What’s new in Node-RED v3.1.7

Darran News

Learn about some of the changes and benefits of Node-RED 3.1.7 included with the recent groov EPIC 3.6 firmware release.

Node-RED 3.1.7 has many useful new features and quality-of-life improvements—mainly to the editor itself. A great example is that the flow tabs at the top of the editor now indicate when they contain a change that has not been deployed. This simple addition clarifies what will be restarted when you choose among deploying modified nodes, modified flows, or a full deploy.

Let’s talk about what other welcome additions you’ll find in Node-RED in the latest 3.6 firmware release of groov EPIC.

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Tucker Energy Services’ DIY upgrade

Darran News

New case study shows how you can save costs and gain control over your systems, even with no PLC experience.

Have you been faced with challenges like outdated equipment, manual operations, or the inability to manage data in your projects or applications? Or are you short on time to implement new technology that has a steep learning curve? Then you’ll want to read the latest case study featuring Tucker Energy Services.

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IntegrateLive! Workshop: Information Management in the Post PI Era

Darran News

Learn how to connect to equipment, log data, build models, process operational events, aggregate KPIs, and serve information to an entire enterprise while maintaining interoperability and fair licensing costs.

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to information management?

The IntegrateLive! team is back for a dynamic two-part webinar series. They’ll construct a complete information management solution live! This workshop shows how you can achieve and exceed the functionality of a traditional PI Asset Framework solution (with the help of groov products), while ensuring interoperability—and slashing costs.

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50-Year Migration Plan

Darran News

Need a generation-to-generation upgrade path? Opto 22 customers have it.

With all the buzz of Opto 22’s 50-year anniversary in the air, many of us here at Opto 22 headquarters in Temecula, California, are sharing our Opto stories—mostly centered around memories of people and events. It wasn’t until a live-chat message came in from a customer asking about migrating PID loops from a legacy Factory Floor application to PAC Control running on a groov EPIC that this blog post crystallized in my mind’s eye.

What struck me even more than the question about migrating those mid-1990s PID loops is just how profound it is that the question actually does have an answer! (Stay tuned until the end.)

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Trade shows are back—Automate 2024 was electric

Darran News

Were you in Chicago for Automate 2024? Dan White shares some highlights from last week’s show.

As cities worldwide buzz back to life post-pandemic, trade shows are reclaiming their spotlight, and none more so than the recent Automate Show held in Chicago. With over 800 exhibitors showcasing the latest in automation and robotics tech, the McCormick Place was the place to be.

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Energy management starts with energy monitoring

Darran News

Start analyzing your energy data to manage and reduce your energy consumption.

Managing and reducing your energy consumption sounds like a no-brainer. Save thousands on electricity, maintain critical machine health, reduce carbon footprint? Sign me up! 

Where to begin? Well, the best place to start is analyzing your energy data, but unfortunately, you can’t find that data on your electric bill—it’s barely a summary. To manage your energy, start by measuring it. Once you determine where, when, and how that energy is consumed, areas for improvement become obvious. 

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Case Study: Heat Treatment OEM Chooses Flexibility, Scalability

Darran News

Mercer Technologies continues to innovate—adding energy cost per part.

Are you considering ways to include energy monitoring in your industrial applications? Now you can hear first hand how long-time Opto customer Mercer Technologies is making it happen.

The latest case study in the groov case study library features Mercer Technologies’ story of innovation. See how they leverage energy monitoring data from Opto 22’s groov product family.

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Variables vs. Literals

Darran News

Understanding different data types in your PAC Control programming.

You don’t need to have the title “software engineer” on your business card before you code up your first automation process. In fact, I suspect that many industrial automation folks are like me—self-taught and come from the school of hard knocks.

This blog post is more of a musing out loud than a “you must” edict. Programming, after all, is often more art than science.

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Industrial edge architecture and cybersecurity insights

Darran News

Opto 22’s Director of Technical Marketing, Dan White, explains the features and importance of modern edge devices in this new Control Engineering article.

The industrial automation industry is now being driven by the idea of digital transformation and the industrial internet of things (IIoT). Understanding the concepts of edge and cloud technology and how they relate is becoming a necessity.

Opto 22’s Dan White does an excellent job of explaining these terms and what it means for you and your future designs and applications. He shares his insights on edge devices, data management and cybersecurity in this newly published article from Control Engineering, “Edge to cloud: Understanding new industrial architectures.”

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Pinturas Tropical adds precision to paint production

Darran News

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.

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