I look forward to seeing many of you in San Antonio. For those of you who are attending, don’t forget to stop by the Association’s booth to learn more about our new program for deployers and our marketing campaign, “The Best Service is Self Service.” Please also join us Friday morning for breakfast and the Association’s annual meeting. Prospective members are welcome to attend. There you will learn about the SSKA’s accomplishments over the past year and plans for the coming year.

After attending The Self Service & Kiosk Show in Orlando, I can’t just walk past a kiosk anymore. I look at them. And I look behind them. And I wonder what is used to ensure it’s working when needed.

 

When the ATM didn’t work at my bank after a thunderstorm, I wondered: what had they done to ensure customers could use the ATM? It was Sunday and the storm was on Saturday evening. Had it been down that long? 

 

Last weekend, after enjoying a brunch at a local resort, I had to stop at the kiosk in the lobby that was deigned to provide information on local destinations. The screen was black, but did flicker when I touched it or moved the mouse. I wondered what might have caused it to not work or if measures were taken to ensure it would work when someone who really needed it came by.

 

It’s hard to imagine a device any more out on an island than a kiosk. Maximum uptime is critical in order to fulfill its designed purpose of self-service, and yet they are usually unsupervised. 

 

Quality power is the lifeblood of any electronic system and is vital to achieve the desired performance and uptime. Still, power issues remain a mystery in many industries, even – in many cases – with seasoned technical personnel. The impact on microprocessor-based products have come more to the forefront as technology is designed to deliver more functionality at higher speeds.

 

To begin understanding and evaluating power issues, it is important to understand the three basic levels of impact on a system: disruptive, degrading and destructive. It is important to know that these levels can occur on any conductor, whether it’s a power source, network cables or phone line when connected to your system.

 

Disruptive power disturbances cause over 80% of the issues you will encounter, according to numerous power studies. According to Florida Power & Light, over 60% of the various power issues are created inside of a facility from a variety of sources. The sources can include elevators, heating and cooling systems, all the way down to the most fundamental equipment plugged into the internal power grid. Usually disruptive events manifest themselves in unexplained system lockups and result in service calls without the owner finding the cause.

 

Degrading power disturbances contain enough energy to microscopically erode an integrated circuit and its components. One description of degradation is weakening components, much like rust attacks metal. Degradation will lead to premature component failure if not taken seriously. It may be headed off by paying close attention to disruptive events.

 

Destructive power disturbances occur when an electronic device is overwhelmed by a large-amplitude, high-energy power event. Typically, lightning and thunderstorms are the culprits. Additionally, over voltage can occur from storms that cause power line damage and construction accidents. In one case a freight carrier backed into lines attached to a building and the over voltage passed to everything inside.

 

I encourage all companies deploying microprocessor-based products to take the time to understand power issues, recognize symptoms and know what technology will protect and condition. Your uptime may depend on power conditioning, which addresses multiple issues. You may not know which power problem you need to address or when, but using proactive solutions to prevent power problems will make keeping your kiosk on an island less of a frustration and more of a vacation.

 

For more information, including a collection of online articles, e-mail Dana Davis at .

 

 

Dana L. Davis is the National Sales Manager at Smart Power Systems.

One of the hardest things to find in our innovative industry is a good statistic, especially as companies exploit self-service technology to build custom-branded solutions. -- Bryan Harris, Editor, SelfService.org