Beginner best practices

[cody]

Hello,
I am an HVAC/R contractor but new to the world of building automation, and recently was introduced to the T3 line and T3000 software. It looks like we can use this in many cases where we currently are putting in a bank of temperature controllers and relays to do logic manually.
I have been messing around with a T3-LB on my desk and have the basics figured out, but I have a few questions regarding best practices maybe someone here could help with. Sorry if they are really basic, I did go through the forums but didn’t really see these things in particular addressed.
1: Is it preferred to have a frontend device hooked up to a T3 controller running the software in most cases, or can it be programmed and just left as a standalone device?
2: If a few devices are networked, for instance a T3 with some Tstat10’s in rooms, do all the programs typically get uploaded to one device?
3: I see slow PWM being discussed in the forums, but is there a way to do fast PWM, to drive an SSR for a shaded pole fan speed control for instance?

[maurice]

@cody

: Is it preferred to have a frontend device hooked up to a T3 controller running the software in most cases, or can it be programmed and just left as a standalone device?

Either way is fine, if there’s a building operator on site then there’ll be a dedicated PC. If theres no operator on site then a laptop connected as required is good enough.

2: If a few devices are networked, for instance a T3 with some Tstat10’s in rooms, do all the programs typically get uploaded to one device?

The program normally runs on the device the IO are connected to. You may have some higher level logic running on a remote controller but the bulk of the logic runs locally.

3: I see slow PWM being discussed in the forums, but is there a way to do fast PWM, to drive an SSR for a shaded pole fan speed control for instance?

The outputs of the T3 devices are mechanical relays, so that is not so practical due to noise and the natural life span of the relay. However you can use an analog output connected to a solid state relay, this could be programmed with a fast PWM with a timebase of say 10 seconds which would give you a PWM of 0-100% in ten steps with 1 second resolution.