Hello my name is Martin

Posted by: @instmech

↑

and pleased to able to join the forum.

@instmech, Welcome to the forum! I see by your profile that you were an instrument mechanic in the petrol chemical industrial work field. Well then, It appears we have some what in common then as I was an  instrumentation Technician in the Pulp and paper  industry for 30 years, and before that worked in heavy industrial construction for 15 yrs. I have experience in the petrol chemical (on-shore, and off shore), Power Generation, and oil & Gas Refineries in the USA. 

I started out in the US Navy (1965) in electronic weapons systems (EWS), and ASW ( Anti-Submarine Warfare) Drone Anti-Submarines Helicopter ( D.A.S.H), Went bach to school in 1973 to take advanced Solid state electronics and computer science. Learned most of my programming skills in the paper mill plant I ended up at, learning PLC, DCS, and writting code in Ms VBA for database operations where I was the SME ( Subject Matter Expert) in  Control Valve technology for our mill. I retired in 2014 and am now 77, and doing as you are, keeping the gray matter work'n...hehehe 😆 

Let us know what your interested in, or how we can be of help..I sure with your experience you can also help others if need be.

kind regards,

LouisR

@inst-tech Hi thanks for the welcome to the forum, I started my career as an apprentice instrument maker, manufacturing electrical measuring instruments, chart recorders etc, but unfortunately career development prospects were virtually non existent.

I had a lucky break and managed to get into a company that manufactured mass spectrometers, assembling and installing them on site in the UK and overseas.

Next I was employed by a company that manufactured the lead additive for petrol as an instrument artificer, here I received training and qualified to work on hazardous area electrical equipment in potentially explosive atmospheres, but the business declined due to the demand for lead free petrol.

Moving on from there to a pharmacutical chemical company as an instrument mechanic that manufactured the active ingredients for heart, cancer and brain drugs, using PLC's and DCS, this too was also hazardous area work, I stopped here until retirement in 2018.

My main interests  are in using Arduino, ESP32 and 8266, I need to get to grips with programming C/C++, python etc, so any help there would be most appreciated.

Unfortunately due to the creeping onset of old age when I learn new stuff I tend to forget some old stuff!! 🤣 🤣  LOL.

Kind Regards 

Martin

@instmech (Martin)..indeed, I know what you mean about "forgetting the old stuff".. That's the reason for keeping our hand in it, so to speak.. I've been learning C++, Java Script, Python, and HTML, for the past couple of years.. getting better at it, but still have a long ways to go..I have the Uno R3 Atmega328P, mega R3 ATmega 2570, Arduino Giga R1 WiFi, ESp8266-NodeMCU-E12, Uno R4 WiFi boards to play with.. The learning curve is steep at first, but with your technical background, I think you'll do fine.. There are many people on this forum you are willing and able to answer your questions and help out.

Regards,

LouisR