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.

The annual Ignition Community Conference is celebrating its 10th year with a return to an in-person event as well as a virtual option.

The Ignition Community Conference gathers the leading minds in industrial automation to exchange ideas, inspiration, and technology. This year, Inductive Automation celebrates 10 years of ICC, and there are more ways to explore the event than ever before! ICC X features two ways to attend:

• In-person at the Harris Center for the Arts in Folsom, CA
• Virtual event (2 weeks later) hosted on the Hopin platform

Visit the Registration page to choose how you want to experience ICC X.

Check our list of June 2022 events to see if there is an opportunity to see groov EPIC or RIO in your area.

We've just updated the Opto 22 events calendar and June is shaping up to be a busy month of conferences and seminars. Get registration and agenda details on each of these upcoming shows and we hope you can join us on the road!

• ARC Industry Forum - June 6-9, 2022 - Orlando, FL
• Ignition Discovery Day - June 9, 2022 - Orlando, FL
• Ignition Oil & Gas Collective - June 22, 2022 - Houston, TX

Several highly requested features have been added to the latest firmware update for groov EPIC PR1 and PR2.

Even with the Covid pandemic lingering on, our mostly remote team of software engineers at Opto 22 have been hard at work. As a result, we have a groov EPIC firmware update that addresses a bunch of requested features, and like any software update, some bug fixes as well.

Simply known as version 3.3.1, you can freely download and take advantage of these improvements right away.

Let's take a look at what's new...

ICC 2021 Discover Gallery finalist, Perceptive Controls, talks about their continued success with the Waterford, MI Department of Public Works

In February of this year, we looked at a pioneering MQTT Sparkplug project at the Department of Public Works in Waterford Township, Michigan. Thanks to the work of system integrator Perceptive Controls, Waterford’s project went on to become a finalist in the 2021 Ignition Community Conference Discover Gallery and was showcased in the latest Sparkplug Working Group virtual meetup. Recently, I followed up with Kevin Finkler, software engineer at Perceptive, to talk about using MQTT in the real world.

Opto 22's YouTube channel is growing with more videos and subscribers.

What started several years ago as a platform to host a few Opto 22 product videos has now reached a new milestone. The Opto 22 YouTube channel recently reached 2 million views and is closing in on 20,000 subscribers.

Whether you're new to the industrial automation industry, or are looking for specific developer tips on using MQTT or Node-RED, the OptoVideo channel is your one stop for all things automation and digital transformation. 

Sharpen your drawing tools. It's time to go to work.

Visualization for industrial automation is bigger than it’s ever been, and it’s not just about control anymore. As it becomes increasingly important to turn data into information efficiently and ubiquitously, visualization platforms deal with more data types, presentation formats, and a broader range of users and use cases. As always, Opto 22 gives you many tools so you can choose what fits your project best. Let’s take a look at some of those options.

Join us at the annual Ignition Community Conference for virtual networking and more Ignition learning opportunities.

It's almost September, which means it's time for Inductive Automation's annual Ignition Community Conference (ICC). This year's event will once again be a virtual experience that brings together Ignition software experts and thought leaders from around the world.