You've got your groov Box and you're ready to plug it in and start building a mobile operator interface for your automation system. Great!

In our latest video, Opto 22's Director of Training Mary St. John walks you through the quick-start steps. You'll set up your groov Box, activate it and get your license file, enter passwords and begin your interface.

Can you remember? Bob and Mary Jane Engman can—they were in their house in Huntington Beach, California, planning a new company to manufacture the optically isolated, liquid epoxy-filled solid-state relays that Bob had drawn the design for at the kitchen table. That's Bob in the photo at the right.

This new manufacturing process made SSRs both more reliable and cheaper to build than others on the market. Better for customers. Better for business.

Bob and Mary Jane called their new company Optrol at first, but that name was already used by another company. So they chose Opto 22.

Got the groov View app for your iOS or Android device? If so, be sure to get the latest update. Here are some new features you might have missed.

When you're looking at your groov interface, swipe right to see a list of your groov connections. The active one is in green. It remains active, so you can just swipe back to view it again.

On the groov list page, you'll see a new Settings button in the upper left. It opens a Settings page with several options:

If you've been thinking about trying groov, now's a good time.

In this short video, Opto 22's Ben Orchard walks you through getting the free trials of both groov Server for Windows and the KEPServerEX tag server, installing them, and building and testing your own groov mobile interface.

We're delighted to announce the second-generation groov Box, GROOV-AR1. With solid-state fanless operation, a tiny footprint, and operating temperature of 0 to 70 °C (32 to 158° F), the new groov Box hosts the same easy-to-use groov software.

With groov you can build mobile operator interfaces for just about any automation system and securely use them on virtually any smartphone or tablet.

It's the mobile app you build yourself, without programming or coding.

Are you as fascinated as we are by the variety of "smart" devices now becoming available—and affordable?

One of these is Belkin's WeMo switch. Plug the switch into an electrical outlet, plug in a light or appliance, and you can remotely turn it on or off with your smartphone.

Our own OptoMary couldn't resist writing a little PAC Control code for the WeMo so she could add it to her groov mobile operator interface. She explains how she did it and includes her sample WeMo flowchart in this Control "smart" devices - WeMo Example OptoForum post.

You've heard us talk about how you can control your system on your mobile with groov.

• "Your system" means any industrial automation, building automation, or other system that talks OPC UA. (Check out the list of compatible systems.)
• "Your mobile" means any smartphone or tablet with a modern web browser. (See compatible devices.)

Why this flexibility? Because groov is based on the automation standard for interoperability (OPC UA), and on Internet standards for web browsers (like SVG and HTML5).

If you have a groov Box, we recommend you install the latest groov Admin update, version R1.570.35

This update is in response to the June 5 OpenSSL security advisory. To make sure you're as safe as possible using groov, we've immediately applied the necessary fixes.

The new update guards against a man-in-the-middle attack, where a remote attacker with a man-in-the-middle vantage point on the network might be able to decrypt or modify traffic between the computer you use to administer the groov Box and the groov Box itself.

Opto 22 engineer Ben Orchard is just like a lot of us—he can't resist tinkering with controls whether he's at work or at home.

So of course he's automated his home: sprinklers (key item in a hot area like Temecula that gets little rainfall), Philips hue lights (atmosphere!), and WeMo electrical outlet switches (safety, convenience).

Ben's got them all set up so he and his family can monitor and control all these from the computer in the kitchen or from smartphones and tablets anywhere. And everything's managed in the same operator interface, which works on any brand PC or mobile device because it runs in a modern web browser like Firefox or Chrome or IE10.

All this talk about the Internet of Things... but what does it really mean to you and me?

At the Internet of Things North America conference this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Opto 22's Ben Orchard presented some new ideas on how we can approach these "smart" sensors and devices and equipment so they make sense for us.

Ben starts in his own geeky house, where his Philips hue lights, WeMo switches, and Twitter account (among other things) make up his own personal Internet of Things.