Does Size Matter for Miners

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1 A L L I E D D A T A S Y S T E M S Does Size Matter for Miners a new era in embedded computing Traditionally, computing in mining equipment has often been a compromise. With requirements similar to that of the military, rugged computing has usually meant expensive and clunky older technology. However a new generation of mobile processors and the wider acceptance of standardised interfaces means that mining can now have smaller, very rugged and very powerful computers that are able to perform in extreme environments reliably and that don t cost the earth! Postal: 67/176 South Creek Rd, Cromer NSW 2099 * Street: 67/176 South Creek Rd, Cromer NSW 2099, Australia * ABN Tel.: * Fax: * Mob.: * sales@allieddata.com.au * Web:

2 Page 2 Cost Vs Performance Summary For both the mining industry and the military, there is a need for ruggedness due to their similar operating environments. For this reason many computing systems for the military have also been used in mining. However building something rugged has often resulted in older technology and lower computing power simply due to the inertia that is inherent in new designs. Additionally, in military the support cycle is generally for 15 years, so new designs do not happen at the same pace as commercially. One only needs to look at your local computer store to see that the design of the next release of computing power happens almost on a daily basis. New components are released and can be integrated within weeks allowing the release of ever more powerful systems. However for a rugged design, protecting for shock, vibration and heat are primary concerns. The more powerful the computer, the more it is like a room heater. In a commercial design, heat control can easily be performed using forced air. But in the rugged environment, heat has to be controlled using passive or conductive cooling. Heat pipes and other mechanical systems are used to remove heat away from the circuit board and hence to the environment through contact and convection. The design of the boards and the mechanical systems must also maintain ruggedness against shock and vibration. A simple change in a component footprint can often mean a complete redesign of the of chassis and heat pipes and recertification of the mechanical systems to support the changes. Of course the other concerns include small production runs, much higher cost and physically larger systems. However a new breed of computers that provide the latest technology, small size and extreme ruggedness are migrating their way from the commercial arena and hold great promise for use in mining. The Trade Off Until recently those wishing to use higher powered computing in mining needed to trade-off performance verses life. To get the latest computing technology, the computer was always going to be less rugged, often using fans for forced air cooling. The shock and vibration problems could be at least in part resolved using shock mounts. However this provided a number of negatives that include large physical size and the need to keep the ambient temperature to not greater than 45 ºC. The increasing use of solid state disks has not only dropped the cost of more rugged computers significantly but also increased the allowable operating temperature for commercial computers to 50 or 55 ºC. However in dusty or humid environments the use of forced air adds additional problems, especially where there are wide environmental temperature changes and moisture condenses of as the computer transitions through the dew point. The only solution to this problem is conformal coating. However most commercial designs do not readily allow for conformal coating and they are not designed for passive cooling or large shock and vibration.

3 Commercial off the shelf Rugged Computers Page 3 Commercial designs may have been acceptable in applications where there was no primary control over the operations, however in many cases the specific application is to control the mining process. In this case a failure presents a very significant problem. In many cases where the computer is not required for primary control, and a failure can be accepted, the cost verses performance dictated that a commercial platform is the correct choice. The selection of a $10k or $15k rugged computing platform that will (almost) never fail, and which is (usually) of older and slower when compared with the latest technology desktop that is one tenth of the cost, means that you can afford to have 10 fail to be at the breakeven point. This is often the best option and has the added benefit that each time the computer fails, it is upgraded to the next available technology! In contrast, where the use of computing in mining is for the control in the mining process, this scenario will not work as the cost of a failure in the process far outweighs the initial cost of the computer. In this area a desktop solution is not adequate and the selection of the computer is of primary concern. In many cases this has often required a custom solution to solve the unique problems presented by the process. Custom solutions have usually resulted in smaller production runs and involve the engineering challenges for resolving the heat, shock and vibration problems caused by Commercial computers from EVOC in China May be fanless or require fans for cooling, uses the operating conditions. However with the standardisation commercial parts, not ruggedized. of interfaces to equipment and the advent of very small desktop computers that are also inherently rugged and low power, the ability to run significantly more powerful systems that provide previously only dreamed about capabilities in off the shelf solutions are now available. Off the self rugged high performance computing. Off the shelf rugged computing has traditionally been filled using PC/104, PC/104 plus or PCIe/104 systems (similar to the IDAN systems from RTD). This standard is still widely used and will remain so as it enables the system designer to be able to select from a wide range of interfaces from a large number of manufacturers. The PC/104 standard has grown and developed as new bus interfaces have become available. The standard now covers single and multiple channel PCIe interfaces to provide for fast data transfers from peripherals. With computing power and speed comes IDAN Conductively Cooled Computers heat, and heat is readily resolved using designs similar Used in extreme environments, high vibration to the RTD IDAN Systems. In this form factor, the heat is and shock or where reliability is paramount able to be transferred to the case using heat pipes allowing operation up to 85 ºC for even Intel Core 2 Duo CPU's. The heat pipe and good heat sink design of the IDAN systems also inherently provide very high vibration and shock tolerance. These systems are not low cost by commercial standards. However cost is a relative parameter. Consider a system that is some kilometres down a bore hole where the temperature is at 70 ºC, or located in a remote location in northern Canada where it experiences -40 ºC. Alternatively when used for coal loading, a process where down time costs many thousands of dollars per hour, the last thing that is needed is for the computer to fail and have to be removed. In these scenarios the cost of the computer is largely irrelevant.

