Home Automation - Portable Generator ATS

During power breakdown we need a backup power source to use home appliances. Normally, people prefer generator due to its effectiveness and being the best power backup to keep your home appliances ON during power breakdown.
Power break downs can occur any time, and to start generator and cutoff the utility line requires time and effort. To start a portable generator might be hard for house wives and people not having sound technical knowledge.
Therefore, I overcome this issue by managing a small system with help of professional electrician. This system enables every one at home to start the generator by just pushing a door bell button and the generator will get start and power backup will be ready. The changeover process will be handled by the 'Contractor'.

Pre-requisite:

Make sure that your generator should be working perfectly on any of the fuel available in your area. Natural Gas, Petrol and Diesel etc. It should be a self starter generator.


Following are the required items for ATS::

 - Contractor (3 phase OR 2 phase is upto consumer choice )
 - Door Bell switch
 - Wire (required for wiring, so you should know the actual length from generator to your main electrical distribution box)
 - 2 panel lights (Red, Green)
 - Wooden box (to enclose the Contractor)

Below is the image of a contractor:

 Construction:

Make sure that you should take services from a professional electrician and a generator technician.
Generator technician will provide you four wires from generator 'Self', two wires will be for starting and two wires will be for 'Switching Off'. Once he connected the wires, you must check them by combining both for few seconds (this should not take too much time). Once generator is started quickly separate wires from each other. Now hold the second pair of wires (used for shutting down) and combine them in the same way you did in previous step. Generator should shutdown within 3 sec, when its done separate the wires. Now your generator is ready to work with contractor.

With the help of professional electrician you have to make sure that your main electric distribution box has separate breakers across the house and load is evenly distributed. If its not then ask the electrician to do so and you have to make sure that every thing is evenly distributed. This will help you to keep the heavy appliances(like, Refrigerator, Water pump, Air Conditioner etc) separate.
Once this is done now you need to fix the contractor in the wooden box and make sure that it should have space all around for the wires. Normally we put load on generator according to its output capacity.
Contractor has two inputs and one output. Now, you will use one input for utility supply (the power provided by you local company). Second input will be used for the generator output power. The wire which we used for shutting down the generator will also be connected to contractor. This all will be done by professional electrician. Don't work on this project if you are not professional electrician. It can dangerous and can led to a fire or short circuit.
Once all wires are connected to contractor, install the two lights on the board which will be used one for utility power and second for generator power. So that user may know that which power is available. Install the bell button on the two wires we used for starting generator. After you get go-ahead from electrician. Check all the wiring and connections. Ask him to cross check one more time to avoid any mishap.

To check your ATS switch off your main switch installed on utility power, now use bell switch to start the generator by pushing and holding it until it get start (it should not take more than 3 to 4 sec). Once generator is started check the power sources you connected with generator line.
 
This system will NOT start your generator but will transfer from utility power to generator power and when utility power resume it will shutdown the generator.

Please make sure to take services from a professional electrician.

 

Sikuli - Test Automation

Sikuli is a tool best can be for automating desktop application testing. It's an amazing tool which can recognize the images and identify any area on desktop easily. I will try to post more details but currently following are some helpful links:


Sikuli Home/Official site

http://sikuli.org/
http://www.8bitavenue.com/2012/03/gui-testing-using-sikuli-and-java/


How to integrate with Selenium:

http://selesik.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-integrate-sikuli-in-selenium.html


Sikuli and Java:

http://www.paulfrymire.com/2011/08/30/sikuli-script-in-java-part-1-configuration-and-hello-world/

Business Analyst - Credibility

Business Analyst: Build your Credibility

A Business Analyst acts as a face of Customer to the Development team, most of the time. A Business Analyst should be credible enough and the team should have absolute faith in him. Development team should be able to ask any question regarding the system and they should believe in the answers that BAs provide. If they start having doubts on the answers BAs provide they may get tempted to develop something that is not needed by the business or spend extra time in clarifying the doubt from various sources.

The development team should trust a BA; this was the first lesson that I got from a senior BA. When I asked him how to do it, he told me that you have to figure that out for yourself there is no proven formula. Some of the things that I tried and how they helped me in building a good rapport with the development team.

