Chameleon Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC)
Rugged, Durable and Reliable Controllers for Mission-Critical Applications
KEY FEATURES
- SEPTA Approved for Silverliner IV
- Ideal solution for door controls and HVAC controls
- Reduces installation cost, size, and weight by eliminating need for costly, bulky, and heavy enclosures
- Multi-processor architecture enhances system availability
- Open connectivity to industry standard protocols and networks
- Built-in data logging features, including event-triggered signal snapshots
- Wireless device configuration and data retrieval
- Graphical programming and simulation software tool that is intuitive and easy-to-use
- Flexible and modular architecture with versatile I/O suite
- Supports redundant input/output connections, redundant control execution, redundant power sources, and redundant network connections
- Easy to assemble, install, and maintain
- All modules are hot-swappable… no need for process shutdown
- Modules can be replaced without disturbing wiring connections; newly inserted modules are reprogrammed by neighbors
- Integrated user-interface with prominent displays and buttons
OVERVIEW
Chameleon PACs represent a new breed of environmentally hardened, modular, high-performance distributed controllers designed to enable sophisticated process and logic control to survive in harsh environments. It promotes the migration of control to the field, enabling significant savings in field wiring and installation cost. Distribution of control increases control availability by reducing the risk of control system failure often associated with central control systems. Chameleon PACs are currently installed in a variety of transit, industrial, and military settings. Customers include transit agencies such as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), Fortune 500 manufacturers such as E.I. DuPont and Lockheed Martin, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
OPEN COMMUNICATION / NETWORKING SUPPORT
Chameleon embraces open architecture and distribution of control. Various network interface modules are available to support widely-used industrial communication protocols such as Modbus, Modbus/TCP, Ethernet/IP, PROFIBUS DP, LonTalk, OPC and Custom ASCII/Binary.
UNPARALLELED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: MOUNT IT VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE
Chameleon products are rugged and tough—capable of operating in the most difficult industrial environments. They are designed to endure high-impact shock, extreme vibration, and electrical power spikes. They can operate over an extended temperature range and are fully submersible. And they can be exposed to water, dirt and grit, oil sprays, humidity, corrosion, and other environmental hazards. In fact, Chameleon devices are so rugged that they pass the most stringent U.S. military requirements for use on combat vessels.
INTUITIVE DEVICE PROGRAMMING AND CONFIGURATION
Chameleon devices are configured with Fairmount Automation’s Design Pad G3 software package. Design Pad G3 provides an intuitive graphical programming environment to implement sophisticated control algorithms and automation schemes. It includes familiar function block programming capabilities as well as powerful event-driven statetransition diagramming techniques. New features in Design Pad allow design engineers to define operational states, to specify how the device should behave in each state, and to define events that cause transitions from one state to another. Using these features inherently leads to more robust designs by forcing the segregation of automation tasks into manageable subsystems. Engineers can then focus the design effort on the specific functionality required by each subsystem without the distraction of the system at large. Design Pad projects are also selfdocumenting since the state diagrams and function block interconnections represent the control specification.
SELF-DIAGNOSTICS AND BUILT-IN TESTING
Chameleon PAC modules offer a variety of on-board self-diagnostic capabilities. Included is the unique ability for analog outputs to monitor the connection to actuators for loss of signal and unexpected impedance changes. All diagnostic information is available to the programmer to facilitate status transmission over a network and initiate automatic switchover and/or automatic reduced-capability operating mode.
INTEGRATED DATA LOGGING
Chameleon modules can log any number of user-selected signals at user-configured time-intervals. They can record data continuously (loop recorder mode) or for “snapshots” triggered by user-defined events or conditions. In snapshot mode, modules can record signals both before and after the triggering event occurs. Data can subsequently be retrieved for analysis over a wireless link or network interface.
ENCLOSURELESS SOLUTION REDUCES INSTALLATION COSTS
The Chameleon PAC provides an enclosureless solution: it doesn’t require the use of third-party enclosures for environmental protection. Enclosureless solutions reduce space requirements and equipment weight, and eliminate the added costs associated with enclosure design, fabrication, and assembly. Available userconfigurable modules (UCM-1 and UCM-2) allow additional hardware such as switches, buttons, alarms, key-locks, etc., to be seamlessly incorporated into the Chameleon platform. These fully customizable modules are also equipped with terminal connectors and can serve as convenient junction boxes. Chameleon was designed with an emphasis on ease of assembly, installation, and maintenance. Several mounting alternatives are available, including panel or surface mounting, standard DIN-RAIL mounting, or optional high-performance mounting for improved shock and vibration isolation.