4 Page 4 Cost Vs Performance There are applications where the cost is not the primary consideration and where the processing power is more important. If in this case a desktop computer is either not reliable enough or physically too large, there now exists an intermediate step that provides a wide operating temperature, a good level of ruggedness but is still in the price range of high end commercial computers. Often the interface requirements are standard computer interfaces such as USB and Ethernet. In these cases the small form factor PC's such as the fit-pc2, fit-pc3 and the Intense PC from Compulab have started to be used as they are able to satisfactorily perform well in diverse and extreme applications. These PC's are able to operate in standalone modes where their standard USB, serial and Ethernet interfaces provide the primary sensor interfaces. The new small form factors provide very low operating power (from 5 Watts for the fit-pc2 through to less than 25Watts for the Intense PC at full speed) with operating temperatures as high as 75 ºC. The Intense PC uses the Intel i7 mobile CPU, so it is a modern and very powerful dual core CPU. These small form factor PC's are passively cooled and are very suitable for high shock and vibration environments, yet the cost about the same or a little more than an equivalent desktop or notebook PC. They feature high graphics capability for applications that require high definition visual output. Due to their physical size they are able to fit into very small spaces. fit-pc2i Rugged small form factor Very small at just 10cm x 11.5cm x 2.7cm, The fit PC range from Compulab includes the fit-pc2 consumes less than 8 watts fanless and operates which uses an Intel Atom CPU, the fit-pc3 that uses the up to 70 Deg C using solid state disks. latest AMD low power embedded G-Series APU and features 64 bit x86 power with dual head graphics processing for high performance displays. The fit-pc3 is still miserly in its power consumption at just 24 watts under full power. Again this unit will operate up to 70 Deg C. The top of the range Intense PC PRO provides the latest in desktop performance with expansion using mini PCIe and yet still maintains the level of ruggedisation and performance we have come to expect from Compulab s embedded computing products. Custom Solutions Compulab s Intense PC Dual Core i7 Performance, operation to 70 ºC and at just 26W it is a surprisingly small package just 19cm x 16cm x 4 cm. Mining operations are by their very nature a risky business. Not only are there the financial and technical risks involved in digging material out of the ground but in order to ensure safety on-site for the miners, remote monitoring and alarm systems are required to detect when things might not be going as planned. Embedded computers play an essential role in integrating devices into a real-time monitoring and alarm systems. They also provide the basis for the collection and manipulation of data to control the processes involved. These processes could be as simple as monitoring and controlling heat or conductivity; however they could equally be processor intensive applications that provide the automatic control of a mining vehicle as it is driven out of a mine using radar and lasers to keep the machine from hitting the walls of the mine. In areas such as underground coal mining, low power requirements for explosion proof or intrinsically safe computing has been one of the significant limiting factors in the take up of high powered computing in the environment. Space is at a premium as is the available power in these underground vehicles. The recent introduction of LED lighting to replace quartz halogen headlights has resulted in a number of significant improvements.

5 Embedded Computing in Mining real applications Page 5 The introduction of LED Lighting in place of quartz halogen headlights has resulted in a reduction in the temperature of the lights, and importantly the lowering from 55Watts per light to just 5 watts per light to produce the necessary light output, saving around 150 watts per machine. The flameproof LED lights such as those supplied by Setco Pty Ltd also operate from a much wider operating voltage range 9-30V while maintaining a constant light output and are "intelligently controlled". The lights can be daisy chained using two wires to control a string of lights, thus making for much simpler wiring. Using MODBUS communications, each LED light can be controlled independently and each machine can be provided with new features including hazard lights and emergency sequences. The light sequencing can be programmed instead of having to be re-wire if a machine is moved to a new mine where the operating protocol is different. Each light has an embedded microprocessor that manages the operation and control of the light. Apart from the power saving features, the lowering of the temperature to just a few ºC above ambient is a major feature of these lights. The recent advances in projected capacitance has resulted in the development of the explosion proof touch screen computer that Explosion Touch Screen Computer The projected capacitance touch screen uses specially designed hardware to provide the works through the very thick front window power control and touch screen with a commercially available, but very rugged single board computer. Due to the extreme environment these computers are built very tough and rugged and able to handle extreme shock and vibration. They also use less than 20 watts of power. The operating system is currently Linux or Windows CE embedded with development underway to increase the power of the CPU that will allow standard desktop operating systems in the future. Author Explosion Proof LED Headlights LED Headlights have lowered the power requirements to just 5 watts per light. Andrew MacLaurin is managing director of Allied Data Systems and has been involved in the development, manufacturing and test of rugged computing solutions for military, mining and industrial systems for more than 30 years. Telephone: Facsimile : sales@allieddata.com.au Web: Embedded Computers for Industrial, Mining and Military systems