Entries for the 'Denver' Category

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the basic commissioning steps to get a brand-new Allen-Bradley PLC and HMI up and running. All the information covered here is also available in Rockwell’s help documentation, but I tried to distill out the most important bits to get you off the ground as fast as possible. Before we start, you'll need all of the components networked together and powered on. You'll also need a PC with all the relevant Rockwell software installed. Once you...

Continue reading →

Every January, the team in each of our offices gathers to celebrate the accomplishments of the previous year with a holiday party. All year, team members look forward to getting dressed up, reflecting on all their hard work together, and spending time with colleagues they don't always work with. It's one of our favorite DMC traditions! This year was no exception. From the opening of our Seattle office, to announcing our next location in Dallas, and hiring a record number of emplo...

Continue reading →

I was recently on site with a client to commission a Siemens G120 VFD. This particular VFD was being used to drive a blower motor and inflate an airbag. The client required hard-wired manual control of the motor, in addition to controlling it from the main 1500 PLC. Manual mode control would simply turn the motor on and off at a specified setpoint. Before arriving onsite, DMC decided to use control data set 0 for Profinet control, and data set 1 for hard-wired control. This required some pa...

Continue reading →

One of DMC's annual traditions is having an off-site All Day Company Meeting (ADCM) where everyone takes the day off project work to learn, share knowledge, team-build, and spend time together outside of the office. Our ADCMs have taken us everywhere from ice skating in Chicago to roaming historic Boston. These company meetings are a chance for our offices to combine forces as well. This year, Chicago and St. Louis combined for their ADCM as did our offices on the West Coast. Our All Day ...

Continue reading →

What happens when a bunch of people who solve problems, aka puzzles, for a living go to an escape room? For my welcome party, we decided to find out! After pizza and happy hour at the office, the DMC Denver crew walked over to Puzzah! Escape Rooms to put our puzzle solving skills to the test. When we arrived, we split into three groups, and the Puzzah! staff read us the rules of the game: no unplugging wires, breaking down doors, or forcibly removing things from the walls. All the u...

Continue reading →

DMC recently took a break from day-to-day tasks to participate in one of our favorite company traditions, FedEx Day. Routine work on hold, our offices still brimmed with life and projects while everyone worked on whatever they wanted.  FedEx Day is always an opportunity for fun, learning, and collaboration, with only two catches: the project must in some way help to improve the company, and it must be deliverable by the end of the day. This year, our employees took on everything ...

Continue reading →

This March, I took part in a long weekend of snow and smarts with some of DMC’s finest brains. Each DMC office is empowered to plan a yearly fun event and invite everyone in the company. We’ve climbed mountains, floated down rivers, and ran away to Martha’s Vineyard. DMC's Denver office plans an annual ski trip, nicknamed DMSki. DMC helps foot part of the bill and even lets us invite someone who doesn’t work for DMC to come along as a guest! We call these events YO...

Continue reading →

Everyone at DMC gets together in person or via video conference for an all-company meeting every month. We share things we've learned, celebrate our coworker's accomplishments and milestones, and talk about the goals we have for the future of DMC.  A favorite part of the meeting are the premiers of monthly office update videos that each DMC office creates. This fun tradition started in Boston, and now every office takes a turn. Anyone can help and show off their hidden ...

Continue reading →

Don’t worry. When I say Avalanche, I mean the Colorado Avalanche hockey team, not a snow slide. Our hockey team took on the Winnipeg Jets, and the game was spectacular. A group of us attended together using DMC Denver's activity fund, a monthly fund that employees can access to plan fun events to hang out and bond.  After a slow start to the game, Colorado scored two goals in the 2nd period only to have Winnipeg tie up the game in the 3rd period and send the game to overtime. ...

Continue reading →

Each month, DMC has an all-company meeting to bring everyone together in person or via video chat to highlight accomplishments, learn new things, and discuss company goals. We always look forward to the premiers of office update videos that each DMC office creates. This tradition started in Boston but now every office takes a turn. In this monthly update, I sat down with a newer addition to the Denver office, Ross Bunker, to sample different h...

