This week turns out to be an out-going week! There's at least one fieldwork everyday! And today there's two! No, I'm not complaining. Its great to explore new factories, new machines, meet new people and to learn new things. Not to mention the feeling of contentment I get after a job well done. And I get rewarded for it! Daily expenditure has gone down by more than 50 percent thanks to Mr. James.

Like I said in the first paragraph, we went to two factories today. The first one in a cereal manufacturing factory in Balakong. We were called in a few days ago to program a Telemechanique inverter so that the keypad on the inverter can be used to run and control the speed of a motor. I already browsed through the manual yesterday but when I get there, it didn't go very well. Eventhough I already knew what program codes to change, the program code of interest doesn't appear at the inverter display!!

Very tedious and complicated programming method. I have to change this program code in order to access that program code. And the program codes are not grouped in numbers like the eastern-made inverters! Instead it uses the short-form of a command/program! Imagine trying to display "CONT" (Control) using seven-segment displays. Its confusing! I was silently cursing the inverter while programming it.

Mr. James called one of his friends who is an expert in Telemechanique inverters and finally managed to get the correct setting. Even so, the built-in potentiometer CANNOT be used to control the motor speed. The operator needs to change two program codes to change the speed. Too bad for him.. Maybe this brand is pathetic in terms of programming but superior when it comes to performance and efficiency. 

This was supposed to be a short fieldwork but turns out to be longer than expected. 

Next we went to the label manufacturing factory in Cheras not far from the cereal factory. I've been into this factory before but left an unfinished business unsolved problem. Refer to Day 32 for more information. We were guided by the officer-in-charge to the faulty inverter. First, I unplugged all the terminal connections of the old inverter and transferred them to a new inverter. It did not work accordingly at first, but it turns out that I have misread the built in relay terminal of the old italian inverter. The correct terminal is the "normally closed" contact not the "normally open" terminal. Its not a common practice to use the "normally closed" contact so I was quite reluctant to change it.

But to my surprise, the solution worked! The motor runs and stops accordingly. Promptly removed the old inverter from its mount and drilled three new holes for the new inverter. Its a steel plate I have to drill through but the drilling process was surprisingly easy and less tiring than the one I did on Tuesday! Persistently mounted and wired the inverter and about half an hour later, its DONE including the external relay wiring. Powered up the whole machine, altered some program codes and the inverter is ready to make some labels!

Its one of those user-friendly Sanken inverters. Programming was much much easier than that German made inverter. Hey, this post turns out to be like my "East vs. West" post few weeks ago! But seriously, the programming guy in Telemechanique HAS to restructure his program codes promptly! It is such a sophisticated inverter but with ONE single drawback. The program codes. Period.

Packed all the equipments and we went for lunch. Mr. James paid for my mee goreng at the mamak restaurant nearby! Thanks Mr. James!!

Mr. James dropped me at the office and he went out without me. It was around 3pm when I arrived at the office.