3rd Quarter 2008

ANDI is an acronym for Allied Network Dispenser Interface. It was coined as a result of a competition held amongst Allied’s employees in the early 1990’s.

The winner of the competition? Software engineer Piet Raedts.

Piet passed away in 2006 while visiting his native Holland. His legacy lives on as one of the great minds behind many of the petroleum industry’s most successful projects.

Allied’s inaugural customer conference known as “Think Tank 2008 Technology Exchange” was a home run in more ways than one.

On September 9th, Allied’s customers were treated to healthy servings of NeXGen and cheese steaks as they rubbed elbows with the Allied employees at Citizens Bank Park where the Phillies tried to reel in the Florida Marlins.

Full Story

When Allied employee Bob Danford started with the company back in 2000, he weighed almost 240 pounds, couldn’t jog to the corner store, and had uncontrollable high blood pressure. Eight years later, he weighs approximately 200 pounds (note: the author reserves the right to take liberties with that number), can run a 5k, and his doctors say his blood pressure is “perfect.” What started as a “weight loss” wager amongst employees has become a daily routine of weight lifting and cardiovascular workouts.

Every day, several of Allied’s employees either head for the gym or the local high school track for the daily “battle of the bulge.” Allied president Ron Walker leads them into that battle. “I can say that I never felt better,” said Ron. “I have more energy in the afternoon and my blood pressure and cholesterol levels have never been better. Working out with your colleagues during the day keeps you motivated and focused on good health.”

Full Story

RS485 technology is a popular standard for dispenser card reader communications. It is widely used by major dispenser manufacturers such as Wayne and Tokheim. The downside of the technology is that one faulty card reader can “drag down” the entire loop. Troubleshooting can be difficult with all of the card readers going online and offline. When using Wayne card readers (CATs), finding and isolating the pesky card reader, much less servicing it, is less cumbersome when using the Allied CAT isolation box. This is often installed when utilizing Allied’s popular Wayne Direct systems. The Allied CAT isolation box provides a bypass switch for each CAT allowing for quick isolation and service. Contact Allied Electronics for more information.

Allied now offers a Webinar for the popular ANDI_DGS utility, a “must have” program for all service personnel, integrators, and QA analysts. In addition to sending and receiving message traffic, it provides a means to load and store command and response files, trace message traffic, download firmware, reset devices, etc. Once you start using the ANDI_DGS utility, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

Allied is also offering a Webinar for trace file review. QA analysts and help desk personnel may be particularly interested in this class which involves a primer on the ANDI message set.

Webinars on Allied’s ANDI and NeXGen forecourt controllers as well as a Webinar geared towards software developers are also available.

Contact Allied Electronics for more information on the available Webinars!

The jack-o-lantern tradition comes from an old Irish folk tale about a man named Stingy Jack. It was said that he was unable to get into heaven and was turned away from the devil because of his tricky ways. So, he set off to wander the world looking for a resting place. For light, Stingy Jack used a burning coal ember in a hollowed out turnip. When the Irish immigrated to the U.S. during the Great Potato Famine of 1845-1850, they found that turnips were not as readily available like they were in the homeland. So, they started carving pumpkins as a replacement for their tradition.