OptoBlog

OptoNews: Embedded World 2016

Posted by Jean Femia on Feb 17, 2016 4:00:00 PM

OptoPartner Hy-Line Systems GmbH invites you to Embedded World 2016 in Nürnberg, Germany, next week from 23-25 February. 

Embedded World brings together everything for embedded systems, from ASIC and FPGA design to programming to wireless, this year with an emphasis on the Internet of Things and security for embedded systems. 

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Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, Machine builder, optonews, OEM, Events & conferences, OptoNews 2016-02-17

OptoNews: Troubleshooting your automation network

Posted by Jean Femia on Feb 17, 2016 3:55:30 PM

When you're troubleshooting a network communications problem, it's often best to start from the bottom and work up. 

Opto 22 engineer Matt Newton shows you how in his recent blog post about the TCP/IP Model:­ Troubleshooting the Link Layer

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Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, optonews, Networking, OptoNews 2016-02-17

OptoNews: Automating aging wind turbines

Posted by Jean Femia on Feb 3, 2016 4:16:06 PM

As "green" power production from sun and wind increases, electrical grids can find themselves with a big problem: too much electricity at once. 

Solar and wind power generation work when the sun shines and the wind blows. But those hours are not necessarily when electrical demand is highest. 

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Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Videos, groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, optonews, Integrators, OptoNews 2016-02-03

OptoNews: Your IoT Primer

Posted by Jean Femia on Feb 3, 2016 4:15:11 PM

You've been hearing about the Internet of Things (IoT), also called Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), or machine-to-machine (M2M).  

This new, free IoT Primer helps you understand how the IoT will affect your job and your life.

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Topics: groov, Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, optonews, Integrators, OptoNews 2016-02-03

Li-Fi – The best wireless for IoT?

Posted by Matt Newton on Dec 8, 2015 2:36:42 PM

Wi-Fi is an amazing piece of technology. I remember when it was first coming to fruition and laptops needed an accessory card the size of my Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone to communicate on a wireless network. That’s right. I rock an Android phone. Because it’s awesome.

Then there was the battle amongst PC and laptop manufacturers about which type of wireless interface card you needed, and how to future-proof your latest technology investment. This was essentially impossible at the time because the technology was advancing faster than PC manufacturers and consumer budgets could keep up. Wireless throughput of only a few megabits turned into 10, and then more. Dual-band wireless routers jumped from 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz bands.

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Topics: Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, Networking

The TCP/IP model: What it is and why you should care

Posted by Matt Newton on Dec 2, 2015 2:33:00 PM

Have you ever wished you could troubleshoot a networking problem faster, more accurately, and with greater efficiency? Stay tuned for the next few series of blog posts where we’ll discuss exactly how you can do that.

Have you ever wondered how data gets from one side of the Internet to the other? How an email you send from California ends up in Paris in just a couple of seconds? How your programmable automation controllers send data to your groov appliance to be displayed on your smartphone or tablet, wherever you are in the world? The magic behind all of this is called the TCP/IP model.

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Topics: IoT, Networking

Sinking or Sourcing

Posted by Ben Orchard on Nov 4, 2015 4:53:15 PM

Sinking or Sourcing?

Let’s take a quick look at the topic of sinking and sourcing outputs.

Where did the difference come from, and where does it matter in automation?

Quick answer: you often have to choose the correct module because the device you are wiring requires either a sink or source. For example, if you have a prebuilt electrical cabinet, it may be wired using a common positive or a common negative method. Thus you HAVE to choose the correct digital output module for the way the panel is wired.

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Topics: PLCs, Electronics, Tips, IoT, Machine builder, OEM, I/O

OptoNews: Smart Industry in Chicago, Unlimited Electro in Tijuana

Posted by Jean Femia on Sep 23, 2015 5:22:04 PM

See groov and the SNAP PAC System in action at two trade shows in early October:

  • Smart Industry 2015, October 5-7 in Chicago, Illinois
  • Unlimited Electro, October 6-7 in Tijuana, Mexico
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Topics: groov, PLCs, IoT, optonews, PACs, Events & conferences, OptoNews 2015-09-23

I/O Processor

Posted by Ben Orchard on Aug 31, 2015 9:07:00 AM

The Case for Intelligent I/O Systems.

The automation PC is located in the control room, and the dump valve is on the other side of the tank farm wired to a remote I/O cabinet, all connected over an Ethernet network.

The IT guys are working on the network, and they say it may take a few days to track down the intermittent cable. But hey, in the meantime, they say that it mostly works…

That answer might be sufficient for watching YouTube, but it is just not going to cut it for controlling that valve.

What do you do?

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Topics: Discrete control, PLCs, Remote monitoring, Tips, IoT, PACs, OEM, I/O

Seconds since midnight

Posted by Ben Orchard on Aug 18, 2015 10:08:57 AM

Do what when:

In last week’s blog we covered how to set the real time clock (RTC) in a PAC Controller with an accurate time server over the Internet using SNTP.

Now that our controller knows exactly what time it is, how do we turn on that pump at 6:00 a.m. on the dot?

Like most aspects of programming, there are a few different ways to achieve the same result, so join me in this week’s blog while we look at one way to manage real-time scheduling.

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Topics: Energy management, Process control, groov, Internet of Things, Tips, IoT, PACs, PAC Project

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