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Month: October 2018

Controlling Your Pool Through Circuit Boards

There was a time when coming home from work or something else after a long day meant considerable time and effort before you could spend time in your pool or spa.  After all, who wants to spend a difficult day at work only to come home to a dirty, cold pool before they can enjoy it? The good news is that with today’s technology, including printed circuit boards, practically any pool owner doesn’t need to wait before he or she is enjoying their pool or spa almost as soon as they are ready, regardless of the time of day or night.

If you have owned a pool or spa for any length of time, you probably remember when getting into the relaxing waters was preceded by time and effort in cleaning and heating the water for your use.  And what about all that time, effort, and money that was expended on energy spent during the time your pool wasn’t being used? Now, you can save time and money, not to mention increasing your enjoyment of your pool or spa, thanks to the technology of circuit boards and the connectivity of the Internet.

All of this was then, but now you can come home to a pool or spa that is not only warm and clean, but relaxing jets running and lights are on, ready for you to enjoy.  All of this is due to the control you have due to circuit boards that give you prerogatives never before possible to pool owners. Not only that, but pumps and filtration systems can operate at the touch of your command, saving you the hassle and a bundle on your energy bills.  

And who needs to wait until they are at home to give your pool its instructions?  Not you. Wherever you happen to be, whatever the time of the day or night, you can give the command to your pool via your smartphone or other control devices to have your pool in the optimal condition for you to enjoy it.  Literally, at the touch of a button, your pool can be hot or cold, with massage jets operating or off, and just as clean as you can imagine it, with no more effort than your desire.

We have to admit that if more members of your family than you have these controls on their smartphones, we are not responsible for family conflicts, but no one would disagree that it’s nice to have these options.  And it’s easy to have this kind of control too. All it takes is an app and an appropriately synced circuit board on your pool’s controls. Whatever the control is that you want, whether it be simple or highly complex, you can have it.  All it takes is a pushed button.

Just as easy is to include more controls over any other functions that you may choose to include as you add them to your pool or spa.  Just as easily as you can lock or unlock your home, you can have the perfect balance of temperature, lighting, massage functions, and even the cleaning complete when you are ready to enjoy your pool or spa.  Why have your pool or spa in less than your desired condition for your use when all you need is to use circuit technology to make your pool perfect for your use?

All it takes to get started is a short talk with your pool or spa services provider since in most cases all you need to do is coordinate the app from the maker with your Smartphone.  Even most of these are easily downloadable on the website of your pool equipment maker’s website. Just as is the case with other makers, you can push a button and the Internet does the rest of the work for, even though it’s really the miracle of circuit boards that is doing the work.

What You Should Know About ANSI Standards

The American National Standards Institute (aka ANSI) is a non-profit, private group that monitors the development of voluntary standards for a variety of things, such as personnel, products, processes, systems, and services in the United States. These are consensus standards developed by the member businesses and groups of ANSI. ANSI also helps to align United States standards with international ones to enable American goods and services to be used in other countries.

When it comes to product safety standards, ANSI is the most familiar name for most businesses. However, its familiarity typically just applies to its name. Its actual function is commonly misunderstood. ANSI is a federation made up of groups, businesses, and individuals who manage the system of voluntary standards in the United States. It is not affiliated with any government agency, though it does work closely with government agencies. It also serves as the official voice of the United States in international groups that develop and monitor standards. ANSI brings in the revenue it uses to operate from the dues paid by its members, and from the sales of its publications on standards.

Companies and other organizations can receive ANSI accreditation when they develop their own standards if these standards are up to ANSI’s mission statement values. To receive ANSI accreditation for their own standards, a company, organization, or group must make sure the quality and performance of their products and services are consistent, that everyone in the company uses the same definition for certain terms regarding safety and standards, and that their products are all tested in the same way.

ANSI also provides accreditation to groups that perform product and personnel certification if those certifications are done according to the requirements identified in international standards.

While ANSI does not develop standards, it does oversee the development of standards, and the use of such standards, by providing accreditation for the procedures of the development of standards by other groups and companies. When ANSI provides accreditation, it means that the procedures an entity used in developing standards of its own meet ANSI’s requirements. These requirements include consensus, due process, balance, and openness.

