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Star Struck:

From a young age I have been looking up at night. Not sure exactly when I fell in love with astronomy, but I can recall looking up at the stars every chance I got as a kid.

I have ebbed and flowed with the amount of time and equipment I have had to spend on the hobby. In Australia I had a fully enclosed fiberglass domed observatory, which I chose to not ship over when my family moved to The States, but the desire to look up has not gone away.

Only the constellations at the horizon can be seen in both hemispheres, and even those look upside down compared to what I used to see. So I wanted to get something up and running fast here that would allow me some time to get my bearings in the sky and to share my new stars with my mates back in Australia via my personal website.

In this week's blog, I would like to share what astronomy tools I currently have set up, thanks to some Opto 22 hardware and groov.

Topics: Videos, Process control, Discrete control, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, PACs

What's on your MicroLogix™ PLC that you'd like to monitor or control from a mobile device?

Machine status? Temperatures and pressures? Valves and pumps?

Whatever it is, you can see it and do it now with a groov mobile operator interface. 

In our latest groov Workshop video you'll watch Opto 22's Director of Training, Mary St. John, build and use a simple interface for a MicroLogix PLC that's communicating as a Modbus/TCP slave. You'll learn how to:

Topics: Videos, Process control, Discrete control, groov, PLCs, Remote monitoring, optonews, Integrators, OptoNews 2015-07-01

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Layers of security:

I wish there were, but there just isn’t.... There is no one device, hardware, or software that is the single defense for all known and future network attack vectors—including the one critical weakness: humans. You know, some thing or device that you could simply put at your network's front door and have it reject all the bad guys, but allow the friendlies in without question. Secure and easy is still a wish.

The solution then really comes down to layers. Adding layers that each will take a lot of time and a lot of effort to peel back, so much so that most attackers simply give up and move on.

The past few blog posts have talked about some of those layers, so let's now put it all together and see just how we might go about building a very robust mobile-accessible industrial automation network.

Topics: Process control, Discrete control, groov, Internet of Things, PLCs, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, Machine builder, PACs, OEM, Integrators, Networking

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Tale of two LANs

Would you like to view critical plant status from anywhere on the Internet?

Are you worried that if you connect your automation network to your company’s IT network (which is likely connected to the Internet), the wrong people could access your control system? Or that traffic like YouTube might impact your automation network throughput?

Would you like to get an email or text message alerting you to an out-of-band condition, but since your automation network is not linked to the IT department email server, you can’t set anything like that up?

There are a lot of advantages and only a few disadvantages to segmenting your IT (Information Technology) network from your OT (Operational Technology, in other words your controls) networks. While there are a few different ways to segment networks, in this blog we are going to look at separating them using one of two Opto 22 products: SNAP PAC Controllers and groov.

Topics: Process control, groov, Internet of Things, Electronics, IoT, Machine builder, PACs, Networking

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Two keys for secure communications:

What are SSL/TLS and HTTPS? You may have heard them being used on the Internet, and you have more than likely used them when logging into your bank, but what are they?

Is there anything you need to do to use these secure protocols?

What goes on "behind the curtain" in your web browser when you use them?

In this week's blog we are going to continue the theme of network security by taking a close look at SSL/TLS and HTTPS.

Topics: Discrete control, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, Machine builder, Integrators, Networking

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Mobile device use - Russian Roulette or the new normal?

Many of us have a either a smartphone or tablet, and some of us have both. We use them for all sorts of tasks every day. Are we simply pushing our luck? Are we rolling the dice every time we use them? Or can we use them in a secure manner that helps us be more productive and thus have a higher quality of life?

This week's blog is going to look at some pros and cons of the humble mobile device and what steps we can take to even out the odds.

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, Networking

Get the latest groov View app for iOS and Android operating systems.

New in this release: Support for Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and verification of a valid SSL certificate on the groov Box or groov Server.

Topics: groov, Updates, Machine builder, optonews, OptoNews 2015-06-03

Our last OptoNews introduced the new features in groov 3, just released, including:

• Events and notifications, so you can log key events in your system and even send email or text notifications that come right to your phone
• Data simulator tags, so you can try out gadgets or demonstrate groov without having to connect to real equipment

Now see the webinar!

Topics: Webinars, groov, Updates, optonews, OptoNews 2015-06-03

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Top 5 Myths for Securing a Wifi network

If you want to use a mobile device in your automation system, you are going to need to use Wifi for the simple fact that most mobile devices do not support a physical Ethernet connection to your network.

Adding Wifi is often seen as a security risk. Not done right, it can be; done right, it need not be.

Like many technolgies, Wifi has matured and become more robust. That said, poor advice still circles the web on how to secure your Wifi network that simply doesn't work anymore. Let's take a look at a few myths about securing Wifi that need busting, and what techniques we can use to bust them.

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, Electronics, Tips, IoT, Networking