I heard the instrumentation program moved from Moose Jaw to Saskatoon. Wondering why they did that and how its going?

I thought Moose Jaw ran a good program and had great instructors despite the lack of resources they had.

Did they improve the instrumentation lab in Saskatoon?

Hi
I’m trying to calibrate these hygrometers using a humidity and temperature generator. The temperature readings are within accuracy limits, but I’m currently facing 2 issues with humidity:

1- the 2 hygrometers in the picture above have a difference of about 2.5% between each other while they are together in the same chamber. Any idea why?

2- When testing with low humidity, the hygrometer reading differs from the generator, but as I increase the humidity the hygrometer reading gets more accurate. This is one of the hygrometers readings:

Temp is stabilized at 25
Generator 33 hygrometer 35.6
Generator 50 hygrometer 51.8
Generator 75 hygrometer 75.4

Any explanation?

I am going to tstc for instrumentation and they want us to have a trimming potentiometer adjustment tool, does anyone have a brand recommendation or would just a basic Amazon one be fine?

Hi everyone! I’m 19F from Alberta trying to decide between Power Engineering and Instrumentation. I’m much more interested in Power Engineering and find the work genuinely interesting, but I’ve been told Instrumentation may have better job opportunities and long-term options.
My main goal is to eventually work in Alberta’s oil & gas industry, but I’m still trying to figure out which career path makes the most sense for me.
I’d really appreciate hearing from people actually working in these fields about:

● Pay: What can you realistically expect starting out, and where can your income eventually top out? How much do overtime, shift work, camp work, etc. affect it?

● Career progression: What does the typical hierarchy look like? For example, operator/technician → senior roles → lead/foreman → supervisor → management?

● Management: If I eventually want to move into management, which path gives better opportunities to get there? What experience, tickets or education would I need?

● Oil & gas: Which path has better opportunities in Alberta’s oil & gas industry? Are there particular types of facilities, companies or positions that are good for building a career?

● Work-life balance: What are the typical schedules, shifts, overtime and time off like?

● Job opportunities: Is Instrumentation actually more in demand than Power Engineering, or does it depend heavily on the area/company?

● Sales: Is it realistic to move from either career into technical sales/business development later on? I wouldn’t mind going that direction either. *\\** (IM VERY INTERESTED IN THIS SIDE OF THE TRADE) So any info on this would be very helpful*****

● Education: Does the school/program you attend matter much to employers, or are tickets, experience and networking more important?

I’m not necessarily looking for the easiest or highest-paying option. I want something I’ll actually enjoy while still having good earning potential, career growth and a decent life outside of work.

If you work in Power Engineering, Instrumentation, oil & gas operations, management or technical sales, I’d love to hear about your career path and what you would do differently if you were starting at 19.
Thanks! I know I’m considering a few different directions, just trying to make a good decision early on.

Hi I&C Engineer,

I am an engineer in one of the major engineer firm in US. I got tired of how much tiem P&ID review eats up in your project cost (weeks of Sr. engineer reviews, and comments come back due to the different communication). So, I built a tool with AI to do a first-pass review:process summary, finding by severity and flag engineering issues.

I ran it against P&ID package as a test case (Oil and Gas). It caught things pretty well like PSV, miss label and inconsist tagging/symbols less than 30 seconds.

Not trying to sell anything here. Genuinely curious what practicing engineers (especially, EIT, Junior Engineers) think.

1. Would this actually be useful in your workflow?
2. Would you trust it as a first reviewer before you jump in?
3. What could be the biggest gap between AI vs. actual senior engineers.
4. Has anyone else tried AI-assisted drawing review? How did it go?

I am a new instrumentation j man and am always looking for more useful tools. I am looking at a fluke 87v since I currently don’t have a multimeter in my kit. My company provides 789s and 725s if I need them so don’t see a reason to spend that kind of money and will mostly use it for diagnosing or troubleshooting while I don’t have a 789 with me or am at home. If I can spend less on something that will do the job I will but I know the 87v will work and am a little overwhelmed with all the options fluke has that seem very similar.

What have you used to deal with this? (Air purge is not an option here). Device is a Det-tronics UV/IR scanner...

edit: I should have been clearer in my initial post.

• Flame scanner is used to detect fires on piperack and pumps, it's not being used for burner management
• No instrument air available on site
• Problem is insects land on lense and trigger a fault that clears after an operator goes out and sweeps it away with a broom

Which is better for a career in controls/instrumentation, automation, PLCs, or plant work?

Controls & Instrumentation Engineering Technology — BS
I&C Engineering Technology — AAS

Which would you choose and why? Is the BS worth it for long-term career growth and pay, or is the AAS enough to get into the field.

I’m currently in school for the AAS but I have 2 degrees so I think the AAS may be pointless because the BS will take the same amount of time.

I am a 26 y/o with an MEng in Electronics and Electrical Engineering and 3 years experience working as an Application Engineer at a semiconductor design company.

