WorldWide Drilling Resource

32 SEPTEMBER 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Utah Ground Water Association Tel: 801-541-7259 www.utahgroundwater.org Virginia Water Well Association Tel: 804-387-8395 Fax: 804-302-7978 info@vawaterwellassociation.org www.vawaterwellassociation.org West Virginia Water Well Drillers Assn. Tel: 304-636-6025 Fax: 304-636-0231 framedrilling@frontier.com Wisconsin Water Well Association Tel: 608-326-0935 Fax: 608-326-0966 info@wisconsinwaterwell.com www.wisconsinwaterwell.com Women In Mining 866-537-9694 wim@womeninmining.org www.womeninmining.org Wyoming Water Well Association Tel: 307-267-3806 wywaterwell@gmail.com www.wywaterwell.org South Carolina Ground Water Association Tel: 803-356-6809 Fax: 803-356-6826 scgwa@sc.rr.com www.scgwa.org South Dakota Well Drillers Association Tel: 605-734-6631 Tennessee Water Well Association Tel: 865-761-4363 info@tnwaterwellassociation.org Texas Alliance of Energy Producers Tel: 940-723-4131 Fax: 940-723-4132 joannb@texasalliance.org www.texasalliance.org Texas Ground Water Association Tel: 512-472-7437 Fax: 512-472-0537 drobbins@twca.org www.tgwa.org WorldWide Drilling Resource ® is proud to be a member of these associations. a lot of different “flavors” with different voltage outputs. One common output type is a 1- 5 volt full-scale output. It means, if you have a 0-100 psi, full-scale sensor and it “sees” 0 psi, it outputs 1 volt. If this sensor sees 100 psi, it outputs 5 volts. Everything in between is proportional to this range. So if the sensor outputs 3 volts, it means it sees 50 psi because 3 volts is halfway between 1 and 5 volts. We use 1 volt to represent a “0 psi” condition instead of 0 volts because we need to know if the sensor is connected or dis- connected. A disconnected sensor would read 0 volts, whereas a connected sensor with 0 psi pressure reading would read 1 volt, telling us it’s there and working properly. There are other ways to detect a disconnected sensor, but this way is simple, reliable, and requires minimal “overhead”. So we use the microprocessor to “accept” information in the form of a variable voltage from various sources, such as sensors, and make decisions based on the information received. This also works the other way around, where the microprocessor can also output variable voltages to convey information to other devices. One good example of this is using a microprocessor-generated voltage to control a variable frequency drive (VFD). Similarly, if the VFD has a 1-5 volt input, it means 1 volt equals 0 motor speed and 5 volts equals full motor speed. With the motors I use, most of the time full motor speed is 3600 rpm (revolutions per minute). Likewise, if we want the motor to turn at half of full rpm (1800 rpm), we put 3 volts on the appropriate VFD input and program the VFD to accept a 1-5 volt full-scale output from an external source. This voltage can be changed at any time, and changed very quickly to respond to different conditions. All computers work on sensing vari- ous voltage levels. With the sheer num- bers and variety of computers around nowadays, it’s obviously a tried and true technology which works very well. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Storkson cont’d from page 23. WWDR will continue to cover the Frequently-Used geological Terms next month!