Continue reading →

DMC recently held another one of our favorite company-wide traditions... FedEx Day! On FedEx Day, everyone in the company takes a break from their day-to-day tasks and works on a project that they think will improve DMC. It's a great opportunity to collaborate with people we don't normally work with, develop new skills, and have fun. It's called a FedEx Day because the planned project must be delivered by the end of the day. With five offices and more employees than ever, the...

Continue reading →

Every DMC office is empowered to host a Yearly Office Event annually. We call these partially sponsored gatherings YOEs for short. The crowd is always a mix of DMC employees and their friends, and it's planned near a DMC office location so that we can work from that location while in town. All YOEs are different. Boston heads to the shore, Houston never misses the chance to go to a rodeo, and Denver heads to the ski slopes. The Denver YOE is very popular. DMSki started in 2010, well befor...

Continue reading →

DMC Denver has been enjoying another great ski season. Every year, we find ourselves frequently checking weather forecasts and snow reports to track how much snow our favorite mountains are getting. So during a recent FedEx Day, I decided to automate a system for acquiring and displaying this data on a desktop LCD! On FedEx Day, everyone works on a project that interests them that they think will improve DMC which must absolutely, positively be delivered by the end of the day...

Continue reading →

DMSki, an annual ski trip that DMCers have been making to Colorado since 2011, was Denver’s Yearly Office Event (YOE) again this year. The YOE is an opportunity for DMC employees to meet near one of DMC's five locations for a fun trip planned by employees in that office. What started as an awesome time has grown into an even more awesome time with more and more DMC employees joining each year! If you want to check out the fun we had in years past, you can read about past...

Continue reading →

DMC recently held our 7th FedEx Day across all offices. On FedEx Day, everyone in the company works on a project that interests them and that they think will improve DMC. It’s one of our favorite company traditions! It's called a FedEx Day because part of the project must absolutely, positively be delivered by the end of the day. You can read about past FedEx Days on our blog: here, here, here, here, here, and here. Also, check out this classic FedEx Day video! How Does FedEx Day...

Continue reading →

Last month, DMC employees and guests gathered to celebrate our accomplishments of 2016 and all we have to look forward to in the coming year. The annual Holiday Party is one of the most exciting events of the year. It's a great opportunity to chat with those you rarely get a chance to see and meet the new faces coming to DMC! Here's how we celebrated in each office. Denver DMC Denver started their evening with drinks and a social hour at Guard and Grace, a steak house in do...

Continue reading →

It wasn't too long ago that DMC Denver celebrated Opening Day, and now it is expanding into additional office space, with an expected completion in early 2017. We're excited to gain two new conference rooms in the process! Knowing the new rooms will follow our current theme of being named after Colorado breweries (Great Divide and Renegade are our current conference rooms), DMC Denver saw this as an opportunity to try some local brews during the naming process. What better way...

Continue reading →

Some members of the DMC Denver team recently capitalized on the Activity Fund to take a trip out to Colorado Clays Shooting Park for a round of sporting clays. The sporting clays course at Colorado Clays features 15 shooting stations. Each station is equipped with two clay target throwers. The throwers are positioned differently at all of the stations, so each one presents a unique challenge. Check out our video highlights! How It Works There are 50 pairs of targets between ...

Continue reading →

DMC Denver held an Oktoberfest party on September 22, 2016. The Rocky Mountains offered a backdrop comparable to any mountain view in Munich, Germany where so many Oktoberfest revelers were recently participating in their own celebration.  Munich may have just finished their 183rd Oktoberfest, and we’ve had a few of our own, but this year DMC used the opportunity to continue celebrating our 20th Anniversary. It was a wonderful night with lots of beer, delicious food, and ...

Continue reading →

DMC invites you to join us for our first Oktoberfest celebration in Denver on Thursday September 22, 2016! After the success of our Oktoberfest events in Chicago and Boston, the Denver team is excited to host their inaugural Oktoberfest Denver-style. Come on out for an evening of food, beer, and fun. DMC Denver's Oktoberfest Party September 22, 2016 4 - 10 p.m. 1860 Blake St., Suite 410 Denver, CO 80202 [Directions] About the Party Join us in celebrating Oktoberfest wit...

Continue reading →