The most popular discussions, topics, and tips of the year from the factory-supported OptoForums.

Is it just me, or are the years flying by faster than ever?

And as if time is not going by fast enough, I’d like to say how much I'm looking forward to writing this blog at this time next year. Why? Let's just say I can't wait to see what our customers put in the groov EPIC container over the coming year!!

But right now, let's recap the EPIC year of 2024 by looking back at the top 5 most discussed and searched topics in the OptoForums.

Get great resources and tips from experienced Opto 22 product users—and help other users with your insights.

You’ll see the OptoForums mentioned here on the blog from time to time, and that's for good reason. The Forums have valuable technical advice, sample code, product feature discussions, and firmware release previews that you can't get anywhere else.

The OptoForums community just surpassed 10,000 members! A sincere thank you to all our valuable contributors. And if you're not already a member, now is the time to sign up or sign in with your MyOpto account. You can find the direct link under the Community tab on our website.

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?

New categories and reorganization of topics are just some of the reasons to visit the OptoForums.

Whether you're new to using Opto 22 products or a long-time user, you can benefit from checking out the OptoForums. It's where engineering minds meet to post questions, answer fellow forum user questions, recommend solutions or even provide code samples—all related to Opto 22 hardware and software.

Moderated by Opto 22's Ben Orchard and Terry Orchard, the Forums are another great resource to keep bookmarked for troubleshooting or application advice.

And the Forums recently went through some reorganization, with more topics and categories added to help you find your answers more quickly and efficiently. Take a look at what's new.

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.

Get a recap of the most searched topics and popular OptoForum posts of the year.

Let’s take a look back at 2021 through the eyes of the OptoForums. You remember last year's top 5, right?

For starters, we had almost 200 more people sign up this year over last. (Y-Axis below is the number of daily sign-ups).

Learn more about Time Proportional Output (TPO) and how you can use it on the groov RIO edge I/O module.

Do you need to control a digital output from an analog input?

If so, perhaps TPO is the solution you seek. Did you know that a groov RIO has 8 built-in TPO controllers and each can be configured for a different time period? We just need a little setup assistance in the form of a Node-RED flow. Before we get into that, let's talk more about just what TPO is.

See what Opto users were talking about as we look back at last year's Top 5 posts on the OptoForums.

There is no question that the Opto 22 forums are very much alive and kicking. The past 9 months of COVID lockdown did not even make the slightest dent in the activity level.

Our sales and engineering teams have implemented new online strategies to help with your automation projects.

Even before the onset of COVID-19, Opto 22 had begun reconfiguring its sales operations to better serve you. With today's business world relying on remote and online capabilities, we've now adapted to provide even more flexible, integrated support.