Google AdWords: Other ways of achieving a higher CTR

Published by johanjacobs May 9th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

The most obvious way to achieve a better CTR is to write relevant ads. Relevant ads needs to contain most or all of the keywords the user typed in the search box. Thus in each of your Ad Groups only write ads that contain the keywords you bid on. These keywords can be placed anywhere in your ads, but the most effective way is in the headline of your ad. This is because the keywords in the headline of your ad will automatically be bold and clickable, attracting the user’s attention. One way to automatically include the users keywords in your ads heading is to add the dynamic keyword code {keyword:}. This will automatically place the user’s search keyword in your ads heading for every relevant search.

After running your ad campaign for a while, it is very important to remove the keywords that only get impressions but no clicks. These keywords will only drag down your CTR and by removing them you can improve your CTR.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

Google AdWords: Using negative keywords to increase you CTR (click trough rate)

Published by johanjacobs May 9th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

One of the most important objectives for an AdWorks advertiser is to improve its CTR. This is because of the fact that you can pay less per click than ads below yours if you have a better CTR. One way of achieving this is by using negative keywords, especially if any of the keywords phrases in your ad campaign are broad. If the search phrase includes one of your negative keywords your ad will not be displayed. This will help to minimize click throughs that do not convert to sales. Your CTR will thus increase because there will be fewer instances of searchers viewing the ad but not clicking.

For example if you charge a premium for your products and services you can use negative keywords like: cheep, free, discount etc.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

Google AdWords: What is ‘quality Score’ and what does it influence?

Published by johanjacobs May 9th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

Each keyword is assigned a dynamic variable called Quality Score. This Quality Score is a measure of how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to the user’s search query. To calculate this variable a variety of factors needs to be considered. The Quality Score formula usually depends on whether it’s calculating minimum bids or assigning ad position.

The Quality Score influences your ads’ position on Google or the Google Network. It also partly determines your keywords’ minimum bid. Usually the higher you’re Quality Score the better your ad position and the lower your minimum bid.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

Google AdWords Conversion Tracking

Published by johanjacobs May 9th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

With Google AdWords and there online advertising, a conversions occurs when a person clicks on your ad and it leads to, a purchase, signup, page view or lead. One of Google’s latest tools allows you to measure these conversions. This in turn helps you to identify how effective your Adwords ads and keywords are.

This is accomplished by Google through placing a cookie on the user’s computer or mobile device when they click on one of your AdWords ads. If the user then reaches one of your conversion pages, the cookie is connected to your web page (you will need to add the necessary code to your webpage, supplied by Google). Google records a successful conversion every time a match is made. This can be a great help for optimizing your keywords and AdWords ads for your AdWords campaign.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

How to password protect a web directory.

Published by xcosminel April 9th, 2008 in Web. 0 Comments

Password protecting a web directory is useful for restricting access to important information on your website that is not intended for everyone to see.

 To password protect your web directory (using the Apache webserver) follow these steps:

 1. Create a file called “.htaccess” in the web directory you want to password protect and paste the following code into it. (change the non-bolded text to your own information)

AuthUserFile /your/directory/here/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName “Secure Document”
AuthType Basic<LIMIT GET PUT POST>
require user username
</LIMIT>

2. Create a file called “.htpasswd” into the web directory you want to password protect. Use a .htpasswd content generator to generate the code for this file (eg. http://home.flash.net/cgi-bin/pw.pl). The code output should look like:

username:****************  

(where the *s are the encrypted version of your password)

3. Browse to your website and test the protection. If the password does not work, there is likely an incorrect directory target or typo in the “.htaccess” file:

AuthUserFile /your/directory/here/.htpasswd

A good “.htpasswd” content generator can be found here:
http://home.flash.net/cgi-bin/pw.pl
More information can be found here:
http://ag.arizona.edu/ecat/web/password-protect.html

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

Simplex 4100u FieldServer Configurations

Published by pchipkin March 28th, 2008 in FieldServer and Simplex 4100. 0 Comments

When simplex 4100U’s are networekd together the configuration of a FieldServer needs special considerations.

Follow these steps

1. Use the correct input doc. It must say ‘HW Ref’. This is the only report that can be used.

Sim4100 Input Report

2. Use the HW Ref column to work out which card-point-subPoints you need to capture in the configuration.

You will need one Map Descriptor for each card. 

