Revisit the posts readers found most valuable on the OptoBlog in 2025.

Ready for another look back at highlights from 2025? Here's a chance to review the OptoBlog posts that resonated most with our readers this past year.

New ways to use Ignition software, staying current on firmware updates, strengthening cybersecurity practices, and picking up practical tech tips along the way: these articles reflect the challenges and priorities that OptoBlog subscribers are focused on.

Whether you’re revisiting a favorite or discovering it for the first time, here are the top five OptoBlog posts of 2025 that informed and guided this community.

Learn how setting up VPN (virtual private network) configurations can help you securely connect to your remote devices.

In our latest video VPN configuration on groov devices using OpenVPN, you'll get a breakdown of the high-level configuration of VPNs and also a detailed walkthrough of the process.

But first, in this blog post, let's discuss the pain of secure remote connectivity and the gains that setting up a VPN can bring.

One of the new features in recent versions of the groov EPIC firmware (R1.4.0+) that hasn’t gotten much attention yet is the built-in virtual private network (VPN) client. I’m excited about it because it’s an incredibly rare feature in PLCs and PACs and makes it much easier to create a secure architecture for managing remote equipment.

Why? Because a VPN essentially creates a secure tunnel through the internet—using encryption and user authentication—that can connect remote EPICs to your PC or trusted company network. From a security and connectivity standpoint, it’s like the EPIC is on your desk or in your facility, protected in all the ways you protect your company network. Anything you can do with a locally networked device, you can do with a remote system using VPN.

Firmware update 1.4.0 is now available for the groov EPIC processor, GRV-EPIC-PR1.

Our engineering team released an exciting new update for groov EPIC this week. Here are some of the highlights.