• Interact with the developers regularly and keep asking them if they have any doubts. The idea is not to overdo it as they may get a feeling that you are trying to judge their work. Keep it simple and just make sure that they know you are there if they need any clarifications in the requirements.
• Make sure you run the development team through the requirements before they start with the implementation. Do it on module-to-module basis, plan with the Project Managers and Team Leads. Make sure you keep these sessions as informal as possible and try to make them understand the business pain points rather than teaching them (as they may switch off).
• Encourage the team to approach you for any clarification in the requirements. When they approach you make sure you clarify their issues or get the issues raised to correct person, if you are not the right one.
• It is a good idea to explain the business side to the developers and also let them know about the domain, as you have that knowledge. Have these talks at non-work timings like lunch, coffee or while traveling. Make sure you don’t come out as a person who is bragging about his knowledge but as a person who is genuinely helping. Keep it honest; if you are not comfortable don’t try it.

I tried these things and they helped me immensely in building a good relation with the development team. Do let me know what works with you and how you achieved it?

Business Documentation - Part II

Implementation (transition) requirements

are capabilities or behaviors required only to enable transition from the current state of the enterprise to the desired future state, but that will thereafter no longer be required.

Report specifications

define the purpose of a report, its justification, attributes and columns, owners and runtime parameters.

The Traceability Matrix

Is a cross matrix for recording the requirements through each stage of the requirements gathering process. High level concepts will be matched to scope items which will map to individual requirements which will map to corresponding functions. This matrix should also take into account any changes in scope during the life of the project. At the end of a project, this matrix should show each function built into a system, its source and the reason that any stated requirements may not have been delivered

Business Documentation - Part I

What is Business Analyst ?

An internal consultancy role that has responsibility for investigating business systems, identifying options for improving business systems and bridging the needs of the business with the use of IT

Business requirements (project initiation document):

What the needed achievements will be, and the quality measures. They are usually expressed in terms of broad outcomes the business requires, rather than specific functions the system may perform. Specific design elements are usually outside the scope of this document, although design standards may be referenced.

Functional Requirements:

Describe what the system, process, or product/service must do in order to fulfill the business requirements. Note that the business requirements often can be broken up into sub-business requirements and many functional requirements. These are often referred to as System Requirements although some functionality could be manual and not system based, e.g., create notes or work instructions.

User (stake holder) Requirements:

are a very important part of the deliverables, the needs of the stakeholders must be correctly interpreted. This deliverable can also reflect how the product will be designed and developed, and define how test cases must be formulated. However, stakeholders may not always be users of a system.

Quality of Service (non-functional) Requirements:

are requirements that do not perform a specific function for the business requirement but are needed to support the functionality. For example: performance, scalability, quality of service (QoS), security and usability. These are often included within the System Requirements, where applicable.

Team

A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximise his/her strengths and minimise his/her weaknesses. Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond their limitations

My observation in our culture is much different, what we practically observe is not that what is written in books.
Team culture basically enables a group to work simultaneously for a common goal, If a member has any weakness that team has that ability to help him to overcome those weaknesses and carry on the work in same manner. That team formation should have all those ingredients required. While forming a team things should be kept in mind that there should be at least one person with plenty of experience, he/she should know the basics of team formation and how to mentor them.

When team is formed always try to keep the bonding between members, this is prime responsibility of the Lead. But this knowledge should be transferred to other member in timely manner. A good team has the power of transferring knowledge between members without highlighting, if we put a weak member in the team he/she can be automatically groomed in a manner that significant improvement can be observed with in less amount of time.

My Portable Generator Canopy

This summer I bought 2.5 KW portable generator for my home I realized that it's not suitable to put it in garage or in open area near by kitchen. Therefore I decided to design a canopy for my portable generator so that it's noise can be decreased and it can be kept easily and safely at single place.

First I allocate an area at 2nd floor of my house. That place was already covered by three sides and I just need to cover front side. Another important thing is the cooling system or air ventilation for my portable generator because it's air cooled generator.

Changeover Installation

When we have two utility meter installed and we want to balance our utility bill by changing the load on Semi-Monthly basis.

This is only beneficial when you have two utility meters installed.
Stuff you need :

1. 4 Pole - 3 way Manual Changeover
2. Wire as per your requirement
3. Electrical Solution Tape
4. Connectors to connect wires to both ends (as per required)

Please see the attached image for your understanding.

When the changeover lever is in up position then meter1 will power your house and When the lever is in middle position the utility power will be totally cutoff and this is beneficial when you have portable generator installed at your house. If the lever is in down position meter2 will power your house.