In my blog entry on June 27th, I talked about HART and the Wireless Working Group, and issued a challenge whose single, lonely acceptor has been Steve Sonnenberg of Rosemount. That being as it may, there was a lot more going on than merely wireless.
More than 40 participants representing HCF Member companies were present to work on different facets of the technology including HART Diagnostics, EDDL Technology, Device Families, Block Transfer, Marketing and Wireless HART.
Yes, the big topic at this meeting was Wireless HART. Is it real? Can it get done in my lifetime? That's the purpose of my challenge - have a published spec for review by the end of the year...
Hopefully the Management of the HCF Member companies will provide these contributors the resources to get this spec done so that we can all benefit from their work.
I also sat in on the Marketing team discussion and learned that there is a plan afoot to have an educational presentation on Wireless HART at the ISA EXPO 2006 in Houston, TX later this year, as well as a great HART supplement in the September issue of Control, and some other magazine in Europe. The HART Plant of the Year, which they've unhelpfully given to another magazine too, has some terrific candidates as well. Look for some really interesting stories appearing in Control and the other magazines too.