Need a generation-to-generation upgrade path? Opto 22 customers have it.

With all the buzz of Opto 22's 50-year anniversary in the air, many of us here at Opto 22 headquarters in Temecula, California, are sharing our Opto stories—mostly centered around memories of people and events. It wasn't until a live-chat message came in from a customer asking about migrating PID loops from a legacy Factory Floor application to PAC Control running on a groov EPIC that this blog post crystallized in my mind's eye.

What struck me even more than the question about migrating those mid-1990s PID loops is just how profound it is that the question actually does have an answer! (Stay tuned until the end.)

Topics: Migration, Opto 22 product support, product philosophy, Anniversary

Move up to SNAP PAC—and keep racks and field wiring intact

Have you seen some of our newer high-density, high-speed, or multifunction I/O modules and wished you could use them in your legacy SNAP Ultimate or SNAP Ethernet I/O system? 

Have you wanted to build an easy-to-use groov mobile interface for your legacy system?

Topics: Updates, optonews, PACs, New products, Migration, Integrators, I/O, OptoNews 2016-07-06

Coming soon: PAC Project R9.5000, with many new features you've requested plus support for new I/O modules. Here's a sneak preview of what's inside.

Just a few of the highlights...

Topics: Updates, optonews, PACs, Migration, PAC Project, Optomux, OptoNews 2016-06-22

From 1923 to the present, Vista Irrigation District has successfully battled THE two big Southern California issues: increasing population and drought. 

Transporting over 5 billion gallons of water each year, the district has hundreds of miles of pipeline and more than 30 remote sites. 

Topics: Case studies, Remote monitoring, Water & wastewater, optonews, PACs, Migration, Integrators, OptoNews 2016-04-27

With 27 years of experience in automation, Marion A. White, P.E., Inc. brings a wealth of knowledge to help you with your application. 

Whether you need systems integration, conversion or migration, upgrades, documentation, or customized training, our new OptoPartner can help.

Topics: optonews, Migration, OptoNews 2016-04-27

Just released: two new updates that improve security and performance:

• E1/E2 brain board firmware
• groov Admin update for the groov Box 

Topics: groov, Updates, optonews, Migration, Firmware, OptoNews 2016-03-30

Way back in 1883, the Frick Company started manufacturing refrigeration compressors. During the next 100 years they became well known for a variety of reliable refrigeration system components.

By the 1980s Frick began automating their systems with Opto 22 products, and they began to notice a new need in the industry: custom system design and integration.

Topics: Case studies, Process control, Food & beverage, Machine builder, optonews, OEM, Migration, Integrators, Building management, OptoNews 2016-03-30

Move up without changing racks or field wiring

Have you seen some of our newer high-density, high-speed, or multifunction I/O modules and wished you could use them in your legacy SNAP Ultimate or SNAP Ethernet I/O system? 

Have you wanted to build an easy-to-use groov mobile interface for your legacy system?

Or wanted to log a lot more data locally? 

If so, we have a tip for you: check out the SNAP-PAC-R1-B programmable automation controller. 

Topics: Updates, Tips, optonews, PACs, New products, Migration, I/O, OptoNews 2015-12-16

If you've used Opto 22 products for a long time, you may very well have some colorful G4 digital I/O modules in a panel somewhere. They were probably installed back in the 1990s.

Still reliably monitoring sensors and activating outputs, these G4s are likely the workhorses of your automation system. Why would you ever want to replace them?

Topics: Discrete control, optonews, Migration, I/O, PAC Project, Optomux, OptoNews 2015-11-04

A firmware update is now available for E1 and E2 brain boards. If your current firmware is R1.1d or R1.1e, you'll want to install the new firmware. See the firmware readme for details.

For those of you not familiar with E1s and E2s, they are serial- and Ethernet-based brain boards typically used with G1 or G4 I/O systems. The E1 is for digital I/O and the E2 for analog I/O. 

We designed the E1 and E2 as drop-in replacements for older serial-based B1 and B2 brain boards. 

Topics: optonews, Migration, I/O, Optomux, OptoNews 2015-10-21