OptoNews - August 22, 2007

New Case Study Shows How To Keep Your Cool

And Speaking of Green...

Be Sure To Order Your Lunch & Learn

Hot Tips from Product Support

New Case Study Shows How To Keep Your Cool

If the August heat is getting you down, here's a new case study that will show you how to keep cool using Opto 22 hardware.

Today's focus on the environment and reducing energy consumption has brought evaporative coolers back as an option for beating the summer heat. But even though evaporative coolers use a fraction of the power of a traditional cooler or chiller system, they have had both real and perceived drawbacks.

AZEVAP, LLC of Phoenix, Arizona, worked with integrator Opto-Solutions to address these drawbacks. AZEVAP designed their AZFlow cooler with a patented water distribution system that uses an embedded Opto 22 SNAP control system as its central component. The system gathers sensor data and then uses a proprietary algorithm executed by a Linux-based controller to deliver cool air efficiently and reliably.

Read the AZEVAP case study.

And Speaking of Green...

Since publishing our OptoGreen initiative, we have two related things to report. First, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent us a letter of thanks for our efforts. And second, our distributor Newark has issued their Live EDGE environmental design challenge to engineers around the globe.

Live EDGE invites electronics engineers, students, and academics to submit designs for an innovative product, utilizing electronic components, which has a positive impact on the environment. A couple of features make this design competition intriguing. One is that entrants and winners retain all intellectual property rights. Another is that in addition to $50,000 USD in prize money, the winner receives support in moving the design toward production—for example, prototyping, legal, marketing, investment, and similar help. For more information, see the Live EDGE website.

Be Sure To Order Your Lunch & Learn

Have you scheduled your Lunch & Learn yet? We'll bring lunch for you and your colleagues and demonstrate the SNAP PAC System at your place of business.

To schedule, contact your local Opto 22 distributor, call us at 800-321-6786 or 951-695-3000, or email Sales. Contact us today! Lunch & Learn is available throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Hot Tips from Product Support

Opto 22's Product Support Group (PSG) develops some helpful tips as they work with customers calling in for free product support. Here are some more favorite tips from PSG engineers.

Making PAC Control Changes Available in PAC Display

Any time you update your PAC Control strategy (for example, to add a new variable) and download it to the controller, it's important to also open PAC Display Configurator, so that PAC Display can use the updated tagname database.

To do so, just open the project in PAC Display Configurator and choose Tools > AutoCorrect Tags. When that's complete, choose Tools > Regenerate IO Scanner Tag Names.

The database is immediately updated, and all the new strategy tags are available to use in PAC Display.

Are They There?

If you don't see the new strategy tags in your PAC Display project, it's possible that the PAC Display project is referencing the wrong copy of the strategy. PSG engineers say, "Most of us have made this mistake at least once!"

Here's how to find out.

1. Open the strategy in PAC Control Configure mode and choose File > Strategy Information. A dialog box will pop up, showing the path to the strategy.
2. Open the project in PAC Display Configurator and choose Configure > Control Engines. Select the controller from the list and then click Modify.
3. Click the browse button next to the Strategy field, and then click the down arrow in the Look In field to verify that the path matches the path found in PAC Control.