This is not your daddy's HART

Went from Park City, UT (did I mention that there's nothing to do in the summer in Park City) to Austin to meet with the HART Communication Foundation. Control is preparing the annual HART supplement for our September edition. Ron Helson, Ed Ladd, Wally Pratt and I went over the actual features of HART 7.1 and its wireless subset, WirelessHART. I was impressed with all the stuff I didn't know about WirelessHART even after participating in ISA100 for the past several years. Part of the reason, I suspect, is that I've been listening to the people who have been presenting at ISA100 meetings about the differences between the proposed ISA100.11a and WirelessHART. Specifically, I have re-examined a slide deck that was presented at the ISA100 meeting in Nice in June. Some of the statements in that slide deck are not only wrong, they are very clearly intentionally misleading. If I were the HART Communications Foundation, I'd be considering very carefully waht my next moves would be. Those statements are intended to contrast WirelessHART poorly with ISA100.11a. The misinformation can only be intentional, because I am aware that both the presenters know better. That's sad. So, what we're going to do with the Control HART Supplement this year is to tell the truth about WirelessHART. Yes, it is an advertiser-supported supplement. Yes, the editorial will focus on what vendors say, rather than what end-users say. But I GUARANTEE THERE WON'T BE ANY MIS-STATEMENTS OF FACT IN IT. Tell, the truth, I am becoming increasingly upset and angry at the group, within ISA100, that continues to spread misinformation, and FUD, about WirelessHART.  The only reason I continue to be a voting member of ISA100 is to try my best to protect the end-users' interests in industrial wireless.