• What if your hard drive fails while you're developing a PAC Control strategy?
• What if you need to update an old strategy built by someone else?
• What if ..?

That's when you're really glad you archived your strategy.

Seriously, save yourself a lot of trouble. There's no way to get your strategy out of your controller unless you've archived it.

So do it now. Archiving takes only a minute, and then you're ready for whatever comes. 

During development, archive to the computer.

If your hard drive fails or the PAC Control files you're developing become corrupted, you'll be glad you archived the strategy files to your computer and saved them in a separate location. Here's how:

1. To archive manually, with the strategy open in Configure mode, choose File > Archive Strategy.

Or for automatic archiving, choose File > Strategy Options. Click to put a check mark next to "Archive strategy to disk when strategy is closed."

Be sure you use these convenient options in PAC Control rather than trying to zip them up yourself. Why? Because PAC Control ensures that all files needed by the strategy are included in the archive. The archive file is created on your PC in a subfolder named "Archives" in the same directory as the strategy file. The date and time are included in the filename. 

2. Now copy the archive to another network location, external hard drive, or USB key. Keep another copy in a separate physical location.

When development is finished, also archive to the controller.

When you've almost finished development, also begin archiving to the controller itself. An archived strategy can be pulled from the controller months or even years later. But first you have to put it there.

1. With the strategy open in Configure mode, choose File > Strategy Options.

2. Put a check mark in "Archive strategy to disk when strategy is downloaded," and put another check mark in "During download, save archive to the control engine and save strategy to flash memory."

Only the latest strategy archive is kept on the controller; any older archive is replaced. The strategy is also stored in battery-backed RAM.

For more on archiving strategies, see the PAC Control User's Guide, form #1700. Search the PDF for "archive".

OptoNews June 3, 2015 - Read more in this issue:

• Updated groov View for Android and iOS
• New .NET controller SDK for SNAP PAC
• See events & notifications in groov 3 webinar