New case study shows how a new dosing and batching system saved labor costs and time.

Pinturas Tropical is a leading paint and coating producer operating in Santo Domingo, the capital city and main industrial hub of the Dominican Republic. They have been delivering durable paint products for over three decades. However, their existing PLC-controlled dosing and batching system required manual adjustments and led to waste in raw materials.

How Pinturas Tropical overcame these challenges is the subject of a new groov EPIC case study.  Read how and why they turned to renowned systems integrator and certified OptoPartner RMS Industrial Tech to revamp their batch control system through better visualization and record keeping.

Topics: Case studies, Modbus, Node-RED, groov View, groov EPIC, OptoPartner

A year in review of the most popular topics and discussions on the OptoForums.

Let's talk for a moment about our fantastic Opto 22 forum fans. The OptoForums host an amazing community.

It seems that only a very small number of industrial automation manufacturers run their own public forums. Some community-supported efforts have sprung up to backfill the need for a place where like-minded folks can gather, but there is something special about having a place that is, well, for lack of a better term, "factory supported."

Why is that a big deal?

Topics: Modbus, REST API, CODESYS, OPC UA, OptoForum, OptoMMP

Get some tips on using the groov RIO EMU with other Modbus TCP devices.

The Modbus protocol has been around since the late 1970’s. This is both amazing and cool. Amazing as some reading this have been using it since then (how time flies!). Cool because it's been around so long, and well established and widely used.

Opto 22 products have been supporting Modbus TCP since way-back-when. Out of the box, our devices are Modbus TCP slaves (now called "servers") and can be polled for data on specific register addresses. The groov RIO EMU (Energy Monitoring Unit), one of our newest products, is no different.

Topics: Energy management, Modbus, groov RIO, OptoForum, power monitoring, groov rio emu

groov EPIC becomes a Modbus master/client with a few easy lessons.

With Modbus continuing to be a popular protocol for industrial devices, the chances are pretty good you will need to write a program to communicate with Modbus slave/server devices more than a few times. The groov EPIC controller offers several Modbus communication options, and CODESYS, an IEC 61131-3 compliant development environment, is one of them.

With your PLC programming experience and the Using groov EPIC as a Modbus Master in CODESYS course on OptoU, creating a CODESYS project with Modbus master functions will be a breeze.

Topics: Training, Modbus, CODESYS, groov EPIC, OptoU

Watch these new groov EPIC videos for tips on using your Modbus TCP devices with groov View, PAC Control, Node-RED, and Inductive Automation's Ignition software.

Opto 22 engineer Ben Orchard is back in the Opto 22 studio with several new video lessons on communicating to Modbus TCP devices with a groov EPIC processor.

For each lesson, Ben is using a groov EPIC Learning Center (GRV-EPIC-LC) along with a Modbus SATEC P130 power meter, which is measuring the voltage and frequency of the mains power in our studio. 

Topics: Modbus, PAC Control, Node-RED, groov View, groov EPIC, groov EPIC Learning Center, Ignition

As an applications engineer, sometimes known as OptoMary on our OptoForums, perhaps I shouldn’t have favorite customers. They’re all my favorites!

Sure, our products and people have helped build flashy Vegas shows, huge amusement parks, and various NASA endeavors that we may or may not be allowed to discuss in detail. We also have the less flashy water/wastewater installations and beloved "dam customers" that can be pretty Coulee, too.

In these Adventures of an Applications Engineer posts I'll share some of my favorite favorites. 

Topics: Deepsea Challenge, PACs, I/O, PAC Project, Modbus

OptoForum member tohox recently posted a question about using PID control loops on a SNAP-PAC-R1 rack-mounted controller.

The issue? A really long dead loop time. 

"The time delta between the moment the strategy opens a given loop's valve [and] starts the pump+furnace and the moment a temperature increase is measured can sometimes be on the order of an hour," tohox notes.

Topics: Energy management, Tips, optonews, PACs, I/O, Building management, Modbus, PID loop control, OptoNews 2016-09-28

Getting Useful Data from Big Data

At the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), researchers analyze mountains of data from widely differing fields, including:

• Supersonic aircraft
• The human brain
• Distant stars

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, optonews, PACs, Integrators, Building management, Modbus, OptoNews 2016-07-06

How do you get a variety of building systems and machinery to communicate with a central system controller, when they use different protocols? 

Swedish system integrator Processcomponent AB had to solve this problem when they installed an energy monitoring system in a large apartment building in Gothenburg. 

Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Remote monitoring, optonews, Integrators, Building management, Modbus, OptoNews 2015-11-18, M-Bus

Whether your Modbus equipment uses Serial RTU, Serial ASCII, or Modbus/TCP protocol, our latest Modbus Integration Kit has you covered. 

The kit makes it easier to integrate your Modbus equipment with SNAP PAC controllers running PAC Control strategies. 

Topics: optonews, PACs, New products, Integrators, PAC Project, OptoNews 2015-10-07, Modbus