Cost-effective automation and internet of things technologies save time and yield better control.

California-based Azcal Management farms a wide variety of crops in drought-prone conditions. Managing water use and monitoring pumps is crucial for their operations to succeed and means walking a fine line between providing just enough water, but not too little.

Azcal farm managers made the decision to automate their manual processes to keep up with demand and avoid costly breakdowns, repairs, or damaged crops. Finding a system integrator in the agriculture field market was challenging, but after meeting with John WIlliamson of Farm Data Systems (FDS), they realized the new edge technology that FDS offered could bring their farming operations into the internet of things.

It was time for an end-to-end field monitoring and automation solution for crop irrigation management.

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Honest answers to your questions about making the move from SNAP PAC controllers to groov EPIC.

I’d like to try and feed two birds with one handful of grain in this blog…

We often get these two questions from existing Opto 22 customers who are moving or migrating from SNAP PAC controllers to groov EPIC (or sometimes keeping SNAP I/O to work with an EPIC system).

1. Are they the same?
2. Which should I configure first, groov Manage or PAC Control?

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Need to change owners for a groov EPIC? Want to move groov Server for Windows to a new PC? Here’s how.

When you first activate a groov EPIC, a groov Box, or groov Server for Windows, you become the owner of that product. If your product is groov Server, you install it on a specific PC, tied to that PC’s MAC address.

But what if that changes? What if you need to make someone else the owner, or you need to move groov Server to a different PC?

These issues typically don’t arise with groov RIO because it doesn’t require activation, but they may affect these products:

• groov EPIC processors (GRV-EPIC-PR1 or GRV-EPIC-PR2)
• groov Server for Windows (GROOV-SVR-WIN-BASE)
• Legacy groov Boxes (GROOV-AR1-BASE or GROOV-AT1)

Here are some tips for making these transfers.

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Watch the recording of episode 8 of IntegrateLive! – as Opto 22 and Phoenix Contact connect their PLCs to web APIs to leverage data.

If you’re not familiar with IntegrateLive! yet, we encourage you to check out this new online community. Jeff Knepper and Allen Ray created this platform to help all end users, manufacturers, and system integrators in the industrial automation space.

The importance of open source technologies working together is the foundation of IL and it celebrates “Co-op-etition”—which is what brought Opto 22 and Phoenix Contact together in this latest episode.

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Indiana-based system integrator brings MES, Ignition, and groov product knowledge to take your manufacturing project to the next level.

Based in Pendleton, Indiana, Blue Ridge Automation serves the midwestern United States and has completed nationwide projects as well.

Like other IoT Certified OptoPartners, Blue Ridge has proved their expertise in edge control and I/O technology using groov EPIC and groov RIO as part of their solutions, most recently in successful large-scale applications.

Get to know Blue Ridge in their own words: “Transforming Manufacturing Beyond Limits”

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Opto 22’s groov EPIC took center stage at this year’s tenth annual Ignition Community Conference (ICC X).

If you’ve attended an Ignition Community Conference (ICC) in the past, then you know the Build-a-Thon is one of the most highly anticipated and attended events during the two-day conference.

This year, instead of a single challenge demonstrated on the live event stage, Inductive Automation promoted the Build-a-Thon competition in the weeks leading up to the conference. Premier Ignition integrators were encouraged to compete by taking on a series of Ignition-based challenges, acquiring points on a leaderboard along the way. The top two point leaders—DMC and Roeslein & Associates—moved on to compete live on stage at this year’s tenth annual ICC event

groov EPIC was also asked to be a part of this year’s competition, and Opto 22 engineering and manufacturing staff proved they were up for the challenge! Watch the Build-a-Thon and see how the groov EPIC hardware panel played an important role in demonstrating innovative Ignition projects that helped determine this year’s winner.

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Watch the panel discussion from the 2022 Ignition Community Conference that brought together experts involved in the industry-changing State of Indiana Energy INsights project.

Dedicated readers of the OptoBlog (and we appreciate you!) might recall previous posts talking about our participation in a project that’s changing the way manufacturers do business in Indiana. Introduced in a Cirrus Link Solutions webinar as well as outlined in a Control news article, the significance of this project can not be overstated.

Indiana is leading the way in advancing manufacturers to make Industry 4.0 quick, simple, and cost-effective. The state has launched a first-of-its-kind program to enable its manufacturing industries to become the Factories of the Future.

So it was no surprise when the project turned up as a panel discussion topic at this year’s tenth annual Ignition Community Conference. Some industry names you might recognize came together for an important conversation.

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Version 3.0.0 of the Opto 22 Library Package for the CODESYS Development System is now available.

For all of you taking advantage of the CODESYS programming environment available for groov EPIC, you’ll want to hear about this week’s version 3.0.0 release of the Opto 22 CODESYS library package. With CODESYS, you can program groov EPIC for industrial control and monitoring using any familiar IEC 61131-3 compliant language.

Version 3.0.0 brings you a new collection of OptoMMP client function blocks you can use to access any area of an Opto 22 device’s memory map.

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Join us for another episode of an IntegrateLive! virtual workshop showcasing Linux-based PLCs.

Have you attended any virtual workshops hosted by the IntegrateLive! community? The IL platform started earlier this year as a collaboration that aligns integrators, vendors, and end users. Each episode brings together “changemakers in automation” who show how open source technologies work well together.

The result? An integrated solution ecosystem that you can use to solve everyday industrial problems.

Opto 22 is once again participating in this month’s live demo to show the capabilities of edge controllers like groov EPIC. We’ll be joined by Phoenix Contact in this 8th episode of IntegrateLive, happening October 26th at 8:00 am PDT (11:00 am EDT). Register to attend.

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