3. Points from networked panels lose their original HW ref and get a new based on the network card.

For example if the network card is card 3 then all the points from the remote panels will come in as card=3.

The HW Ref will be 3-xxxxx

The trick is to convert the xxxxx to a point-SubPoint address so you can work out where the event will be stored in the data array.

4. Make a Map Descripto to cpature events from card 3.

Map_Descriptors
Map_Descriptor_Name ,Data_Array_Name ,Data_Array_Offset ,Function ,
Node_Name  ,sim4100_func ,sim4100_card ,sim4100_point ,sim4100_sub ,
protocol ,length ,Card_03_Points ,DA_CARD3 ,0 ,passive  ,Simplex_01 ,
xpoint ,3 ,0 ,256 ,sim4100 ,20000

There can only be one Map Desc for card 3.

Always set point to zero

Set SubPoint to 256 for networked points. (This means the driver expects 256 subpoints per point)

5.  Determine the Data Array Offset where a point’s event will be stored.

Convert the HW Ref to Point-SubPoint

For example:

Input Doc: 3-14126      3:M4-78-0        RIAM          RELAY           L2 BAK/CHE T2.035 CORR BY MEET RM B7.011

HW Ref=3-14126 so we know the card=3

temp=14126

temp2 = temp - 1

point = trunc(temp2/256)   trunc=truncated division. Rounds down.

subPoint = temp - point *256

Offset into Data Array = (point+1)*256+subPoint

Thus in this example: Offset=14381. When the point has an event, the data will be stored in DA_CARD3[14381].
 
 

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

What can go wrong with 485 and BACnet MSTP ?

Published by pchipkin March 28th, 2008 in BACnet MSTP and RS485. 0 Comments

Lets say you adopted all the best practices for installation of the network but you get intermittent or unacceptable performance because of packet loss, noise, collisions … Then you should consider hiring an expert to resolve your problems because now you are in the ‘Art’ part of RS485. These are some of the things they will look at.

Reflections

Without a scope and expertise you wont know this is a factor. Its easy and cheap to eliminate. Look at the cable spec. Find the nominal impedance. Buy two resistors of the same value. At each end of the trunk install the resistors between the Tx and Rx terminals. If you don’t have obvious ends of the trunk (because you created a star) then we recommend re-cabling to form a linear trunk or we wish you luck.

Some devices have terminating resistors built into them. If the vendor did a poor job, the default is to have the resistor active and they must be disabled unless they are the terminating devices on the network. Read vendor docs.

Biasing , Idle State Biasing, Fail Safe Biasing, Anti Aliasing

 There are a whole string of terms uses as synonyms to describe this phenomenon.

To use two wires ( as opposed to full duplex 4 wire) for RS485 each devices transmitter and receiver must be set to an idle state to release the line for others use. Releasing the line means allowing it to ‘float’. It must not be allowed to float at any voltage level so devices have pull up/down resistors to pull the line to an allowable ‘floating’ voltage. (the floating state is also known as the tri-state. )  The load presented by other devices on the network affects this floating so the resistor values may need to be changed depending on the number of devices installed and the values of the pull up/down resistors they are using. (You can imagine how tricky its going to be to resolve this). If a device floats out of the specified range then to other devices it will look like the floating devices isn’t floating at all. The other devices will think that it is transmitting or receiving and thus blocking the line.

The simplest way of knowing if this is a factor - Does the device work properly when it is the only device on the network ?. When you install it in the full network other devices or this device stops working properly. This device and/or the pull up/down resistors of other devices are candidates for investigation.

A number of vendors have a range of pull up/down resistors installed and allow you to change the selection using software or jumpers.
 

Line Drive On / Off

To use two wires for RS485 each devices transmitter and receiver must be set to an idle state to release the line for others use. When a device wants to send it must grab the line. When it has finished sending it must release the line. You can see there are potential problems here. What happens if one device waits too long after sending its last bit before releasing the line - its possible that the other devices will miss some bits of data.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

BACnet MSTP (RS485), Cable selection does make a difference.

