Tall Tower Light Controller - Ezb V4

WayneA.

USA

Good Morning Ez-Robot Community.

I would like to introduce myself. My daytime job is a Television Broadcast Engineer. The signal that is broadcasted comes from a 2000 ft tall tower. This tall tower has a total of 19 strobe lights, that is controlled by controller. The original controller that was made circa 1970 finally passed on. A new controller was purchased. This new controller has outputs that signal when a light on the tower is out. I was given the task to create a way to monitor the system remotely. I did a lot of digging, and found the Ez-b v4 controller. I gotta say, from design and building and to coding, this has to be the easiest platform I have ever worked with.

I have attached a few pictures below.

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#10  

Ya know, a board that plugged right into the pins of the EZB-4 is an interesting idea. It would allow for things like mounting screw terminals on the board for connections. Of course that would make it all much larger, but if you have the room, why not? Easier than trying to use the tiny connector pins to do it all. Beyond that, other components like shields could be mounted to the board, Perhaps a patch panel on the board for making connections from one thing to another. Could even look at it the other way and let the EZB-4 be just another plug-in on a board with places for other things. There is even the possibility of stacking using small boards. Opens up a world of interface devices on the hardware side of things. I could even see multiple boards connected via a standardized high speed serial connection.

The OP has shown there can be uses for the EZB-4 than robots. Serious overkill or not, it's inexpensive enough to use in many applications. Powerful enough for much expansion of functions at any time.

#11  

If you needed eyes on the system, you could add an EZB Camera to give a live feed of the actual control board or as a security monitor for the room.

Thanks for sharing this Wayne! It's neat to see. :)

#12  

@JustinRatliff I thought about that before I proposed building the interface to my boss. But, in the end, it was not approved.