Over the years, one of the most difficult things I’ve had to help clients with is justifying an automation project. Whether it’s a new system or an upgrade, the challenge is often in quantifying the benefits financially.

Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, API, REST API, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

Why is there so much talk about the Internet of Things (IoT)? Because companies are increasingly looking for data-based information to improve their operations. 

• Data from industrial systems in factories and processes
• Data from sensors and devices in remote locations
• Data from company databases and spreadsheets
• Data available from online services and cloud platforms

Topics: Webinars, Internet of Things, IoT, Integrators, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

What if your operators could enter machine data on their phones and that data automatically appeared in a Microsoft^® Excel^® spreadsheet? 

What if production or usage data from your spreadsheet was automatically updated in your supervisor's groov mobile operator interface?

Could be pretty handy, right?

Well, we've got a couple of code samples to show you how to make it happen. 

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, IoT, optonews, Integrators, API, REST API, REST, mobile, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

Wine + IoT = yum + engineering fun

In my last post, I talked about beer and some hard deadlines at the end of a season. This time, let’s talk about wine and a different kind of season: harvest season!

During that Big Game, and since then, you might’ve seen some ads showing farmers in fields with iPads.

Well, I’ve met them.

Topics: Food & beverage, groov, Internet of Things, IoT, Integrators, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Node-RED, Data acquisition

Join us at the SORT Fall Technology Showcase in Ontario, Canada next Thursday, September 28.

• See advanced solutions for automotive, metal and steel, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and other industries.
• Learn about the latest technologies to address your manufacturing challenges.
• Attend live demonstrations and seminars.

Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, PACs, Events & conferences, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

Beer and post season

In my last post, a green submarine traveled through space and time to the bottom of the ocean, and an Opto 22 SNAP PAC (programmable automation controller) interfaced with a lot of Modbus equipment to coordinate systems.

These next two adventures are also examples of how well Opto 22 PACs play with others.

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, IoT, PACs, Integrators, PAC Control, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

You may have been thinking about doing an IoT application that could help your company, but embarking on your first industrial IoT application may seem daunting.

I’ve heard Opto 22 Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy Benson Hougland tell people to "start small," or "just get started." 

Topics: Internet of Things, Remote monitoring, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Data acquisition

One of the main promises of the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is advanced data analytics. As I research what exactly this means and look for use cases, one thing that comes up often is anomaly detection. At first glance, the question that comes to my mind is, "But wait, don’t we already have this?"

Topics: Process control, Internet of Things, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Data acquisition

We’re all concerned about maximizing our manufacturing equipment uptime and decreasing downtime. If our machines go down, we lose money. It’s that simple. In fact, according to www.industryweek.com, the average cost of downtime in most industrial applications is $30-$50K per hour. And that number is increasing each year. According to Aberdeen Group, downtime costs in some industrial applications can top out at $250K per hour.

Topics: Internet of Things, IoT, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things

Last week Opto 22 exhibited at the Automation Conference in Chicago. It was a great event, with a lot of interesting material presented and some really cool new technology demonstrated.

I conducted two workshops for attendees while I was there, both on Rapid IIoT Application Development with Node-RED, RESTful APIs, and MQTT.

Topics: groov, Internet of Things, IoT, PACs, API, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Node-RED