Rabbit® Helps Control Systems Inc. Clean Up City Water Supplies

Control Systems Inc. Uses the RCM3100 and RCM3200 for Water Treatment and Waste Water Monitoring & Management

We have had very
good success with Rabbit’s reliability and broad range of products.

—David Burghard, Control Systems Inc

Environmental conservation and decontamination of water has been an important topic and a focus for numerous organizations and municipalities. With today’s industrial manufacturing and new chemical technologies, the amount of wastewater and runoff has increased. Companies and local municipalities have built systems to monitor water contamination and control the decontamination process.

Current municipal systems operate with older logic systems that require frequent repair or upgrades. Furthermore, many of these systems are in remote locations and require personal attention. The challenge that exists for municipal treatment systems is interfacing newer remote technologies with older systems as well as keeping the overall system simple. Control Systems Inc. has stepped up to the challenge by using Rabbit’s RCM3100 and RCM3200 in their low-cost, easy-to-use control system.

Control Systems is an industrial systems integrator based in Jackson, Mississippi, specializing in control systems for municipal water supply and wastewater treatment. Many of their products consist of control panels and motor control centers for pump control. To better serve their market, Control Systems is now focusing on SCADA (System Control and Data Acquisition), which integrates their custom Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) and Central Telemetry Units (CTUs). The company’s RTU103, RTU104 and Duplex Pump Controller monitor and control pump stations, elevated tanks and water/wastewater treatment plants. The RTUs receive and transmit information via a radio, cellular, or Internet connection to a centralized location.

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At water/wastewater facilities, there are many points along the treatment process that require monitoring and control. Each Control Systems RTU is installed in key positions of the treatment process, for example, inside pumps, wells, elevated tanks and other areas where monitoring is required. The RTUs report the status of each point of the treatment process to the CTUs at the central station. The communications occur over licensed VHF radio modems or cellular modems.

The RTUs also have the ability to communicate to each other depending on the application. For example, if one of the RTUs measures low levels in an elevated tank, it will communicate with another RTU to initiate bringing water levels back up. The central station gathers information such as pump operation, pump failures, well and tank levels, and flow of water through the systems. This information helps to develop trending as well as to inform operators of efficiency and malfunctions. If the system experiences a critical malfunction, an alarm is set off to inform operators. Each installation is custom programmed to fit the customer’s needs.

Inside the RTU103 and RTU104 resides either an RCM3100 or RCM3200 RabbitCore®. The RTU103 is the larger board, offering 20 digital inputs, 12 solid-state open-collector transistor digital outputs, four to eight analog inputs, and two isolated analog outputs. For communications, the RTU103 has four RS-232 ports and one Dallas 1-Wire port. The RTU104 is the smaller board, with 16 digital inputs, six relay outputs, up to four (4-20 mA) analog inputs and up to four (4-20 mA) outputs. As for communications, the RTU104 has two 9-pin RS-232 serial ports and one Dallas 1-Wire port.

"The RabbitCore modules are the heart of these products, and using them has allowed us great flexibility with our designs and uses of these products, " says David Burghard or Control Systems. "The processors in the RTU103 and RTU104 boards are custom programmed for each job depending on our customer’s needs. The processors handle all inputs and outputs, do all the control logic and handle all of the communications," explains Burghard.

As current municipal water and wastewaters systems age, some logic systems are in need of upgrades. Rather than buying systems from outside sources, Control Systems wanted to develop custom solutions specific to the customers’ needs, while maintaining a cost-effective edge over the competition. They chose the RCM3100 and RCM3200 because of their built-in features, expandability and form factor, as well as their ease of use, communications and simple reliable design.

"RabbitCores provided many features we did not want to design ourselves and provided easy expansion, all at very competitive prices. After we used these products in our first design we were sold," says Burghard. "We have not had any problems with the modules and our programmers have become very familiar with their features, making it easy to set them up for our custom jobs using Rabbit’s C compiler (Dynamic C®)."

Rabbit has proven to be a reliable choice for Control Systems, Inc. In an industry where cost, ease of use, reliability and scalability are important, Rabbit delivered.

"We have had very good success with Rabbit’s reliability and broad range of products. It is also cost effective when we can standardize on their products and not have to keep changing vendors," says Burghard. "We also feel that we can rely on Rabbit to be in business for years so that we don’t have to worry about implementing a system that will become obsolete soon."

Committed to bringing new products and technology to its customers, Rabbit is focused on improving the development experience, leaving more time for customers to enjoy the benefits of their hard work.

For more information on Control Systems, visit: www.controlsysinc.com

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