What Happens in Vegas…Stays in Vegas???

Well not exactly… I spent this week in Vegas talking to some System Integrators and Customers in the Gambling industry if you can imagine that. Some of them have quite a bit of automation. They have things that turn, light up, and move around.  Lots of automation. Lots more than the average tourist would expect.

And if you look you just might find places to go unwind after a long day of tweaking automation systems.

Here’s a cool t-shirt I found:

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS

Not Included: STDs, Pregnancies and Felonies

THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU HOME!

So what was I doing in Vegas? You’ll recognize this story. It’s happening all over the US. A company, a casino in this case, has a pretty old legacy automation system. The VFDs they use in the system are really ancient. They’re about a foot long and about 8 inches on each side. A real boat anchor.

This VFD has been obsolete for five or six years.  You can’t find them anywhere. This casino scoured the world and bought every single one they could find. Trouble is, that only gets you so far. Eventually you have to start opening old units up and try to build a good one out of 2 or 3 failed units. That buys you a little more time.

But even that time runs out. That’s where the customer is today. They’ve about 5 of these boat anchors left and risk turning off one of the signature attractions for this casino. So, Darryl in our office took another VFD and created an interface module using our 460 Product line. The 460 is our slick new adaptor module that can moves data from any one network to pretty much any other network without any code for the customer to program.

In a few days he had a standard PowerFlex drive from Rockwell pretending to be the old boat anchor. Needless to say it worked like a champ and they are going to be buying a boat load of our 460 interface modules and PowerFlex drives.

Adapting legacy automation devices to new networks and technology. It’s what we do best and what’s needed to keep a lot of legacy automation systems in business. Our 460 is the right technology platform for this effort. You can learn more about it on our website.

OK, OK – Yes I’ve gambled away $2 on a slot machine. I couldn’t resist. I start Gamblers anonymous on Tuesday…