s this?

“We had a ProSoft Technology interface card that was sitting in a rack and had never been configured. We had no cables for it, no manuals, and no one really knew what it was for,” says
Watts. “But of course, when I got there, and they told me they needed to get the filter information [from the Quantum PLC] to the SCADA system, I knew that’s what the ProSoft card was for,” he says of the module, provided by ProSoft Technology Inc., based in Bakersfield, Calif.

Watts, who had never used a ProSoft interface card, says he downloaded some manuals, made some cables and tried a variety of things, before he was able to get Scott Lee, a ProSoft Technical Support person, on the phone. Lee provided the needed support in a fashion that draws praise from
Watts. “He was one of the best tech support guys I’ve probably ever talked to in 25 years of doing this type of work,” says
Watts. “He would have stayed on the phone all day with me if I needed him.

Lee recalls the conversation. “You could tell right away that he (
Watts) had his hands full. But he obviously knew how to program and only needed a little nudge in the right direction to get the ProSoft Modbus Interface module up and running,” Lee relates.

Indeed, with Lee’s guidance,
Watts was able to interface the PLCs relatively quickly, while looking like a hero. “The fact that I got the ProSoft card going in about four hours was absolutely amazing to all the guys in the water plant, because none of them had it working,” say Watts. In fact, it was that newfound knowledge that helped earn Watts a return trip to
Iraq earlier this year.

Watts finished up the job at the Nasiriyah plant by mid-December last year, going home to
Texas for the holidays. But in February, he returned to Iraq for work at another FluorAMEC water plant project site near Erbil, in northern
Iraq. That plant has a controls architecture similar to that of the Nasiriyah plant, and workers in
Erbil were also unable to get their ProSoft card working. Watts solved the problem, modifying the
Erbil plant’s filter program and rewriting a configuration file for the ProSoft card. He also modified the
Erbil plant’s SCADA system to accommodate some additional desired features that were not initially specified.
“Of course, while I was there, I spoke with the guys in Nasiriyah and offered them some suggestions” for similar upgrades at that plant, says
Watts. 

The Erbil job required only about a two-week stay in
Iraq. Back in Texas,
Watts says he is in continuing touch with Iraqis at the Nasiriyah plant, which should be online and fully operational by the end of May. And, schedule permitting, Watts says he would be willing to go back for additional project work in
Iraq.

Calculated risk

Does he feel he would be putting his life at risk by spending additional time in the war-torn country? “Oh sure,”
Watts responds. “But I also feel that way when I’m out here driving on Interstate 35. I’m certainly not looking to put myself in harm’s way,” he adds. “But you know, when it’s your time, it’s your time. It’s a calculated risk, I guess.”   

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