OptoBlog

Janice Colmer

Janice has worked at Opto 22 for nearly 20 years and is part of the marketing team that strives to share new and relevant content with the automation industry. She enjoys books, camping, country music, and spending time with family and friends.
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Recent Posts

7x24 Reliability for Mission-critical Facilities

Posted by Janice Colmer on Jun 3, 2024 3:00:30 PM

Join Opto 22 and our technology partner Inductive Automation at the 7x24 Data Center event.

Is your facility mission-critical, with reliability needed 7x24? Then we hope to see you at the 7x24 Data Center Conference—happening next week in Orlando, Florida, June 9-12, 2024. 

This conference is designed for anyone involved with 7×24 infrastructures: IT, data center, disaster recovery, cyber security and network/telecommunication managers, computer technologists, facility or building managers, supervisors and engineers.

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Topics: Events & conferences, cybersecurity, Ignition, Inductive Automation, data center

Tucker Energy Services' DIY upgrade

Posted by Janice Colmer on May 22, 2024 5:51:00 AM

New case study shows how you can save costs and gain control over your systems, even with no PLC experience.

Have you been faced with challenges like outdated equipment, manual operations, or the inability to manage data in your projects or applications? Or are you short on time to implement new technology that has a steep learning curve? Then you'll want to read the latest case study featuring Tucker Energy Services.

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Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Node-RED, groov View, groov EPIC, oil and gas

IntegrateLive! Workshop: Information Management in the Post PI Era

Posted by Janice Colmer on May 17, 2024 11:38:28 AM

Learn how to connect to equipment, log data, build models, process operational events, aggregate KPIs, and serve information to an entire enterprise while maintaining interoperability and fair licensing costs.

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to information management?

The IntegrateLive! team is back for a dynamic two-part webinar series. They’ll construct a complete information management solution live! This workshop shows how you can achieve and exceed the functionality of a traditional PI Asset Framework solution (with the help of groov products), while ensuring interoperability—and slashing costs.

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Topics: Webinars, groov RIO

Case Study: Heat Treatment OEM Chooses Flexibility, Scalability

Posted by Janice Colmer on May 7, 2024 11:34:13 AM

Mercer Technologies continues to innovate—adding energy cost per part.

Are you considering ways to include energy monitoring in your industrial applications? Now you can hear first hand how long-time Opto customer Mercer Technologies is making it happen.

The latest case study in the groov case study library features Mercer Technologies' story of innovation. See how they leverage energy monitoring data from Opto 22's groov product family.

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Topics: Case studies, OEM, groov EPIC, groov rio emu, energy monitoring

Industrial edge architecture and cybersecurity insights

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 30, 2024 12:13:21 PM

Opto 22's Director of Technical Marketing, Dan White, explains the features and importance of modern edge devices in this new Control Engineering article.

The industrial automation industry is now being driven by the idea of digital transformation and the industrial internet of things (IIoT). Understanding the concepts of edge and cloud technology and how they relate is becoming a necessity.

Opto 22's Dan White does an excellent job of explaining these terms and what it means for you and your future designs and applications. He shares his insights on edge devices, data management and cybersecurity in this newly published article from Control Engineering, "Edge to cloud: Understanding new industrial architectures."

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Topics: MQTT, groov EPIC, cybersecurity, edge computing, control engineering, cloud computing

Pinturas Tropical adds precision to paint production

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 23, 2024 2:16:07 PM

New case study shows how a new dosing and batching system saved labor costs and time.

Pinturas Tropical is a leading paint and coating producer operating in Santo Domingo, the capital city and main industrial hub of the Dominican Republic. They have been delivering durable paint products for over three decades. However, their existing PLC-controlled dosing and batching system required manual adjustments and led to waste in raw materials.

How Pinturas Tropical overcame these challenges is the subject of a new groov EPIC case study.  Read how and why they turned to renowned systems integrator and certified OptoPartner RMS Industrial Tech to revamp their batch control system through better visualization and record keeping.

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Topics: Case studies, Modbus, Node-RED, groov View, groov EPIC, OptoPartner

See groov in Chicago

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 22, 2024 2:55:48 PM

Another opportunity to see groov EPIC and groov RIO demos using Ignition software.

Have you ever attended the Automate show? Considered the leading industrial automation event in North America, this year's Automate event takes place at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, May 6 - 9, 2024.

Opto 22 technology partner, Inductive Automation, will be there located in booth 5020. That's where you'll find the Opto 22 team doing live action demos of groov EPIC and groov RIO.

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Topics: Events & conferences, groov EPIC, Ignition, groov RIO, Inductive Automation

Leveraging technology at the DX Forum

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 17, 2024 8:30:00 AM

Make plans to attend the first annual Digital Transformation Forum at the Boston Convention Center, May 1-2.

Experience two days dedicated to helping manufacturers take on digital transformation challenges. Join Opto 22's Director of Technical Marketing, Dan White, at the upcoming DX Forum.

On May 1st at 1:45 p.m., see how ALTA Refrigeration created more efficient, productive, and secure systems by leveraging digital technology. Dan will be joined by ALTA's Peter Santoro and Todd Hedenstrom for a presentation of their case study.

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Topics: Case studies, Events & conferences, groov EPIC, digital transformation

The move to groov for an IIoT approach in water management

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 8, 2024 12:40:30 PM

A new case study explains how Paloma Irrigation and Drainage District bridged the gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) for seamless data flow and efficient management.

The Paloma Irrigation and Drainage District (PIDD) has been operating for over 100 years in Gila Bend, Arizona. It provides essential irrigation and drainage services to 30,000 agriculturally diverse acres and nearly 100 homes. More than just irrigation, the PIDD safeguards the environment and upholds the community's water rights.

The PIDD faced several pressing challenges, including high maintenance costs, limited monitoring and control, and inefficient manual operations. These challenges led them to look at industrial internet of things (IIoT) possibilities, which highlighted the need for a more modern, cost-effective, and data-driven approach to water management.

In this case study, read how PIDD bridged the gap between their operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) for seamless data flow and efficient management, propelling them into their SCADA expansion.

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Topics: Case studies, Water & wastewater, IIoT, Raspberry Pi, MQTT, groov EPIC, groov RIO, digital transformation

How to use the groov RIO EMU

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 8, 2024 9:58:51 AM

Learn more about how this energy monitoring unit works with the newly published groov RIO EMU user's guide.

When introduced in 2020, the groov RIO series introduced a new kind of I/O product: edge I/O. Communicating data to other systems doesn't require a PLC, PAC, or IPC. Instead, this intelligent, distributed I/O includes security, data processing, and networking to meet the needs of IIoT projects independently.

Then we introduced the groov RIO energy monitoring unit (GRV-R7-I1VAPM-3), or RIO EMU for short, to bring the same level of connectivity to projects that require power and energy data acquisition and communication. Whether you're already using groov RIO for energy monitoring or still researching your options, the new groov RIO EMU User's Guide can help you understand its full capabilities and features.

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Topics: groov rio emu, energy monitoring

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