Do you use PAC Control? If so, you'll want to watch these handy tips in video format, all showing you step-by-step tips for Opto 22's control development software.
The videos are quick to watch and helpful no matter how long you've been using PAC Control.
Some examples...
Topics: Videos, Tips, optonews, PAC Project, OptoNews 2015-08-12
Do you know what time it is? Does your SNAP PAC controller know what time it is? Are they the same time? Who’s right?
In this week's blog we are going to talk about this big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.… No, not time travel, but actual time…. Specifically how to set your PAC Controller to the current time.
No reading ahead; remember, time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana.
Topics: Internet of Things, PLCs, IoT, PACs, OEM, Networking, PAC Project
It is amazing how sometimes similar applications can come back to back….Last week's blog came from a customer asking how to measure the main power grid frequency. And later the same week I had a totally different customer ask me about how he could display upper, lower and current value of the main electrical grid frequency in groov. What are the chances of that!!??
This customer wanted one gadget to display all three values. Why so dense? Because they only use groov on smart phones, no PCs or Tablets. He was polling the data from a bank of UPSes and so needed to display a lot of data. Screen real estate is prime on those devices. What can we do to help?
In this week's blog, we are going to have some adventures in Z-Order.
Topics: Energy management, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Tips, IoT, PACs, OEM, I/O
Yes, it's Windows 10 Day, and if you're ready to upgrade, here's some good news:
Hooray!
Topics: groov, optonews, PAC Project, OptoNews 2015-07-29, Windows 10
Do you have a groov Box?
If so, you'll want to update it with the latest version of groov Admin, the software that helps you administer the groov Box.
groov Admin is what you use to configure network connections, back up and restore groov projects, set up system time, and so on.
Topics: groov, Updates, optonews, OptoNews 2015-07-29
Two new groov how-to videos show you all about:
Events & notifications. Configuring events you want to log, checking event status, and using the event log with or without custom message text.
Topics: Videos, groov, optonews, Training, OptoNews 2015-07-29
Of course you can include a trend in your PAC Display HMI or groov mobile operator interface and watch a value in your SNAP PAC System rise and fall over time. Or you can inspect a quick "plot" of it in PAC Control Pro's Debug mode.
But what if you just want to take a quick look at how high or how low an analog value has been, say, today?
This tip shows you how to do that using PAC Manager.
Topics: Tips, optonews, PAC Project, OptoNews 2015-07-29
Measure the main power grid frequency, he said. It will be fun, he said…. Actually, pretty sure I said something like, “it will be easy”... and I was mostly right, and best of all, it did turn out to be fun!
It seemed like both a reasonable and easy request. The requirements were to measure the mains power grid frequency to a resolution of 0.01 Hertz, and to do it every 125 milliseconds (roughly; it could be a max of 200 milliseconds, but not much longer).
Why? In this case, the chase is better than the catch. It's enough to say the customer had his reasons, and this blog is about the chase.
Topics: Energy management, Process control, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, OEM, I/O
Loop the loop.
PID loops are used in a lot of different applications, and for good reason: they help keep our world under control. If you need to control a process temperature or pressure, you probably are going to use a PID loop. But are they always the right solution?
Ultra quick review; a proportional-integral-derivative control loop (or PID controller) compares a setpoint against a measured input value, and depending on the error, changes a control variable (output). It’s all about math. A PID loop is all about running a mathematical formula over and over at a specific rate.The most common example of a PID loop that I often talk about in our monthly training class is the cruise control on a car. The speed of the car is the input, the accelerator is the output and the setpoint is what speed the car is doing the moment the driver presses the “set” button.
PID loops are so useful that sometimes we too quickly decide to use a one in a process when it may not be the best solution to the problem. In this week’s blog we are going to take a look at one instance where use of a PID loop may not be the best tool for the job.Topics: Process control, PLCs, Remote monitoring, Tips, IoT, PACs, I/O
Do you have devices on a Controller Area Network? Now you can communicate with them using the SNAP-SCM-CAN2B serial communication module and a new CAN RX/TX Integration Kit.
New R2.0b firmware on the SNAP-SCM-CAN2B makes it possible to both transmit and receive data.
When you enable transmit functionality, all data communications between the module and the SNAP PAC brain or controller are ASCII encoded and frame delimited for robust communications.
Topics: Updates, optonews, New products, Integrators, OptoNews 2015-07-15, I/O