Shadowing Practice: BAS Bootcamp: Day 6 Setting up IO Internally - Learn English Speaking with Video

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All righty folks, Phil Zito here and welcome to day six of the BAS Bootcamp.
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So what we're going to be looking at in today's video
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is we're going to talk about the internal setup of inputs and outputs.
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And then in tomorrow's video, we're going to start to look at the external setup of inputs and outputs.
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So I mentioned in earlier videos of this BAS Bootcamp series
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that you will often go and have these things called universal inputs.
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And these universal inputs will allow you to go about setting your inputs
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and outputs to do whatever they are capable of processing.
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So let's take a look at what that might look like.
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So I'm going to add a hardware input and I'm going to add a hardware output.
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So right now I'm using DysTech GFX software, and we're going to take a look at setting up one of their inputs.
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So we would go to the input, and we would see that right here, and this is how they set it up, and different software is going to look a little different.
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But how they set it up is you'll have the name of the hardware input, and then it'll show signal disconnected disconnected.
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Now this is a universal input so it's going to give me multiple different types of inputs I can process.
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When we're looking at inputs we're really focused on those four input types that I talked about right?
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The digital input also known as dry contact, the resistive input these are typically used for temperature,
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or the linear input which is what we're typically going to use
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if we're doing some form of voltage either volts DC or milliamps of current.
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Let's take a look first at digital input because it's definitely the easiest.
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So oftentimes when you're setting up a digital input the things you need to know are just just a handful of things.
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First off you typically will have some form of action or polarity it'll be called something to to that effect.
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And you need to pick, basically what you're saying is, is when this input is electrically, I was gonna say electronically,
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but when it's electrically true, meaning it is actually true,
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it's actually got the contacts are closed or it's energized, whatever is causing this digital input to be true,
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when that's true in the program, it's going to represent a true or a one or some sort of true Boolean value.
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If you don't want that to be the case, which is in some cases like when you're doing safeties
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and you've got them wired to a specific output or a specific contact type.
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Maybe you're using normally closed contacts, and you want those contacts to break to indicate failure.
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Then you would actually click this reverse action and or the polarity button,
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whatever your software has, and that would go and cause it to turn true when the input was actually false.
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Also, on some controllers, you can go and set up their enumeration sets basically it's their data typesets.
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All right, so let's then look at a different type of signal.
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Let's look at RTDs.
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Now, when it comes to RTDs and thermistors, you actually have these things called resistance tables.
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So let me see if I can pull up one while I'm talking.
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10k type 2 table.
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okay and what this will look like i don't know how well this is gonna show up
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but uh we'll see so basically what we can see right here is
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that for certain degrees fahrenheit there are certain ohm resistance
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because remember resistance is measured in ohms we learned
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that in yesterday's video or last week's video rather day five
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so we see that there's this chart and what happens inside the controller
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when you pick the thermistor type like platinum 1000 ohm nickel 1000 ohm 10k type 2
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what happens is there's actually a chart that this controller knows
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and based on the resistance
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that is sensed it is going to calculate temperature now what
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you can do is a couple different things Not every controls line has this,
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but typically they will have an offset for temperature.
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You see this is delta degrees Fahrenheit because we're in degrees Fahrenheit.
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So what would happen is as the test and balance went through
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and they tested the sensors and they gave you the sensed value versus what you're seeing, you would actually put in a correction factor.
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Sometimes you can also put in ohm correction factors.
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I do not recommend doing this because that totally screws up your table.
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I typically recommend just putting in an output offset.
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So setting the actual offset right here for the actual sensed value.
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All right.
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So that's RTDs and thermistors.
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Pretty straightforward also.
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So, so far we've covered digital and we've covered RTD and thermistor.
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Now, linear is something I see a lot of folks get really tripped up on.
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They do have a resistance because sometimes you will be using a potentiometer to go and calculate a specific output,
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but we're not going to go through that because that's less common.
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What we're going to talk about really is 0 to 10 volts and 0 to 20 milliamps.
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So 0 to 10 volts right here is we've got 0 to 10, and then our output is 0 to 100.
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Now, this could be for a humidity sensor, in which case it would be 0 to 100.
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This could be for a pressure sensor in
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which it may be like 0 to 5 or 0 to 20 pounds per square.
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It could be a variety of things that you're sensing.
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And the important thing here to know when you're dealing with linear is what are my min and max signals?
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So 0 to 10 or maybe it's 2 to 10, whatever it is.
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and then what does that correspond to from an output perspective?
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And it'll do all the calculations itself.
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The same for the actual 4 to 20 milliamps, or 0 to 20 milliamps.
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So if we wanted to do 4 to 20 milliamps, we'd do like this, right?
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4 is 0, so that would actually give us a negative value at 0.
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So here we go, and this is how we get this all set up.
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Pretty straightforward to set this up.
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I do mention though that with some controls, they give you the ability to set COV.
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And you see the COV increment is set to 1 here, which is fine here.
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But if we went to 0 to 5 volts and we were doing 0 to 5 inches for our actual pressure sensing,
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maybe this was building static pressure, and we had 1 as our COV increment, that would not be good.
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because change by one in pressure is significant.
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So if this may be called COV increment, this may be called refresh rate, this may be called change rate, whatever.
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Figure that out.
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You want to do anywhere from like one to 5% of the actual throttle range or sensor span.
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Sorry, not throttle range.
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I started to get into, I've been thinking about PID loops lately.
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So sensor span, your sensor span is the effective span of the sensor that is controlled.
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So your sensor may actually have a broader range.
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It may go to a negative value.
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But your controlled range is just this 0 to 5.
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Actually, I would argue it's like half to 2.5 is your controlled range.
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But, you know, that's just semantics.
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So you pick your controlled range.
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In our case, we have 5, right?
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So we would say, what is 1% of 5?
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And it'd be 0, 5.
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And so that's what we would refresh.
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That would be our refresh rate.
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These are all kind of really important things to know, and they're what trip up a lot of newer techs.
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It's not terribly difficult.
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On the output side, pretty much the same thing, right?
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We have digital outputs, can configure those, can pick our data types.
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we have our 0 to 10 volt outputs we can pick
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that and it has a reverse action that's basically just like polarity
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and then you know we can have 4 to 20 milliamp I didn't talk really about pulse
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because I mean outside of monitoring metering and things like
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that it's not something we use a whole bunch
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so I hope this was helpful to you and I hope
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that this really helped you start to figure out how to do inputs
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and outputs and if you have any questions do Do not hesitate to go below the video and ask those.
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Tomorrow we will start to look at how do you wire these things up.
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Thanks a ton.
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Take care.

