Introduction to Foxboro DCS Training

My early phase of my career life with Optimal is expected to be filled with a lot of training. Recently, I have attended a 1 week course on Introduction to Foxboro DCS. In layman's term, it is basically an introductory course for control system engineers and plant operators about Foxboro DCS system used in Optimal plant.

It is only an introductory course but look how thick the manual is!

We learnt about the basic architecture of Foxboro DCS network and the related software. This course was attended by 10 operators and engineers from various units in Optimal (namely Olefins, Derivatives, Butanol, Utilities and Maintenance <- that's me!).

The course participants

The trainer for this course was Mr. Tarek Kamal from Foxboro Egypt and he was very knowledgable about the DCS architecture, hardwares and softwares of Foxboro. We gained a lot of information from this introductory course.

"OAJ stands for Operator Action Journal" - Mr. Tarek Kamal of Foxboro

It really opened my mind about DCS (Distributed Control System) and Foxboro system itself. I also got to experience using the Foxboro workstations which is based on Unix operating systems. The hardware is also propriety to Sun (the developer of Unix OS) and the keyboard layout is different from usual Windows keyboard layout and I took some time to get used to it. Overall, the course was good and the goodies bag from Foxboro sweetened the course delivery. Heheheh~

The bag contains a denim Foxboro short sleeve shirt and notepad

p/s: What I love about attending training is that I can save on my lunch money. :P

Reconnected from Kerteh!

Last Tuesday I was just reconnected to the information superhighway (a.k.a The Internet) from my rented house in Kerteh. I am now subscribing TM's Streamyx 1 Mbps broadband package. So far, I am satisfied with the connection speed (according to current Malaysia's snailing slow connection standard). The package bundle is good too, for Blockbuster plan (1 Mbps with unlimited free calls to TM fixed line at RM110/month) a unit of D-Link's DSL-2640B WiFi router is provided as opposed to Riger WiFi router unit that is currently being used at my hometown in Banting. So, I just to wait for the DECT phone to be delivered and I am expecting the same Panasonic unit that is currently used in my hometown.

So, I logged on to Speedtest.net website to check on how Streamyx is performing here in Kerteh. Here are the result, I pinged several servers in nearby cities around Kerteh and I am quite impressed with the result. I hope Streamyx has really improved this time and not relying on clause "...is provided on best effort basis..." anymore. I just hope that TM can improve on the uploading speed (384 Kbps I think) so I can keep on Torrenting more effectively. :)

Server: Cyberjaya, MY

Server: Singapore, SG

Server: Songkhla Province, TH

Server: Phuket Province, TH

Server: Bandar Seri Begawan, BN

p/s: Seeding and leeching all the time!

Aging But Still Rolling Strong

My DAD's indium coloured Waja is now nearly 10 years old and had travelled around 190 000 km now. Currently I'm using this car and yeah, I am driving this car in Kerteh. Despite negative comment received from our fellow Malaysians bashing on the quality of this car, this car however is still in pristine condition (after a major accident) except replacing some aging components which are expected for this car of this age.

Yesterday, I went to our trusted workshops around Banting to replace some of the parts that need replacements. The parts include brake pads, radiator fan motor and front disc brake rotors. Since this car is used under harsh condition like frequent high speed and long haul journey, I have decided to spend a bit on good replacement parts. Instead of using the OEM brake pads, brake pads from Bendix are now sitting in the calipers. The disc rotors are also changed since the the old disc rotors have worn out by about 3 millimeters.

Bendix brake pads

Kim Ban Huat Auto workshop, Banting

Me and my dad were puzzled about the deterioration of cooling performance of the car's air condition since we just serviced it 2 month ago during the last Hari Raya Aidilfitri. We brought the car to the shop we did the servicing last time and upon inspection we found out the radiator fan motor had gone kaput. That was the cause of deteriorating cooling performance of the car and lately I noticed that the engine temperature is a bit higher from 90º C. After changing the motor, the air conditioning system regains its original cooling performance and the engine temperature drops below 90º C. Taking advantage of that, I also changed the radiator coolant at EON Service Center here in Banting.

Ready for 'surgery'

With all the servicing done, I'm hoping that this car can perform better and more reliable after this. This car had gone through a lot, from frequent Banting - Tronoh trip, she is now travelling Banting - Kerteh, and she is still rolling strong. :)

Old front disc rotor and brake pads

p/s: Currently bedding in the new brake pads with the new disc rotors

Salam Aidil Adha

I would like to wish to all of my blog readers and followers (if any) an eventful Aidil Adha this year. May all of us is blessed by Allah to understand more about sacrifices (Qurban) that we are always facing in our life. Sometimes, the saying "If you want to gain something, you have to lose something" can be true in order for us to achieve better life in the future. What is more important, we need to be grateful and work hard to improve our life.

Apart from the usual Solat Aidil Adha at the mosque (no 'melapah' session this year), I also did some shopping. I was intending to upgrade my old rig before I can bring it to Kerteh this Saturday. The shopping was done at various shops in Low Yat Plaza and here is the shopping list:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor
• Asus P4P43TD/USB3 motherboard
• Corsair Gaming 1333 MHz DDR3 2 GB RAM modules
• Cooler Master USP 100 Casing
• Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X 1 GB DDR5 graphic card
• Western Digital 500 GB S-ATA hard disk drive
• K-World PCI TV card
• XFX XXX Edition 650W modular power supply unit
• Altec Lansing VS4121 2.1 speaker system
• Koss Ectron E-85 850 VA uninterruptable power supply

I will post my story on assembling the parts and my findings in term of benchmarks of the newly assembled system for information-sharing in the next post. Salam Aidil Adha. :)

All components assembled

Exciting Kenyir!