  • Accreditation of an entity’s standards by ANSI involves the following:
  • Development of standards by a group that includes representatives from all interested parties
  • A period available for public review and comment on the draft of the standards
  • A period for consideration of and response to public comments
  • An incorporation of changes that were submitted, as long as those changes meet the same consensus requirements of the original draft
  • The availability of an appeals process for anyone participating in developing the standards who believes the principles of ANSI were not used or respected during the development of the standards

ANSI is the official representative of the United States to the International Organization for Standardization (and is a founding member of that group), and the International Electrotechnical Commission through the United States National Committee. ANSI is involved in almost all of the technical programs for these organizations and is the leader of many of the most important committees and subgroups of these entities.

The fact that ANSI does not develop standards on its own per se comes as a surprise to many people who have heard the ANSI name and know what it stands for. However, the real role of ANSI is to oversee the activities of the entities in the United States that do develop standards. ANSI is involved in every point of the development of standards by other groups and entities, and it sets rules for the development of standards that will be worthy of ANSI accreditation. It also approves the final draft or version of products as American National Standards.

The main thing ANSI is concerned with when giving accreditation is how a standard was drafted, and whether it was open for public review and comment. Any comments a standard-making entity receives must be resolved before ANSI will grand approval and accreditation to the standards. When ANSI accreditation is given, it is good for five years. At that point, the standard-making entity must re-apply for new accreditation. If the entity does not re-apply, ANSI accreditation will be withdrawn.

Hallmark Nameplate meets ANSI standards for accreditation and is proud to keep up its accreditation.

 

Circuit Boards: They’re Everywhere

Do you ever stop to think about all the things you can do today thanks to modern electronics?  The truth is that when you stop to think about all the different things you can do today that you couldn’t accomplish only a few years ago, it’s astonishing.  Take, for example, the Internet. To most people, doing some research on the Internet involves only making only a few keystrokes on a computer, and whala! Information at your fingertips.  And that’s only the beginning. It doesn’t matter whether you want to talk about using the Internet or turning on your television, it’s all too easy.

The truth is that no matter how easy it may seem to call up information on your computer, flip channels on your television, or accomplish any number of other tasks, it’s anything but easy.  Regardless of the level of your actions, behind all of that seemed wizardry is electronics, and if it involves electronics, chances are very good that it involves circuit boards of some type.  You might not see them, but they are there.

Circuit boards are everywhere.  And before you say, “Surely, they’re not everywhere,” they are.  In fact, it doesn’t take much looking before you will find a circuit board in literally everything you might call electronic.  In fact, in many cases, you will find several circuit board in many of the things you own. Take, for example, the computer you might be reading this on.  That computer probably has a circuit board not only in the body of the computer itself, but inside the keyboard as well. They might not be very big, and could be hard to find.  They could be simple or highly complex, but they are there, each performing their functions to bring to you all the marvels you need at the command you issue.

Intrusive, you might think, well, yes and no.  The truth is that circuit boards are not only everywhere, but they are also essential to many of the tasks that we call on them to do every day, Without circuit boards, we simply could not accomplish everything–or even nearly anything–we do every day.  Not only to circuit boards make accomplishing these things possible, but they do so in an incredibly small space, especially when you consider the size of other circuits. And if you happen to need to make them smaller, you can do so at the touch of a camera.  And if you happen to want to make a product more visually appealing, you can do with a circuit board what you used to need lots of wires to do, only without the wires.

And did you ever decide that you wanted to make a product more cost-effective and at a lower price?  Undoubtedly, most product makers wouldn’t turn a blind eye to that, so they use circuit boards to their advantage to make their products smaller, more convenient and easy to use.  This is true, even if you might not be aware of it, since most products that might not even need circuitry do employ the use of electronic equipment to manufacture those products.

And if you have ever needed to install a circuit board in a product, you undoubtedly know that using a circuit board is much easier to install than literally any other method.  

Taken as a whole, whether you know that a product has a circuit board as part of its makeup or not, chances are good that your life is being made easier by the use of this technology.  In fact, it’s probably a safe bet that whether you know it or not, chances are good that many things in your home or office employ circuit boards. And if they don’t chances are very good that they will in the near future.  Whoever might not be using the technology now will be driven to do so in the future to keep up with their competition.