OptoBlog

Josh Eastburn

After 12 years as an automation engineer working in the semiconductor, petrochemical, food and beverage, and life sciences industries, Josh Eastburn works with the engineers at Opto 22 to understand the needs of tomorrow's customers.
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Recent Posts

Mini case study: Dignified Motors makes driving accessible with groov EPIC

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Nov 11, 2020 8:00:00 AM

Innovative engineer turns to Opto 22 to power an EPIC Chevy Silverado lift system

Download case study pdf

What do you do if you own a beautiful truck but one day find yourself a wheelchair user? Chances are you’ve never considered that possibility, but answering that kind of question is what Dave Aitchison of Dignified Motors does every day.

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Topics: groov EPIC, Veteran's Day

groov RIO mini case studies

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Aug 10, 2020 9:48:32 AM

See what people are up to with Opto 22’s new edge I/O module.

groov RIO has been available for a few months, and people are already surprising us with how they’re putting it to work. Here are a few of the amazing examples we’ve seen from our early adopters.

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Topics: Case studies, system integrator, groov RIO

MQTT: Bringing it all together

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Jul 29, 2020 8:45:29 AM

Building industrial MQTT networks at scale with Opto 22 groov devices.

If you've followed this series since the beginning, you should have a good idea of how to set up your groov EPIC or groov RIO for MQTT communication. You also understand the importance of Sparkplug B in building MQTT systems and designing industrial-strength IoT networks.

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Topics: MQTT, groov EPIC, Sparkplug, Ignition, MQTT implementation, groov RIO

MQTT: Mission-critical fault tolerance

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Jun 16, 2020 9:01:50 AM

Our MQTT series continues with a deep dive into groov EPIC’s (and now groov RIO’s) features for high-reliability MQTT networks.

At its heart, MQTT was designed for unreliable networks. Back in the ’90s, ConocoPhillips (now Phillips 66) was looking for a way to improve telemetry reporting over its low-bandwidth dial-up and costly VSAT (small satellite dish) SCADA network. IBM partnered with system integrator Arcom Control Systems (now Cirrus Link Solutions) to develop a minimalist communication protocol that could gracefully handle intermittent network outages and high latency among many distributed devices over TCP/IP. 

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Topics: Node-RED, MQTT, Ignition Edge, groov EPIC, groov Manage, Sparkplug, MQTT implementation, groov RIO

Go further with groov EPIC 2.0

Posted by Josh Eastburn on May 5, 2020 4:03:17 PM

With the latest firmware update, groov EPIC gets I/O for the IIoT and more

Out this week, groov EPIC firmware version 2.0 is a milestone for the platform, and there are more than a few reasons to consider updating. Here’s an overview of what’s included.

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Topics: Updates, PAC Control, IIoT, Node-RED, MQTT, CODESYS, groov EPIC, groov RIO

MQTT: Faster, better with Sparkplug B

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Feb 18, 2020 3:30:40 PM

In part 2 of our series, we look at how to set up groov Manage and Ignition Edge for publishing with Sparkplug B payloads.

MQTT is the darling of enterprise IoT because of its efficiency, simplicity, and flexibility, which makes it ideal for use in applications that communicate with resource-constrained edge-of-network devices. After being nurtured for years within IBM, and incorporated into their smart energy, health, and utilities solutions, MQTT has become the chosen messaging protocol across all the major cloud IoT platforms as well as highly scalable applications, like Facebook Messenger.

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Topics: Node-RED, MQTT, Ignition Edge, groov EPIC, groov Manage, Sparkplug, MQTT implementation

Announcing another Opto 22 breakthrough: groov RIO - remote I/O for the IIoT

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Feb 4, 2020 9:08:10 AM

You’ve heard the rumors. Now, as an OptoBlog subscriber, you can be first in line...

Coming next month: groov RIO®, a new family of intelligent, standalone, Ethernet-based, PoE-powered, remote I/O units for IIoT and automation applications.

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MQTT: Basic publishing with groov EPIC

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Jan 8, 2020 8:35:33 AM

Wondering how to implement MQTT with groov EPIC? Follow along with this series, starting with basic string publishing.

Ever since ‘00, when the next year rolls around I think, “Welcome to the future!” Every year it feels much truer, and how could 2020 be any less? (UPDATE: 🤦) I’m excited about what we have planned for you this year. Among other things, we’re upping our commitment to MQTT in a big way. Stay tuned for announcements on that in the coming months.

For the moment, though, I want to address the current feature set groov EPIC offers for MQTT, the lightweight pub-sub communication protocol for IoT. With so many ways to do it—via groov Manage, Node-RED, or Ignition Edge—you may be wondering which, if any, is right for your application. In this series, I’m going to look at different scenarios where you might want to use MQTT, then show you how to get started.

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Topics: Node-RED, MQTT, EPIC, groov EPIC, groov Manage, MQTT implementation

Open source is the future of automation

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Dec 4, 2019 8:00:00 AM

Opto 22 speaks up for open-source software.

For this month’s IoT feature in Design World magazine, Opto 22 had the chance to weigh in on the value that open-source software brings to industrial automation.

Some key points for the industry:

  • Open source is everywhere in the enterprise and consumer sectors, powering innovation in products, services, and projects we all know.
  • Open source changes the economic model for industry, freeing engineers and end users from the trap of vendor
    lock-in.
  • Open source accelerates innovation and offers key technologies that empower IIoT growth.
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Topics: Node-RED, groov EPIC, Linux, open source software

Outside-In Journal: Unboxing the groov EPIC Learning Center

Posted by Josh Eastburn on Oct 31, 2019 8:25:22 AM

Curious to get your hands on a groov EPIC learning center (LC)? So was I. Lucky me, this was dropped off at my cubicle recently. Let’s see what’s inside!

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Topics: Training, IIoT, groov EPIC, groov EPIC Learning Center

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