New categories and reorganization of topics are just some of the reasons to visit the OptoForums.

Whether you're new to using Opto 22 products or a long-time user, you can benefit from checking out the OptoForums. It's where engineering minds meet to post questions, answer fellow forum user questions, recommend solutions or even provide code samples—all related to Opto 22 hardware and software.

Moderated by Opto 22's Ben Orchard and Terry Orchard, the Forums are another great resource to keep bookmarked for troubleshooting or application advice.

And the Forums recently went through some reorganization, with more topics and categories added to help you find your answers more quickly and efficiently. Take a look at what's new.

Learn more about automation products and IIoT technologies through the Interactive Demo section on the website.

Many people benefit from hands-on learning, which is why we've always maintained a section of interactive resources on the Opto 22 website. If you haven't tried it yourself, take a few minutes to point, click, and discover some new product features and functions.

These website demos cover advanced edge computing and IIoT concepts using groov EPIC and RIO products, building custom HMIs with groov View, and even basic automation 101 concepts like PID turning.

Here are some website demos you can explore.

A new section just added to the Opto 22 Developer site supports the latest 3.0.0 release of the Opto 22 CODESYS library package.

If you haven't visited developer.opto22.com in awhile, you'll want to spend some time reviewing our latest technical guides and resources. The site gets a lot of traffic from developers working with groov EPIC, SNAP PACs, Node-RED, and even industrial I/O for Raspberry Pi. 

Since all Opto 22 products are designed on open standards, you have a variety of ways to interact with them and integrate with other systems. The developer site helps you do that.

Now we've added a section dedicated to helping you program CODESYS on groov EPIC controllers.

Hear from Evo Integration as their success with groov RIO projects has earned them IoT OptoPartner status.

Meet our newest member of the OptoPartner program: Evo Integration, "the evolution of integration today." 

Centrally located in eastern Pennsylvania, Evo Integration is a one-stop shop for all of your automation, communication, and electrical needs.  Their team recently completed a project in the Food & Beverage industry, where they used groov RIO, MQTT, and OPC UA technologies to monitor remote location storage. This impressive application got the attention of the Opto team of engineers, and led to inviting Evo to become an IoT Certified OptoPartner.

Hear from OptoPartner 4IR Solutions in this guest blog post as CTO Joe Dolivo describes the ideal device for running Ignition Edge software.

The Ignition platform by Inductive Automation provides a modern, robust, and flexible development environment for building SCADA, IIoT, and Industry 4.0 applications in support of digital transformation initiatives.

Ignition's scalable architecture makes it a perfect solution for building both fully on-premises applications as well as "hybrid cloud" applications that are distributed across both the cloud and the edge. In the industrial automation world, most cloud-enabled solutions still require an on-premises component to allow control of equipment and data buffering in the event of connectivity issues. Ignition provides a purpose-built Ignition Edge product suite for this use case, which must be deployed on a complementary hardware platform that is appropriate for running plant-floor applications.

Let's consider for a moment what an ideal device for running Ignition Edge might look like—our hypothetical Ignition Edge "Dream Machine."

Cost-effective automation and internet of things technologies save time and yield better control.

California-based Azcal Management farms a wide variety of crops in drought-prone conditions. Managing water use and monitoring pumps is crucial for their operations to succeed and means walking a fine line between providing just enough water, but not too little.

Azcal farm managers made the decision to automate their manual processes to keep up with demand and avoid costly breakdowns, repairs, or damaged crops. Finding a system integrator in the agriculture field market was challenging, but after meeting with John WIlliamson of Farm Data Systems (FDS), they realized the new edge technology that FDS offered could bring their farming operations into the internet of things.

It was time for an end-to-end field monitoring and automation solution for crop irrigation management.

Honest answers to your questions about making the move from SNAP PAC controllers to groov EPIC.

I’d like to try and feed two birds with one handful of grain in this blog…

We often get these two questions from existing Opto 22 customers who are moving or migrating from SNAP PAC controllers to groov EPIC (or sometimes keeping SNAP I/O to work with an EPIC system).

1. Are they the same?
2. Which should I configure first, groov Manage or PAC Control?

Need to change owners for a groov EPIC? Want to move groov Server for Windows to a new PC? Here’s how.

When you first activate a groov EPIC, a groov Box, or groov Server for Windows, you become the owner of that product. If your product is groov Server, you install it on a specific PC, tied to that PC’s MAC address.

But what if that changes? What if you need to make someone else the owner, or you need to move groov Server to a different PC?

These issues typically don’t arise with groov RIO because it doesn’t require activation, but they may affect these products:

• groov EPIC processors (GRV-EPIC-PR1 or GRV-EPIC-PR2)
• groov Server for Windows (GROOV-SVR-WIN-BASE)
• Legacy groov Boxes (GROOV-AR1-BASE or GROOV-AT1)

Here are some tips for making these transfers.

Watch the recording of episode 8 of IntegrateLive! - as Opto 22 and Phoenix Contact connect their PLCs to web APIs to leverage data.

If you're not familiar with IntegrateLive! yet, we encourage you to check out this new online community. Jeff Knepper and Allen Ray created this platform to help all end users, manufacturers, and system integrators in the industrial automation space.

The importance of open source technologies working together is the foundation of IL and it celebrates "Co-op-etition"—which is what brought Opto 22 and Phoenix Contact together in this latest episode.

Indiana-based system integrator brings MES, Ignition, and groov product knowledge to take your manufacturing project to the next level.

Based in Pendleton, Indiana, Blue Ridge Automation serves the midwestern United States and has completed nationwide projects as well.

Like other IoT Certified OptoPartners, Blue Ridge has proved their expertise in edge control and I/O technology using groov EPIC and groov RIO as part of their solutions, most recently in successful large-scale applications.

Get to know Blue Ridge in their own words: "Transforming Manufacturing Beyond Limits"