Published by pchipkin March 27th, 2008 in BACnet MSTP, Cables and RS485. 0 Comments

All cables offer impedance (resistance). Some cables are designed so that the impedance is relatively independent of distance. You want one of these cables. A clue to knowing if you selected one is to look at the cable’s Nominal Impedance. If they quote a number such a 100Ohms you have a good cable. If they quote an impedance per meter/foot you have chosen the wrong kind. Wrong in the sense – to determine the value of terminating resistors now requires measurements and calculations. Choose low capacitance cables.

Can you use Cat5 cable ? Yes. Use one pair for Tx,Rx and a conductor from another pair for the ground reference signal.

We recommend these two cables.

Belden 3106A

Belden 3106A - RS485 Cable 

Multi-Conductor - EIA Industrial RS-485 PLTC/CM
22 AWG stranded (7×30) tinned copper conductors, Datalene® insulation, twisted pairs, overall Beldfoil® shield (100% coverage) plus a tinned copper braid (90% coverage), drain wire, UV resistant PVC jacket. 
 

Belden 3107A

Belden 3107A - RS485 Cable 

Multi-Conductor - EIA Industrial RS-485 PLTC/CM
22 AWG stranded (7×30) tinned copper conductors, Datalene® insulation, twisted pairs, overall Beldfoil® shield (100% coverage) plus a tinned copper braid (90% coverage), drain wire, UV resistant PVC jacket.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

Cable Lengths and Baud Rates for RS485 or BACnet MSTP

Published by pchipkin March 19th, 2008 in BACnet MSTP and Cables. 0 Comments

Practically speaking you can go up to 4000 feet (1200m) at baud rates up to 76800 baud. Above that you need to do a little math and reduce the length. For example, at 115k baud your cable should not be much longer than 2500 feet.

However, the higher the baud rate the more sensitive the cable is to the quality of installation – issues like how much twisted pair is unwound at each termination start to become very very important.

Our advise: For longer networks with lots of devices, choose 38k400 baud over 76k800 baud and optimize using COV, separate networks and by setting the Max Master to a lower number.
RS485 Cable Length Vs Distance

Image Source: Ten Ways to Bulletproof RS-485 Interfaces National Semiconductor
Application Note 1057 John Goldie October 1996

What about BACnet MSTP ?

This is how the 2004 version of the spec defines the MSTP medium:

“An MS/TP EIA-485 network shall use shielded, twisted-pair cable with characteristic impedance between 100 and 130 ohms. Distributed capacitance between conductors shall be less than 100 pF per meter (30 pF per foot). Distributed capacitance between conductors and shield shall be less that 200 pF per meter (60 pF per foot). Foil or braided shields are acceptable. The maximum recommended length of an MS/TP segment is 1200 meters (4000 feet) with AWG 18 (0.82 mm2 conductor area) cable. The use of greater distances and/or different wire gauges shall comply with the electrical specifications of EIA-485.”

 In other words, if it complies with the RS485 spec it meets the BACnet spec.

The cable gauge only changes the cables impedance. You should already be selecting a cable whose nominal impedence is relativly independent of length such as Belden 3106a. If you are using the correct cable then the gauge should have little effect on the carrying capacity except at very high frequencies.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

BACnet Objects and Properties

Published by pchipkin March 18th, 2008 in BACnet and BACnet MSTP. 0 Comments

Data inside a BACnet device is organized as a series of objects. Each object has a type and a set of properties. There is always at least one object in a device – it is used to represent the device itself . The other objects represent the device’s data.

In practical terms think of a simple thermostat. Our example is a simple device that has a temperature sensor, allows the set point to be changed locally or remotely, has a local remote selection and reports there is an internal fault by reporting its status as normal/abnormal.

Commonly used properties
Object Type:  Popular Object Types: Analog Input, Analog Output, Binary Input, Binary Output.

Instance Number:  A number that must be not be repeated for any other object of the same type.
Name: The optional property called ‘Description’ is usually used to describe the object. This porperty is often no more than a tag.
Present Value: The current value of the object. BACnet has ways of telling you if the present value is valid – it uses a property called ‘Reliability’.

Did you like this post?

Subscribe To The RSS Feed!
To catch many more articles like this in the future, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to me via RSS. You will not regret it!

Do you have a question?
We will do our best to try and solve any building automation, protocol, integration problem you may have

« Previous Entries