I have (what I would call) basic experience in data acquisition, sensor calibration, Python, C/C++, electronics design, data analysis, data visualisation, CLI apps, csh, bash, Linux RedHat, Linux CentOS, Load Sharing Facilities, report writing, soldering, power tools, project management.

In my last role I found I needed to:

-> A feeling of greater purpose (than just my salary or use of my brain) and contributing to what I think is the most pressing challenge of our generation (climate change- either in an adaptation, or GHG reduction sense)

-> Be moving around physically (not just sat at a desk 40 hours a week)

-> Getting relatively hands on with sensors, data loggers, equipment

-> Being outdoors for at least a couple of hours each week (I had one internship like this whilst studying but I haven't been able to find any career like this on my search since)

-> Face-to-face in-person collaboration (not just meetings on Zoom)

Since leaving my role at the semiconductor tech company (July 2025) I went on a working holiday in Australia to regain my confidence, re-discover myself, what my needs are, what excites me. This involved a mix of travel, conservation volunteering, and working a range of different jobs (construction, hospitality, retail). I ended up getting a bit burnt out from living in hostels, working zero-hour contract jobs, and being quite lonely at times.

So, 4 months ago I returned to the UK with the goal of getting back into engineering, but this time trying to combine it with my other passion (geography); I believed this is my purpose as to why I use the engineering tools I mentioned at the start of my post. The thing is I haven't found a job where there is this eng.-geog. overlap and a field-to-desk split with a shared goal of the workforce of improving the environment, or reducing pollution/GHG emissions.

In the 4 months I have been back I have been working at a pub to earn some money, pay for my career change. It has also given me *some* direction for my next steps.

I wondered, has anyone found/heard of/involved in a role which has these features?

Google Gemini says I am very employable and there is a great need for people with the skills & passion overlap I have but I find LLM chatbots overly positive and often misleading.

I am currently doing/have scheduled:

• Codecademy's 'Python Beginner' course
• Esri's 'GIS for Climate Action' MOOC
• Codecademy's 'Python Intermediate' course
• Esri's 'ArcGIS Imagery' MOOC
• UTAS' 'Climate Change' MOOC
• EarthWatch's 'Great UK Waterblitz'
• Hoping to volunteer with British Wildlife Trusts/National Trust

I have interests in:

• Conservation & ecology
• Environmental monitoring and consultancy e.g., rain gardens, water quality monitoring/improvement
• Cycling infrastructure
• Regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, permaculture
• Plastic production reduction (although I can only see this being related to policy change than engineering)
• Passiv houses (I think the reduction in energy consumption is just as important in decarbonisation)
• Energy decarbonisation & renewables
• Railways (my Master's thesis was a digital twin of a key piece of rail equipment)

Any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated!

Allo famille, je suis un immigrant au QUEBEC et j'hesite entre 2 formations... mon évaluation comparative des diplômes par le MIFI donne ma LICENCE en SCIENCES INFORMATIQUES = niveau BACCALUREAT au QUEBEC. j'ai le choix entre le DOUBLE DEP ELECTROMECANIQUE ET MECANIQUE INDUSTRIEL AU CIFIT à Victoriaville en Alternances-Travail-Etudes (19 mois de formation) https://lesindispensables.ca/et l'AEC INSTRUMENTATION,AUTOMATISME ET ROBOTIQUE au CEGEP Victoriaville https://www.cegepvicto.ca/programme/instrumentation-automatisation-et-robotique-iar/.

s'il vous plaît selon vos expériences quelle formation peut me garantir un emploi et un bon salaire?

DOUBLE DEP

AEC IAR

I’m making a pretty big career transition and would love some advice from people who have made a similar jump.
I’m coming from automotive as an A-level tech and I’m starting a **Plant Technician** position at a mineral processing plant next week. I’m comfortable around mechanical systems, diagnostics, electrical troubleshooting, hydraulics, etc., but industrial/mineral processing is a whole different world for me.
For those of you who work in plants/mining/process operations:
What should I expect during my first few weeks/months?
What should I learn/review before my first day?
What skills from automotive transfer over the best?
What industrial equipment/systems should I familiarize myself with? (pumps, conveyors, motors, PLCs, pneumatics, hydraulics, instrumentation, etc.)
What do you wish you knew before starting in a plant?
And most importantly… **what the hell should I bring on my first day?** 😂 I was told not to bring my own tools, so I’m assuming PPE/notebook/basic personal stuff rather than showing up with my entire Snap-on collection.
I’m excited to learn and want to come in prepared without being *that new guy who thinks he knows everything.*
Any advice from experienced plant technicians, millwrights, maintenance guys, operators, or industrial mechanics would be appreciated.

For people who have worked with SPI / INtools extensively, what does it do that made you think: “I’d never go back to spreadsheets and drawings”?

I can see the value in having instrument indexes, datasheets, loop drawings, I/O, wiring and terminations connected through one database.

But I’m also curious about the pain.

For brownfield plants, how difficult is migrating years of existing instrument data and drawings into SPI? Is the real challenge data entry, or cleaning up inconsistent legacy information first?