**PHOTO UPLOADED

I am always looking forward to do something exciting or going to interesting place during my stay in Terengganu. This is what I like about living at new places rather than staying closer to home. Thanks to God that during the phases of my life, I was placed in different new places such as Seremban, Tronoh and now, Kerteh. One day, my colleague at Central Maintenance department asked me to join them to an all-expenses-paid trip to Kenyir during the recent Deepavali break. Without hesitation I accepted his offer right away and on Friday, November 5th, we embarked on our adventure in Kenyir Lake.

Day 1

I parked my car at my colleague’s house, Mr. Fauzi the technologist and we waited at PETRONAS Service Station in Kerteh before we were picked up by bus at around 0900H. Then, the bus make a few stops, namely at PFCe Paka and Dungun to pick up other members. Then we make another stop in Kuala Berang to stock up and we reached Pengkalan Gawi in Kenyir Lake at around 1230H. We were greeted by two boathouses, Belida 1 and Belida 3. Belida 3 is bigger than Belida 1 and team Optimal boarded Belida 1. After we split up our food rations, the engine of both boathouses roared and we started our journey to Taman Negara Pahang for the purposed fishing ‘lubuk’. The journey took about 6 hours, and the boathouses slowly moving across the lake. The view was magnificent and breathtaking. Ok, that was expected from a tourist spot like Kenyir Lake. I would like to talk about the boathouse. The boathouse can accommodate 20 persons and the sleeping quarters is located at the 1st floor (yes, it is a two-storey boat) and is equipped with basic amenities like toilet, kitchen and AV system with karaoke and Astro (I’m serious). While others are busy preparing their arsenals for fishing (I’m the only non-angler), I just filling my time getting to know my colleague better, taking pictures and napping during the journey. At dusk, we arrived at Taman Negara Pahang. We hitched the boat, wire up the electricity, cranking up the 2-stroke-engined mobile generator and we were up for some fishing. However, luck was not on our side as we were managed to catch only few lampams, baungs and small belidas. I on the other side enjoyed watching Tamil movie on Astro. The title is Venghanayagam. I enjoyed the gravity-defying actions very much and the actors too. “Deyyy!!! Venghanayagam means fear, remember that!” – captured from the subtitle. :P As the night went by, I slept in the boathouse. The temperature was just nice (too bad I didn’t have sleeping bag with me) Surprisingly, there was no mosquitoes to disturb me, only at 0400H, my colleague (name undisclosed) came and disturbed me with loud snores.

Belida 1, our boathouse in Pengkalan Gawi

The sleeping deck, luckily no mosquitoes and the temperature at night was just right!

Day 2

I woke up at 0600H, and had breakfast made by one of my colleague. It was simple but filling ‘cucur’ with coffee, nice! We had decided to change place due to our bad luck of failing to catch big fish there and we moved to Sauk waterfall hoping to get big catch there. We left Taman Negara Pahang at around 0900H to Sauk waterfall. Again, the journey was boring as the boathouse sailed slowly across the lake. I took this opportunity to take a nap. I woke up for lunch on the boat and then suddenly we heard loud cracking noise form the bottom of the boat and suddenly the boat lost its speed. Upon further inspection, the propeller and the shaft had broken and need to be replaced. Belida 3 came to the rescue and towed our poor Belida 1 while the boat driver unhitched his small speedboat and sped to the shore to find the replacement part. At around 1400H, heavy downpour with storm suddenly hit the lake. For safety measure, the towing cable is disconnected and we stopped in the middle of the lake waiting for the storm to stop. During the storm, the boatman came with the replacement part, and the repair job was done in-situ with technical help from us (remember we are the Maintenance guys).

Torrential rain and stormy weather, Belida 3 was in front of us

As the rain stopped, the repair job was done and Belida 1’s naturally-aspirated V8 Hino diesel engine (detuned from turbodiesel as the boatman find it hard to control) finally roared back to life. We arrived at Sauk waterfall late in the afternoon. We tried our luck there using casting and trolling technique apart from the normal fishing using bait. I on the other hand went on the shore and dipped myself in refreshing Sauk waterfall. That night I just filled my night eating whatever left on the boat while watching Tamil movie on Astro, again. Then, I went to sleep with damp clothes (the storm ripped off the roof and soaked my backpack). Luckily, that night was not bone-chilling and I can sleep comfortably.

Beautiful Sauk waterfall

Day 3

Sunday, my last day in Kenyir. I started my day by taking bath with my colleagues at Sauk waterfall. The icy cold water was so refreshing but unfortunately it was started to drizzled so we only had short time enjoying the bath at the waterfall. After had our breakfast (on the boat, of course), we headed back to Pengkalan Gawi. It was a short journey as Sauk waterfall is located only 8 kilometers from Pengkalan Gawi. That marked the end of our adventure in Kenyir Lake.We boarded the bus and I arrived in Kerteh at 1730H. Although we were not managed to get big catch there, but I personally really enjoy the trip as I had chance to explore the beauty and splendour of Kenyir Lake. Definitely I would come again and have a trip on boathouse but not for fishing, but to spend night there at the waterfalls. :) My personal thanks to Mr. Fauzi for inviting me to this trip and for lending me the fishing equipments of his and thanks to my Maintenance department friends for your hospitality during the trip.

The Maintenance team

p/s: Blogger finally allows me to upload the pictures