Murton System Technologies has successfully completed over 50 major contracts to manufacture it's Power Reticulation Telemetry System and is busy with yet another contract.

MS Tech technical director Michael Horvitch said the equipment controls the electrification of sections of rail lines and is used for the monitoring, control and collection of billing information for the rail carrier. "This is controlled remotely from a central master station via a remote modem connection," he explained.

The rail operator also uses the equipment for switching off of the power to a section of line to prevent head on collisions between trains when other systems have failed, restoring power to a section of line in the event of a circuit breaker trip, monitoring "vital signs" of a substation, remote shutdown of substations for maintenance and providing the control center with information regarding traffic, power consumption, security and failures of each substation.
 

However, use of the system is not restricted to railway lines. It can be used in many applications including water reticulation and traffic robots.

"The system has isolated 2,5KV digital inputs to monitor the condition of the switchgear and the power on the line. Relays are used as isolated outputs to the switches. Analog inputs are also available for interfacing to devices with 4-20mA outputs with Industrial grade isolation," explained Horvitch.

The power supply has been designed to accept DC input ranging from 18-130V to allow the system to work off either the available 24V or 110V DC supply.

"The MMI (man machine interface) consists of a membrane keypad and a LCD display. This allows for quick and easy setup and configuration on site. It also allows the technician to monitor and control the various peripherals directly without needing assistance from the master station," added Horvitch.

The modem employed was also designed by Murton System Technologies. The heart of the modem is a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) which, through software, can be configured to 'talk' to any protocol the customer may require - including Westinghouse and Selinia. All interfacing between the main control logic is done via 'Rail Cards'. These cards are mounted on a DIN rails and provide additional isolation as well as convenient connection points. They are intended to protect the rest of the system from ESD and surges. Rail cards are easy to replace and can be changed quickly if they are damaged.

The main logic is housed in a standard 19" logic sub-rack. This consists of various plug in cards allowing the customer to configure each system to his exact requirements. It also enables quick and easy replacement of faulty boards in the field so as to minimize downtime.

The entire system is manufactured in South Africa by Murton System Technologies with over 1,000 complete systems having already been installed around the country.