As an applications engineer, sometimes known as OptoMary on our OptoForums, perhaps I shouldn’t have favorite customers. They’re all my favorites!

Sure, our products and people have helped build flashy Vegas shows, huge amusement parks, and various NASA endeavors that we may or may not be allowed to discuss in detail. We also have the less flashy water/wastewater installations and beloved "dam customers" that can be pretty Coulee, too.

In these Adventures of an Applications Engineer posts I'll share some of my favorite favorites. 

Topics: Deepsea Challenge, PACs, I/O, PAC Project, Modbus

One of the main promises of the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is advanced data analytics. As I research what exactly this means and look for use cases, one thing that comes up often is anomaly detection. At first glance, the question that comes to my mind is, "But wait, don’t we already have this?"

Topics: Process control, Internet of Things, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Data acquisition

We’re all concerned about maximizing our manufacturing equipment uptime and decreasing downtime. If our machines go down, we lose money. It’s that simple. In fact, according to www.industryweek.com, the average cost of downtime in most industrial applications is $30-$50K per hour. And that number is increasing each year. According to Aberdeen Group, downtime costs in some industrial applications can top out at $250K per hour.

Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

Maybe you're monitoring temperature, or controlling a production line, or getting data from a load cell. Whatever your goal, you want to get the I/O that works best for your application. 

Or maybe you happen to notice we have more than one SNAP-AIV voltage input module and wonder how they're different. 

Here are a couple of ways to find a SNAP module with the features you need and compare similar modules.

Topics: Energy management, Process control, Discrete control, Tips, Machine builder, optonews, OEM, Integrators, I/O, Data acquisition

We've just released groov R3.4b, available now at manage.groov.com. The new release improves security for groov Build and groov View, so you won't want to miss it. 

It's a free update for any groov Box or groov Server that's activated and has a current license.

If you're not sure about your license, here's how to check. 

Topics: groov, Updates, optonews

Last week Opto 22 exhibited at the Automation Conference in Chicago. It was a great event, with a lot of interesting material presented and some really cool new technology demonstrated.

I conducted two workshops for attendees while I was there, both on Rapid IIoT Application Development with Node-RED, RESTful APIs, and MQTT.

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, IoT, PACs, API, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Node-RED

It's easy to get confused between Opto 22 SNAP PAC controllers and SNAP PAC brains. 

They're both intelligent processors for automation, some of them look alike, and there's even overlap in what some of them do.

Let's take a look at how SNAP PAC controllers and brains are similar and how they're different.  

Topics: Tips, PACs, I/O, API, REST API

In a previous post we covered time series data.

We talked about how process automation and control data can feed our big data applications and cloud-based software platforms, to build Industrial Internet of Things applications.

In this post we'll take a look at how time series data can be used to develop time series models. 

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Node-RED

Undoubtedly you’ve heard of the most recent ransomware attack plaguing the globe. It started late last week and so far has infected machines across 150 countries.

As the name suggests, the virus in effect holds the infected computer hostage and demands that the victim pay a ransom in order to regain access to the files on his or her computer. You can learn more about ransomware in this previous blog post.

But let’s get down to what you need to know. Here are the latest facts about WannaCry that you need to be aware of to make sure your systems are not at risk.

Topics: Security

Over 40 years ago, Opto 22 started manufacturing solid state relays (SSRs). With the wide variety we've built over the years, we probably have the SSR you need in stock right now. 

We also have some advice on choosing and running SSRs in specific applications.

Topics: Tips, SSRs