> A Kentwood High School student programmed it when it was installed in the 1980s.
Impressive!
Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
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Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#12JayMiner.beginSpinning();
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#13Geoblocked: Content not visible outside the US :(
How is this still a thing? Absolutely nuts. What happened to the www.
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#14Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#15> Hopkins said the system runs on a radio frequency that sends a signal to school buildings, which reply within a matter of seconds with the status of each building.
I suspect this is what would be difficult to replace. A bespoke wireless sensor monitoring and communications system, integrated into an old heating/cooling system. Modern system just would not integrate into this, without a lot of work. You would have to replace everything, probably including the actual heating/cooling systems themselves.
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#16https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15ni8gu/til_... this is happening more and more that I see something in my reddit RSS feed first, then hours later it pops up on HN Another example from today https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37078047 https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15ncz6j/til_...
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Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#17> A Kentwood High School student programmed it when it was installed in the 1980s. Impressive!
> Whenever the district has a problem with it, they go back to the original programmer who still lives in the area.
It is indeed impressive, but I hope there's a contract for this. Everything else about this story sounds insanely incompetent, so I... I worry.
In principle there's nothing wrong with a Motorola 68K running a system like this, but the rest of this is damned.
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#18https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15ni8gu/til_... this is happening more and more that I see something in my reddit RSS feed first, then hours later it pops up on HN Another example from today https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37078047 https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15ncz6j/til_...
Similarly, I'm excited that I am frequently seeing this kind of article in my Mastodon feed first and then seeing it showing up in HN.
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#19> Hopkins said the system runs on a radio frequency that sends a signal to school buildings, which reply within a matter of seconds with the status of each building. I suspect this is what would be difficult to replace. A bespoke wireless sensor monitoring and communications system, integrated into an old heating/cooling system. Modern system just would not integrate into this, without a lot of work. You would have t…
> You would have to replace everything, probably including the actual heating/cooling systems themselves.
You wouldn’t need to replace the actual boilers/chillers/air handlers/terminal units, just the temperature controls/control wiring/control relays/control computer. There is mechanical equipment out there that is still controlled by pneumatic controls and that equipment can be retrofit to use digital controls.
Replacing the mechanical units may be beneficial, condensing boilers are extremely efficient and so are newer chillers/etc.
Re: Amiga runs Michigan schools' heating and air conditioning systems (2015)
#20You could retrofit a more modern computer in there. Probably even reverse engineer the radio system and replace it.
This would have been done by an enthusiastic high school student with both programming, electronics, maybe some RF knowledge too. Radio amateur? I find these stories kind of sad. Clever system built by someone talented, at a low cost -- replacement with a modern system costed in the millions. Those talented people still exist but they wouldn't get a look in with most RFPs.