point.

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This plant has 23 line voltage (120 volt) 2 position valves. So we had to custom build a relay panel to control them. This is basically getting the panel layed out on the inside, in preparation for the relays and wiring.

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Installing the relays and getting them pre-wired for their incoming power source.

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Landing all of the power and control wiring.

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Pretty much finished. Just need to hang the laminated legend on the inside of the door, and then pop all of the cable ties that were holding back the wire before the covers were put on.

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You guys can probably see why I'm so anal with my own projects that I do at home now. :lmao:

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5 minutes ago, Rsquared said:

Because, being a Re-Fit on a live, functioning system. You kind of have to attack these things in a caveman type of way.

That is really, honestly badass, brother. That whole post is fucking amazing. I know for a fucking FACT that you've got that Caveman Shiit down to a science, too.  :hail:

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21 hours ago, Rsquared said:

 

1131581183_MainPanel-1.thumb.jpg.29d2e148052702ec79ed703122d9d2ea.jpg

 That would be ugly to troubleshoot and I'll bet any documentation( if it exist) is woefully out of date.

 

1824288032_RelayPanel-3.thumb.jpg.9848abba70d15d851912d20c00e982a0.jpg

 It's the attention to the little details, example the jumper wires- it takes the same amount of time and effort to cut them the same length thus all being the same. Even after the bill is paid the main thing that the client will remember is how the end product looked.

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Cunuckgaucho said:

1824288032_RelayPanel-3.thumb.jpg.9848abba70d15d851912d20c00e982a0.jpg

 It's the attention to the little details, example the jumper wires- it takes the same amount of time and effort to cut them the same length thus all being the same. Even after the bill is paid the main thing that the client will remember is how the end product looked.

Coming from you brother, that's a hell of a compliment.

 

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1 hour ago, jtallen83 said:

I miss those unemployment breaks I used to get..........

Thought I’d never see it but I’m at a stare down with it right now all our projects got pushed back to June, so sounds like we’ll just be covering our call week for service. 
 

STRANGE FUCKING TIMES!

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On 4/7/2020 at 12:27 AM, Rsquared said:

 

229771839_RelayPanel-2.thumb.jpg.b4a14bd594c716ab04879cdbaa161bca.jpg

 

1824288032_RelayPanel-3.thumb.jpg.9848abba70d15d851912d20c00e982a0.jpg

 

663939533_RelayPanel-4.thumb.jpg.9dbe5f4c2f93e6c4a0465b0ad3dc800d.jpg

 

Just want to point out another example of his attention to detail, I'm also betting he did it without really thinking about it. Did anyone one else notice or was is it a Ron/Eric thing?. The tyee wraps( aka zap straps,zip ties etc) Look at how they are not only placed symmetrically but the 'heads' are all the same in orientation and direction. Again it takes the same amount of time and effort as randomly placing them , yet the randomly placed ones you may not be aware but at a subconscious level your brain will tell you something is off.

Story- came home and neighbor across the way had attached a piece of plexiglass to the black wrought iron gate to stop his puppy from escaping. He committed two cardinal sins 1) never trimmed the 'tails' 2) used white straps. Two days later ran into said neighbor and all he said was "It does look better now"

6 hours ago, Rsquared said:

Coming from you brother, that's a hell of a compliment.

 

Simply stating the facts :hail:

Edited by Cunuckgaucho
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It’s gonna be like a where’s Waldo, but I’m hunting for something that looks outta place...just to keep him up for a couple nights before he drives back to swap it. I can’t seem to find anything worth pointing out...and if I did, I wouldn’t know what to call it. It’d be the yellow thingy next to the blue stuff. 

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1 hour ago, Cunuckgaucho said:

Story- came home and neighbor across the way had attached a piece of plexiglass to the black wrought iron gate to stop his puppy from escaping. He committed two cardinal sins 1) never trimmed the 'tails' 2) used white straps. Two days later ran into said neighbor and all he said was "It does look better now"

It's more about safety, later, too - when someone else needs to work on that shiit.  I hate working on something "routine," only to find out that the customer installed his own lightbar and wiring, or whatever.  I usually find out when a fucking zip-tie was cut at a 45 degree angle, and that motherfucker slices my finger open - when I was reaching for something else.  :bitchslap::bat:

Cut that shiit off perpendicular/flush to the fucking lock on the zip-tie, right AT the lock on the zip-tie.  You don't need anything sticking out - what are you gonna do, re-use that damn thing later, anyway?!  Hell no, you're not...

My Zip-Tie rant... 

Edited by 98Z5V
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