Field Notes
Notes from the shop floor.
Short, practical pieces on the controls work we do every week — written by the engineers who do it, not by marketing.
Control panels · May 22, 2026 · 6 min read
What a UL 508A label really means for your plant
Walk-throughs from inspectors in Fresno County keep flagging the same panel issues. Here's what the UL 508A label is actually certifying — and what it isn't.
Read the piece →PLC programming · Apr 9, 2026 · 8 min read
Picking a PLC platform: Rockwell, Siemens, or CODESYS
We get the question every quarter. There is no universal right answer — but there is a right answer for your line. Here is how we walk customers through it.
Read the piece →Retrofits · Mar 14, 2026 · 7 min read
Field notes: a Central Valley almond huller retrofit
An anonymized walk-through of a recent SLC-500 to CompactLogix conversion at an almond huller north of Madera. What we kept, what we replaced, and the surprises.
Read the piece →SCADA & HMI · Feb 2, 2026 · 5 min read
SCADA vs historian: what most plants actually need
Half the SCADA quotes we see are really historian quotes with a SCADA wrapper. The distinction matters for budgeting and for picking the right product.
Read the piece →Motor controls · Dec 18, 2025 · 6 min read
VFD harmonics on deep-well ag pumps: a Central Valley problem
We've inherited three jobs in the last year where a new VFD on a 200 HP well pump tripped the neighbor's transformer. Here's the short version of why and how to avoid it.
Read the piece →Field service · Nov 4, 2025 · 5 min read
What '24/7 support' actually looks like (and what it shouldn't)
Every integrator's brochure says 24/7. Here is the operational reality, the staffing model, and the questions that separate a real on-call program from a marketing line.
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