• Think about how much computers have changed in the last 30 years.
• Think about the quantity of data that enterprise data centers (EDCs) process today.
• And think about how facility management priorities have changed to meet rising energy costs.

Now imagine what needs to be done to update a 30-year-old EDC.

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Videos, optonews, PACs, Building management, Security, REST API, RESTful server, REST, OptoNews 2016-12-14

If you're into technology, you may already have a smart thermostat or refrigerator or lights in your home. That's fun and sometimes even useful.

But what's the real value of the Internet of Things?

Topics: Energy management, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, optonews, Events & conferences, Integrators, OptoNews 2016-10-12, IIoT

OptoForum member tohox recently posted a question about using PID control loops on a SNAP-PAC-R1 rack-mounted controller.

The issue? A really long dead loop time. 

"The time delta between the moment the strategy opens a given loop's valve [and] starts the pump+furnace and the moment a temperature increase is measured can sometimes be on the order of an hour," tohox notes.

Topics: Energy management, Tips, optonews, PACs, I/O, Building management, Modbus, PID loop control, OptoNews 2016-09-28

What is the Internet of Things (IoT) and what is it good for?

Is anybody actually using it yet for real applications?

Here's a page of resources to answer some of your questions: The Internet of Things.

Topics: Energy management, Videos, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, optonews, OptoNews 2016-09-14

Tasty and wholesome, the frozen fruit bars made by Natural Fruit Corporation must be stored at precise temperatures.

Although their cold storage rooms were automated, on weekends operators used to have to stop by the company's factory to verify that systems were running and temperatures were within range.

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Food & beverage, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, optonews, Building management, OptoNews 2016-08-31

One of the world's largest automation events is headed to Chicago!

It's the international trade fair for industrial automation: Industrial Automation North America (IANA).

And here's an even bigger reason to attend: IANA is co-located with IMTS 2016, North America’s leading manufacturing technology trade show.

Topics: Energy management, Process control, Food & beverage, Discrete control, Internet of Things, IoT, optonews, PACs, Events & conferences, REST API, OptoNews 2016-08-17

Actually you can buy this flexible analog input module right now. You'll just need a SNAP PAC brain or R-series controller with firmware R9.5a in order to use it—coming soon!

Designed for 3-wire RTD temperature inputs or high-resolution resistance measurement, the new SNAP-AIRTD-8U analog input module has, yes, 8 points, each individually software configurable.

Topics: Energy management, Process control, optonews, New products, I/O, OptoNews 2016-07-06

Getting Useful Data from Big Data

At the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), researchers analyze mountains of data from widely differing fields, including:

• Supersonic aircraft
• The human brain
• Distant stars

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, optonews, PACs, Integrators, Building management, Modbus, OptoNews 2016-07-06

Say you own a 30-year-old enterprise data center in the Arizona desert, and you're starting to have some problems:

• Aging HVAC and mechanical systems are increasingly inefficient in the hot climate.
• Security systems are no longer adequate.

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, optonews, PACs, Integrators, I/O, Building management, Security, OptoNews 2016-05-25

If you live just about anywhere in the U.S.A., you can probably thank California Controlled Atmosphere (CalCA) for some of the fresh fruits and vegetables you buy. 

In fact, CalCA's industrial refrigeration systems for storing produce can be found throughout the world, reaching to India and China. 

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Process control, Food & beverage, Remote monitoring, optonews, OptoNews 2016-05-11