ControlTalk NOW Week Ending August 30, 2015

ControlTalk NOW for the week ending August 30, 2015 features guest interviews with Neptronic’s Luis Melgares and SI Consultants’ Vinayak Sane; new products from Thermokon and Functional Devices; Tridium N4 Crossover Training Video; Fred Gordy’s continued focus on Cyber Security; Sierra Monitor Corporation’s Varun Nagaraj’s Part 1 series on IIoT; and an updated ControlTrends Events Calendar.

Thermokon’s Newest Products — Released in 902MHz EnOcean’s Frequency for North America. Thermokon is pleased to announce several game-changing 902 MHz EnOcean products recently added to their extensive EasySens product platform, which include these application advantages: Cost savings due to Energy Harvesting: producing energy from the sensor environment; Flexibility with sensor location – quick and easy mounting and commissioning; Reduction of fire load – no need for wires.

ControlTrends Event Information Calendar Update. Global EasyIO Partner Event 2015: Paris, September 20-22! EasyIO is changing the way Building Automation is deployed, while significantly reducing installation costs. EasyIO’s global partner event will unveil awesome new products and features that will further enhance building management and energy solutions — for all building types. EasyIO has already a reputation to hold up for their amazing event programming.

Product Update: The New Functional Devices EnOcean Relay. Wireless is all the rage in todays building automation and smart buildings control systems. But to get the most out of your wireless system you need reliable wireless components like the EN3 EnOcean relay from Functional Devices. The EnOcean technology is an energy harvesting wireless technology used primarily in building automation systems; but is also applied to other applications in industry, transportation, logistics and smart homes.

Luis Melgares, Neptronic’s Vice-President, Sales and Marketing ControlTalk NOW’s first guest interview. ControlTrends caught up with Luis while he was on the road in Western PA and WV, technical support to system integrator and developing new business. Luis gives ControlTrends the latest scoop on Neptronic’s newest hardware and software, and previews Neptronic’s next generation TUC thermostat/room controller expected to be released fourth quarter 2015 — that will definitely be on display at the 2016 AHR EXPO in Orlando.

Tridium Niagara 4 Crossover Training Promo Video — World Class Technical Training for the Niagara Community. Tridium Niagara 4 Crossover Training Promo Video featuring World Class Technical Training for the Niagara Community. At Tridium, our training goals are simple; help our customers to be effective using the Niagara Framework. We do that by offering a variety of training classes covering the broad spectrum of Niagara-based solutions.

Vinayak Sane, with SI Consulting, based in Mumbai, India is ControlTalk NOW’s second guest interview. In this introductory video, we meet Vinayak and hear how he got started in the BMS/HVAC markets. Vinayak will be providing ControlTrends with progress updates on India’s immense efforts to bring 100 Smart Cities on-line, while proving insights on the some of the primary challenges facing India’s Smart Cities Mission, Building a Smart India, from an engineer’s perspective.

Practical Application for Using Shodan. Finding Devices, Protocols, Vendors, etc. Shodan’s search engine is fairly flexible and easy to use. The various lists below are what I found using a URL search like the two shown here (you must be logged in for the URL search to work). https://www.shodan.io/search?query=PDU+country%3A”US“ Notice the two bold sections of the URL string. The first is what you are looking for and the second is the country. The URL Encoded Characters for a colon are %3A.

If You’re Breached, You May Be Facing Two Battles. According to an arstechnica article Monday, August 24, a federal appeals court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can now sue a company that employs poor IT security practices. This resulted from a lawsuit that the FTC filed against the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation who suffered three breaches from 2008 to 2009. (click here to see FTC vs Wyndham) FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramierz wrote in a statement to Ars, “Today’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision reaffirms the FTC’s authority to hold companies accountable for failing to safeguard consumer data.

Sierra Monitor’s Varun Nagaraj: A Model to Categorize IIoT Use Cases – Part 1. There is no shortage of stories and case studies about the IIoT. In aggregate, they support the assertion that the classic Buffalo Springfield song makes: “There’s something’s happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear”. Unfortunately, the many IIoT case studies being written up throw the phrase “cloud” around like there is no tomorrow, and all the stories begin to blur together! Personally, I find it useful to have a model that helps me categorize IIoT use cases.