http://woodtv.com/2015/06/11/1980s-computer-controls-grps-heat-and-ac/

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retired

@AmigaBlitter

Why would it cost between 1.5 and 2 million to replace a thirty year old computer?

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A1000, A500, A600, A1200, CTDV, A2000, A4000 Towered, SAMFLEX 800mhz

@AmigaBlitter

Tell them I'll replace it for $750,000...

SAM440, bit of code rewriting in case of hardware hitting in the original software, transport, on-site work all included

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OS4 Rocks
X1000 beta tester, Sam440 Flex (733)

Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

@JayCee

ONLY AMIGAAAAAAAA MAKES IT POSSIBLE, ONLY AMIGAAAAA. I couldn't help myself :)

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-- --
aka Tony Rocks

30 years, that's something to brag about. Epsilon's Amigaonex broke down after only a few years. It was probably not much used either...

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Using: One Commodore C64 - One Commodore Amiga 500 - One Commodore Amiga 1200 with BVision and Blizzard 68060 with PPC coprocessor running Amiga DOS - One Hellbillylitre Amigatwox86x64x6000x running Windows7

@JayCee

Just as a reminder, when the Video Toaster came out at ~$4000 (USD), other video systems were costing $20k and higher.

I have an Associates in HVAC technology. HVAC computer control systems run in the millions of dollars, not due necessarily to the computers running the system (generic PCs will do), but the upgraded controls and the specialty software suites designed to run HVAC systems on large campuses. It is amazing to me that an old Amiga could have done it all, but it is still an amazing computer. It is a shame that the programmer living in the area was not paid millions of dollars for his work.

Maybe I should break out my old C books and write some HVAC control program to make use of the X1000/3500/5000 Xena chips (the IO of which would be very useful in HVAC controls).

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I sold my SAM460ex lite... waiting for money to buy a Raspberry Pi... or a Classic A1000 with Buffee... or an A1222... and OS4.3 FE update 11

@PhantomInterrogative

I woud like to inform them that they can get a new Amiga for much less!!!


Would be cool!!!!

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retired

@AmigaBlitter

Interesting to read the comments on the website.

Amiga still in the heart of the people.

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retired

@PhantomInterrogative

"Maybe I should break out my old C books and write some HVAC control program to make use of the X1000/3500/5000 Xena chips (the IO of which would be very useful in HVAC controls)."


you really should

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retired

@AmigaBlitter

That's pretty awesome! I love stuff like that. And hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Someone spent a bunch of taxpayer money on incompatible maintenance radios so now they need $1.5-2 million for a new HVAC system. Of course! Government at it's best!

$5000 for new compatible maintenance radios (and fire the guy who didn't get refunds for incompatible radios)
$100 for a good condition used Amiga 2000 for backup
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$5100 vs $1.5-2 million

The schools around here would go for the $1.5-2 million because they can. Just think of all the poor children that would suffer if we didn't spend 5x as much to educate them half as much as kids in other industrialized countries.

Quote:

PhantomInterrogative wrote: Maybe I should break out my old C books and write some HVAC control program to make use of the X1000/3500/5000 Xena chips (the IO of which would be very useful in HVAC controls).

Right. Start with an overpriced, limited production, over powered, high energy use, large motherboard computer. There are some small standard FPGA boards likely with more programmable pins that could emulate an Amiga at several times 68000 performance for a fraction of the cost of your NG hardware (smaller size and less energy use too). Of course most of this kind of stuff is ARM based and even lower power consumption but at least you might be taken seriously and wouldn't get laughed at with the FPGA board Amiga.

@Hillbillylitre

>Epsilon's Amigaonex broke down after only a few years

yeah, only telecom parts should be used for home computers, they last 10x longer.

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- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
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// Thing that I should find more time for: CC64 - 64bit Community Computer?

@matthey

Quote:

matthey wrote: Someone spent a bunch of taxpayer money on incompatible maintenance radios so now they need $1.5-2 million for a new HVAC system. Of course! Government at it's best!

I definitely agree in some respects. It isn't broken, it is controlling the boilers, and meanwhile we have children who need books, equipment, and teachers.

That said, the instant this system shat itself in the middle of Winter and the school had to close, parents would ask who in their right minds kept a 30 year old consumer computer running the heating in the first place.

The reality is, they could have their cake and eat it. Replace the Amiga, fit a brand new system with much lower power consumption, and all for less than a few grand. There's absolutely no reason to spend millions; that's plain ridiculous.
Quote:

matthey wrote: Right. Start with an overpriced, limited production, over powered, high energy use, large motherboard computer. There are some small standard FPGA boards likely with more programmable pins that could emulate an Amiga at several times 68000 performance for a fraction of the cost of your NG hardware (smaller size and less energy use too).

Again, I agree. These days nobody would use a consumer computer to control the heating system. A person starting from scratch in this day and age would use an embedded system. Even an 8-bit PIC microcontroller could take care of this task very easily.

@AmigaBlitter

do this with any other computer!

@tangoone

Well, you could...pretty easy, in fact. Its just cool that they didn't toss it out years ago. And that its an amiga :)

@AmigaBlitter

Wow, that's amazing! For a variety of reasons.

Scott

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AmigaOne uA1-c 512M RAM - Only Amiga Makes It Possible!
Check my blog AmigaOne Computing

@matthey et al.,

In reality for what they want to do, neither an NG Amiga nor a small embedded system would do. In order to run the software for Daiken controls, or even Trane controls, they would need... PCs. The software has not been written for anything else. The software and controls needed to replace that one little A2000 would indeed cost $1.5 to $2 million as has been quoted. I've seen the HVAC controls system in place at Western Kentucky University. Believe me when I say it is very impressive.

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I sold my SAM460ex lite... waiting for money to buy a Raspberry Pi... or a Classic A1000 with Buffee... or an A1222... and OS4.3 FE update 11

The original coder is in the comment section.....



Jeff FatalError • 2 hours ago --- We have actually looked at virtualization and even made one attempt at it. One of the issues is the radio-modems, which the control equipment in the buildings essentially requires to be used. The Amiga had the necessary hardware control to be able to key-on and off the radios that in past attempts could not be duplicated with some of the various PC serial ports I have tried. And it was way more than 100 lines of any scripting language ... but I have heard that 10 lines of Perl can do just about anything. Development took nearly 2 years before we were ready to turn off the mini-computer it replaced. There wasn't exactly a detailed specification to code to.

Plaz

@AmigaBlitter

Great story! The Commodore Amigas really were made to last! Praise is due to the engineers and manufacturing teams involved. Shame the marketing and sales departments didn't follow their amazing example

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John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@PhantomInterrogative

Quote:

PhantomInterrogative wrote: @matthey et al., In reality for what they want to do, neither an NG Amiga nor a small embedded system would do. The software and controls needed to replace that one little A2000 would indeed cost $1.5 to $2 million as has been quoted.

But it seems that all they want to do is switch boilers on and off in accordance with some sensor inputs. That stuff is easy. I understand it might be the industry standard to use some million dollar system, but why?

I haven't seen HVAC control systems, and had never heard of them until this thread. I am sure they must be pretty impressive for $2million. But I still don't understand why it needs to be this way. Heck, an Amiga has been handling it just fine for the last 30 years.