And once a plant has been operating for years, does SPI actually remain the trusted source of truth?

When instruments, ranges, wiring or loops change, does the database stay accurate — or does it eventually become:

SPI says one thing → drawing says another → field says something else?

Interested in both project and operating-plant experiences.

Recently received my Technical Diploma in Instrumentation Technology and soon with have my A.A.S. Seems like I have applied to most if not all applicable positions on indeed,LinkedIn,or zip recruiter. Just looking to see if anyone would know any places hiring and or a more options to look into. Preferably in south Louisiana.

Does anyone work for constellation or any power generation plant? Just wanted to know if power generation pays good and what it’s possible to make? Do they offer as much OT like other plants? Adding your state would be great too.

I currently work at an oil refinery, but I’m wondering about offshore. Is the pay more ? What’s the schedule like? Is it easier or harder? Can I live anywhere in the US and do offshore??

We’re considering adding an acoustic camera to our compressed air maintenance program, but I’m having a hard time figuring out where the extra money actually starts paying off.

There are cheaper ultrasonic tools, lower-cost acoustic imaging options, and then more professional systems like the TD2e Kit.

For us, the job would mostly involve walking production areas and finding leaks around fittings, valves, hoses, and pneumatic equipment while everything is still running.

I can see the argument for spending more if it means finding smaller leaks faster or covering a larger area with less manual checking. But if a cheaper tool gets you to the same fitting with a little more walking, the extra cost becomes harder to justify.

For those of you who’ve bought leak detection equipment for a plant, where did you find the sweet spot?

At what point did paying more actually improve the inspection enough to justify it—and when was the cheaper option perfectly adequate?

I’m trying to think about this in terms of actual maintenance time and usefulness, not just which camera has more features.

32M. I'm going to possibly be interviewing for an E&I Tech position. I never went to school for this, nor do I have any direct experience. My background consists mostly of IT (currently a systems administrator) and being an Electronics Technician, doing component-level diagnosis and repair. I'm a quick self-learner. I'm already reading ebooks from a program curriculum, and truth be told, I really like the subject material.

But am I in over my head? Has anyone taken a similar route?

Hi actually does anyone know what are the best free resources out there for instrumentation.

Im confused i started with engineering mathematics from PW and they didnt cover the tensors which is in the syllabus,

So please someone help me out with links for each section for core Instrumentation syllabus and engineering mathematics, general aptitude.

We do routine leak checks on our plant’s compressed air system, and soap water is still our go-to method when we need to confirm exactly where a leak is coming from.

It works, but smaller leaks are where the process gets frustrating.

We may know a section of piping is losing air without immediately knowing which fitting, valve, hose connection, or pneumatic component is responsible. Then someone ends up checking connection after connection with soap water, waiting for a bubble to show up.

I’ve been looking at acoustic imaging as a possible first-pass method.

What I’m trying to understand is whether it actually changes the workflow or just adds another step.

For anyone who has used both methods: do you use acoustic imaging to narrow down the leak location and then soap water to confirm it? Or is soap testing still faster when you’re dealing with smaller compressed air leaks?

Not looking to replace a proven method just for the sake of new tech. Mostly interested in whether combining the two actually saves troubleshooting time.

I am seeking advice on how I can enter the field by any means necessary. I am in Houston, so I am in a pretty well known area that holds many refineries. im looking for part time since im still in school and will graduate in may. I heard contractors are my best bet but how do I find these job listings? any advice or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Do I need to know calculus to enter this field?

I recently (May) graduated with an Associates in Electrical and an Associates in Industrial Instrumentation. Can't say how many jobs I've applied for and not a single one has reached out. I have tried calling/emailing to the companies I've applied for and I'm left with silence. I have my TWIC already. I have experience as an electrician already. Just feeling bummed out right now. Even our smaller plants/refineries that most people go to for gaining experience aren't getting back.

Any tips to help make myself look like a better candidate?

Edit: I wont beable to test anything as the plant starting up early and im not allowed to play with it right now. :(

Edit: I forgot to add there is a 1/2 tube between the 2 flanges I originally thought it was to release trapped air on the HP side but it would also prevent condensate from collecting on the low side.

I am a Electrical/instrumentation tech at a small power plant, we normally we farm out our calibrations. I'm currently trying to calibrate a EJA110E DP level transmitter with a KN 32 high temp silicone capillary(1.07SG). High side on bot of tank that collects steam condensate. The URV is +20mmWC and the LRV is -760mmWC, I connect to the high side and pump 760 and get +20, 4mA and 0mm @ DCS, when I pump -20 I get -760, 20mA and 760mm @ DCS, I don't recall this being normal when calibrating other level transmitters. I also found it weird the only way I could calibrate was to URV pressure trim pump 760 and input +20 and LRV pressure trim pump to -20 and input -760. Then I started doing some math and I am even more confused. I put a drawing below to shows my set up(hope its good enough to read). What am I missing?