What You'll Learn

This video helps you build two key speaking skills: explaining technical processes clearly and using precise vocabulary in context. You’ll practice describing step-by-step setups (like configuring inputs) and using terms like "universal input," "resistive input," and "polarity" naturally. It’s also great for IELTS speaking practice, as it trains you to discuss complex topics with clarity—critical for part 2 and 3 of the exam.

Listen For These Sounds

The speaker uses casual linking and reductions that are common in real-world English. Notice how "All righty folks" flows into "All righty folks" (no hard stop between words). He also shortens "I was gonna say" to "I was gonna say" (reducing "going to" to "gonna"). Listen for phrases like "let's take a look at"—the "at" is often soft, almost blending into the next word. These connected speech patterns will help you sound more natural when shadow speaking.

Say It Like a Native

To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, focus on stressing key technical terms: "UNIversal INputs," "DIGital INput," "REsistance TAbles." He pauses slightly before explaining new concepts (e.g., "So what we're going to be looking at in today's video is..."), which gives listeners time to process. Practice shadowing his pace—not too fast, but conversational. Use this video as a shadowing site to repeat phrases like "when that's true in the program, it's going to represent a true or a one" to master the natural rise and fall of his tone. This will make your English sound more confident and native-like, whether you’re learning with videos or preparing for exams.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.