After a few months of working from home due to Covid-19, QTech are excited to be back in our office. Although it is business as usual here, we are still experiencing delays from our manufacturers in China. This means that there may be longer wait times than usual for orders. We are doing everything we can to speed up this process but recommend that if you require a product, order it as soon as possible so you can be first in line for new shipments. We thank you for your patience and support during this time but if you have any concerns please don’t hesitate to contact one of our staff.

What's New

Website

Behind the scenes QTech have been undertaking a complete overhaul of our website and we are proud to now have this platform up and running. 

Integrator's and Wholesalers are now able to login and purchase selected products at a discounted rate. If you are interested in this then please get in touch and we can arrange creating an account for you or your organisation

We trust that the new look website is both easier on the eye and easier to navigate. The site will continue to be developed over the next few months, as we add more new content. We welcome any any feedback that you may have on how we could further improve your experience on the site. 

Technical Support and Services
After the recent departure of Guy Halliburton from our company, we have taken the opportunity to review several mechanisms around the provision of our technical support services.  It is requested that all technical support requests from now on be addressed to techsupport@qtech.co.nz, the EXTN number 805, or the mobile number 027 491 5298. They will be responded to by the Support Team.
 
DATRAN Techsupport is available during business hours of 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

A reminder that QTech also offer the below services to help ensure that you are getting the most out of your DATRAN system.

• Weekly or Monthly Maintenance Reports on your DATRAN System(s) - Includes investigation, and possible remediation of any issues highlighted by the report.
  Note: Major issues identified in report may require additional expenditure beyond the scope of the monthly remediation.
• DATRAN VI Training – Various software and hardware Training options are available.  Please contact our sales staff to discuss your requirements.
• Open PO Technical Support/Services - Billed monthly to a capped amount (negotiated with the client) as and when used.

Upgrading DATRAN Hardware/Software
SCADA Telemetry Systems are significant capital investments and both the hardware and software in these systems are under constant development or enhancement. All of our DATRAN SCADA systems have their DATRAN VI software covered by ongoing Software Maintenance Agreements and many systems are maintained on the basis that aging hardware is updated as well as firmware being upgraded annually.

In recent audits conducted by QTech, we have worked with some customers who have not maintained or upgraded any aspect of their telemetry system. This creates potential risk and liability that may result in the need for larger scale capital expenditure and greater financial approval. With careful planning and regular upgrades, all DATRAN telemetry can be progressed to deliver today's and tomorrow's requirements. We are happy to assist and advice on suitable upgrade plans. Please contact Francois on 027 491 5360 for more information. 


New Addition to the QTech Team
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Francois Botes. Francois started with us in January, so many of you will already have dealt with him.
 
Francois is from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.  He has 29 years experience in technical operations. The past 11 years he worked with Data Acquisition Systems, Telemetry Systems, SCADA, Automation Solutions, Wireless Networks and Ultra-Low Power Solutions as well as the Design, Supply, Installation and Commissioning of Turnkey and Integrated Monitoring & Control Solutions.


 

Wireless Firmware and Software Upgrades
Good news for systems integrator's who want to consolidate a number of connections to remotely located pumps and inputs using our Multi Point Controller (MPC).  It now interfaces to the  latest model of our popular digital wireless point to point (WP2P revision E), which we announced last year. The MPC enables up to 8 WP2P slave devices to be connected back to the MPC in a star configuration.  The digital WP2P has three digital inputs and three relay outputs.  
 

There are a number of features exposed with this combination of devices:

• The MPC can be fitted with a powerful 1 watt radio to provide extra transmission range
• The newer WP2P units have a “better than ever” power consumption and low power modes of operation making them suitable for solar power implementations
• The WP2P also fits in our RSS01 environmentally protected solar power battery charging enclosure
• It is backwards compatible with older revision D WP2P units.
   

The MPC and WP2P functionality is accomplished via factory firmware upgrades at QTech as follows:

• Q48 Multi Point Controller Firmware: V2.02
• WP2P Rev E: Firmware V1.02
• WP2P Rev D: Firmware V6.03

Please contact our team for more information.

Case Study

Think Water Gisborne Orchard Irrigation Project

Recently QTech was approached by Think Water Gisborne who were experiencing issues with an existing irrigation controller. The system had become unreliable and they needed a solution which would allow them to control 9 irrigation valves in an orchard.

The site had power available at the control shed but none at the valves. Each valve ranged from 300 to 700 metres away from the shed containing the irrigation control and although the terrain was flat, the antennas needed to be elevated above trees to achieve line of site.

Taking in the above considerations, we were able to resolve the orchards problem by creating a solution using two Multipoint Controllers and four WP2P radios. Since there was no power at the valves, each WP2P radio was housed in our made to order solar station (RSS01). The enclosure also included a latching solenoid interface module for the control of the valves.

The below diagram shows the application and highlights the QTech products used in the system. The maximum number of valves the Multipoint Controller can control is 8 but since the customer needed 9, we used two and split the inputs. The orchard can add control of up to 7 more valves if required in the future.

QTech pride ourselves on being able to create solutions for any industry. If you have a problem that you think needs a tailored application then please get in touch and one of our experienced team will design something for your needs.