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.

Opto 22's groov EPIC took center stage at this year's tenth annual Ignition Community Conference (ICC X).

If you've attended an Ignition Community Conference (ICC) in the past, then you know the Build-a-Thon is one of the most highly anticipated and attended events during the two-day conference.

This year, instead of a single challenge demonstrated on the live event stage, Inductive Automation promoted the Build-a-Thon competition in the weeks leading up to the conference. Premier Ignition integrators were encouraged to compete by taking on a series of Ignition-based challenges, acquiring points on a leaderboard along the way. The top two point leaders—DMC and Roeslein & Associates—moved on to compete live on stage at this year's tenth annual ICC event

groov EPIC was also asked to be a part of this year's competition, and Opto 22 engineering and manufacturing staff proved they were up for the challenge! Watch the Build-a-Thon and see how the groov EPIC hardware panel played an important role in demonstrating innovative Ignition projects that helped determine this year's winner.

Watch the panel discussion from the 2022 Ignition Community Conference that brought together experts involved in the industry-changing State of Indiana Energy INsights project.

Dedicated readers of the OptoBlog (and we appreciate you!) might recall previous posts talking about our participation in a project that's changing the way manufacturers do business in Indiana. Introduced in a Cirrus Link Solutions webinar as well as outlined in a Control news article, the significance of this project can not be overstated.

Indiana is leading the way in advancing manufacturers to make Industry 4.0 quick, simple, and cost-effective. The state has launched a first-of-its-kind program to enable its manufacturing industries to become the Factories of the Future.

So it was no surprise when the project turned up as a panel discussion topic at this year's tenth annual Ignition Community Conference. Some industry names you might recognize came together for an important conversation.

Opto 22 teams up with Inductive Automation and distributor MPI Technologies AG at this year's SPS event in Nuremberg, Germany. 

The SPS - Smart Production Solutions exhibition covers the entire spectrum of smart and digital automation, and its focus is on practical solutions for your specific business area.

Join Opto 22, Inductive Automation, and joint Swiss distributor MPI Technologies AG for live demonstrations of digital transformation software and hardware solutions using Ignition with groov EPIC and groov RIO. 

These solutions work together to address challenges in digitally transforming your manufacturing operations securely and at scale. Ignition will be featured both on servers and running on the edge, illustrating several flexible architectures to fit your project needs.

Watch Opto 22's product solution demo from day two of this year's virtual Ignition Community Conference (ICCX).

Were you able to attend this week's virtual ICCX event? As in previous years, Opto 22 was a sponsor, presenter and exhibitor at the annual conference. We kicked off day two of the exhibitor presentations with a product solution demo featuring groov EPIC and groov RIO. 

In this half-hour, rapid-fire presentation, we demonstrated the power of edge computing and 4 edge architectures using Ignition and Ignition Edge. Watch a live demonstration of these technologies in action, and see how you can build edge architectures for your digital transformation projects.  

Don't miss Opto 22's product solution demo during the virtual portion of the tenth annual ICC conference.

The annual Ignition Community Conference continues to grow in popularity each year, as this year's in-person event has already sold out. But, if you were unable to score a ticket, we have good news! 

A virtual ICC is also happening October 3 - 5th, with several opportunities to see what you missed at the live event, as well as a new schedule of product solution demos to check out.

See how to quickly read groov RIO data into the Ignition Exchange tag database

With software-configurable I/O, like that on the groov RIO MM1 and MM2, it’s easier than ever to instrument all your devices for control and reading back real-world data. To help you take the next step of getting that data somewhere meaningful, this post will summarize a new Ignition Exchange project for reading data from one or more groov RIO modules into your Ignition tag database.

Posted by MartinCSI, an IoT-certified OptoPartner, this project makes it trivial to dynamically get tag data into the Ignition tag database, display it on Vision pages, and link it to other projects and providers where you can then do whatever you need.

Come along on a houseboat trip to Lake Powell to see what's possible when you bring a groov RIO and SpaceX Starlink on vacation.

Opto 22's VP of Product Strategy, Benson Hougland, has often described Lake Powell (which stretches from southern Utah to northern Arizona) as one of his favorite vacation destinations. A houseboat vacation has become a family tradition that always took him "off the grid" for a week. This year was a different story.

With a groov RIO edge I/O module outfitted with some temperature sensors, and the convenience of a Space X Starlink satellite internet system on board, this year's trip made for some memorable moments in remote automation.

Inductive Automation's Kevin McClusky suggests a different approach to make your industrial systems safe and secure in this month's featured guest blog.

What would it take to break into Fort Knox? As one of the most secure locations on the planet, it wouldn’t be easy. However, someone with the right amount of time, planning, and determination may be able to find a way.

The same is true for most industrial systems. So, how to protect what’s inside? Strategies that may work in the physical world—thicker walls or taller fences—don’t translate to digital systems. The tools of the trade here are a variety of high-tech solutions such as firewalls, SIEMs, IDS’s, and IPS’s. These are tools mainly to monitor network traffic and control the flow, and provide early alerts if there’s unusual activity.

However, what if we threw out all of those traditional tools and took a different approach?

Upcoming seminar introduces new Indiana statewide program to reduce energy costs for manufacturers.

Join us for an exciting preview of new digital transformation technology at Discovery Day Indiana, hosted by the Energy Systems Network (ESN) and the Emerging Manufacturing Collaboration Center (EMC2) in Indianapolis, IN. This month's event highlights the project that brought together the State of Indiana, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Inductive Automation, Cirrus Link Solutions, and Opto 22.