Engineering Ideas Clinic at the University of Waterloo

Darran News

Industrial automation hub brings the real-world into the classroom for students

Though I have the highest regard for the university where I received my engineering degree, I felt the curriculum was more theoretical than practical. I was steeped in differential equations and engineering mathematics and didn’t actually have a design project or build anything until my senior year.

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OptoPartner Video – Meet Instrulogic

Darran News

Instrulogic is “all-in” to serve you.

In our latest OptoPartner video it is clear right at the start that Instrulogic Chief Operations Officer Jason Hamlin cares about service. Instrulogic has helped customers in the water and wastewater market along with other industries for over 30 years and also holds innovation as one of their core values.

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Advanced data logging in Node-RED

Darran News

This new Node-RED developer video shows you how to do more with your data with CSV logging and file storage.

Welcome back to the world of Node-RED. Video host Terry Orchard just completed a new episode on more advanced ways of logging your data. Rather than just logging to a text file, perhaps you want to change your data to a CSV file and save it to a USB drive on the groov RIO. This video gives you simple step-by-step instructions on how to do just that.

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Warehouse to Enterprise: Emerald 66/NACI

Darran News

New plant uses unique edge architecture to run at the pace of modern business

With demand for hand sanitizer more than doubling across the US, and continuing annual growth of more than 20% expected in coming years, 2020 presented the cleaning industry with a big financial opportunity. Emerald 66 Enterprises (E66) mobilized resources to meet this need, setting up shop in an empty denim processing plant in Seminole, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

In only three months, E66 had automated manufacturing lines producing up to 1 million bottles of hand sanitizer a week in a cGMP-compliant facility, and they continue to expand their core process capabilities at a rapid clip.

“When we say we do stuff quick,” says E66 chief of operations, Robert Bodnar, “we’re talking days, not weeks or months.”

In this blog series, we’ll follow E66’s growth, examining the technologies and techniques they and long-time OptoPartner Northeast Automation Company (NACI) used to achieve competitive advantage in a challenging market environment.

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How to build a basic UI in Node-RED

Darran News

Next up in the Node-RED developer video series, this tutorial makes it easy to create your own HMI or dashboard.

When we first introduced the Node-RED developer video series a few months ago, we started off with how to “Set up groov I/O nodes.” Once you’ve installed and configured them, it’s time to do something interesting with your data.

This new video does just that. Next up in the Node-RED video series is the Basic Node-RED Dashboard UI Tutorial.

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