Re: 12V DC PLC
I read about a large sailboat that had a Schneider/Telemechanique PLC system controling all of the sail motors and wiches. There were NEMA 4X Estops, manual jog winch controls, etc. I belive it all interfaced back to at least one master panel in the wheelhouse. Also, I think it integrated with the rest of the ships computers, navigation, security, etc. The article was about the whole boat, so they only had a paragraph on the automation.
BTW, we are talking about a 200 foot or more boat. There were at least 2 large diesel generators onboard, maybe they ran the PLC's off of these? Do these large ships run the generators while moving? Maybe a smaller alternator off the main engines?
It seems the companies that build these giant boats pretty much design all of the systems from scratch so they are customized to the boat. Not unlike a typical controls and instrumentation project...maybe some cool oppurtunities out there for control techs that live near a shipyard (Ft. Lauderdale comes to mind)!
