Live I/O configuration and status from a web browser? Watch the next episode of the groov Manage video series and see how it's possible.

Our groov devices are much more than just industrially hardened, cybersecure devices—they also have abundant I/O options. In the case of the groov RIO, the 10 channels provide over 200,000 I/O combinations! This flexibility is also easy to drop into the groov EPIC chassis with the MM module. So, how can you configure, wire, and commission all this?

To get a glimpse, take a look at this week's groov Manage teaser video: I/O Status.

Live I/O configuration and status in a web browser? Sure, why not. It's very powerful and makes setting up any of the groov devices as simple as pulling out your phone. I build many of the demos here at Opto, and I often have my phone out using its web browser to pull up the built-in module wiring diagrams if I am behind a panel.

If I am in front of the panel, of course, I simply use the front touchscreen on the EPIC. Once the wiring is done, I can flip a page and view the digital point status or its counter value, or in the case of an analog input, the live value, max and min, and other dynamic data, right on my phone!

Under the main Module view is a link to I/O Services. This reveals a large 12-button menu with a whole bunch of I/O options. We aren't going to go into each menu button, but clearly, there are some powerful I/O options!

One of those is Modbus. groov devices are Modbus/TCP slave devices out of the box, so there are options for tweaking that very common industrial protocol. All of our PID loop and smart I/O features, counters, max/min values, etc. are all exposed via Modbus addressing as well, so we have menu options for finding out the register addresses for all that data.

groov devices have a built-in RESTful API so you can securely access any of the I/O data on your 4-, 8-, or 16-channel rack from any programming language that supports RESTful calls—spoiler, all of them. The I/O Batch Operations menu is where you set up bulk I/O access. Of course, you also have fine granular control on a point-by-point basis as well.

Helpful diagnostics are on hand that can help you dig into how the groov system as a whole, and each module on the rack, is performing. Did you know that the groov EPIC has 96 PID loops and the groov RIO has 4—all with great configuration and web-based graphs to help tune the loop to your process? Check out this menu option to see how powerful that can be!

You can configure Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to send event messages to an external SNMP server, and we have quite a few large customers using this popular IT protocol.

It's a little-known feature, but Opto 22 has always been able to stream via UDP (Ethernet) blocks of I/O status. This is an amazing feature when you need to move or mirror banks of I/O from one location to another with just a simple Ethernet connection. "Standard Streaming" is where you would head to set up this time and money-saving feature.

Opto 22 is world-renowned for its bulletproof I/O. The groov Manage menu options make it a breeze to work with and view live data in a web browser on just about any device.

If you want to take a deep dive, you can watch the full 12-part groov Manage video. Or be sure to subscribe to this blog and get a notification when we check out the Controller menu button next week.

Till then,

Cheers Mate.
-Ben