Excuse me while I clean off the cobwebs...

So, it's been a few months. I wish I could point to some exciting reason why I've been unable to post lately. I wish I could say I was busy working endless weeks of six twelves. (Well, actually it's only my bank account that wishes it was endless 72 hour weeks.) I wish I could say I'd spent my last three months of weekends driving up and down the east coast writing reviews of different beaches. But really it's been the 'busy' that goes along with normal life that's kept me running from one place to another.

We finished the security system at MDA a month or so ago and I've moved on to a fire alarm system for another building on Fort Belvior. After a bit of reluctance at the beginning I'm really enjoying low voltage work. It's exciting because there's more going on than just delivering voltage to lights and outlets. I have loops of smoke detectors that need to be monitored and powered. Fire alarm and mass notification strobes and speakers are wired back to termination cabinets and then into the computerized fire alarm system. While I'm still doing all the fundamental things that 'normal' electricians do, pulling wire and making terminations, the variation and technical nature of what I'm doing is challenging. Circuits need to be wired with key-switched test points and relays need to be wired to allow the 24 volt fire alarm system to operate the 120 volt duct dampers. I get to be inside the roof top units (RTUs) that control the ventilation systems and connect into the rather complicated wiring systems for the HVAC system.

Yeah, like I said, complicated. And incidentally, this is what we're about to start dealing with in class - motor control and building automation. I'm actually really excited. The project for the book is to create a ladder diagram like the one in the second photo for an imaginary piece of a manufacturing facility.

Hopefully I won't regret my enthusiasm!