Opto 22, developer and manufacturer of the award-winning SNAP PAC System(tm) family of programmable automation controllers (PACs), I/O, and accessories, has released PAC Project(tm) 8.5, the latest version of the company's flagship automation software suite that includes control programming, HMI development, OPC connectivity, and database integration components.Opto 22 recently announced new additions to its extensive line of Ethernet-based components-specifically, intelligent SNAP I/O processors ("brains") and SNAP PAC standalone and rack-mounted programmable automation controllers with wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) capabilities referred to as Wired+Wireless hardware. PAC Project version 8.5 supports all of these new components, thereby providing industrial wireless networking capabilities that offer several benefits to users, such as the ability to deploy the hardware in remote areas, areas that are inaccessible, or where network wiring is difficult or impossible to install. Control system designers can also use the new Wired+Wireless hardware to design and build systems with traditional Ethernet wiring, Wi-Fi, or any combination of the two, thereby establishing a new level of networking flexibility that is currently impossible to achieve using the standard components of any other industrial automation vendor. Wireless networking capabilities also offer an opportunity for major savings through reductions in wiring costs.PAC Project 8.5's Wired+Wireless-related features include support for configuring wireless communications, such as assigning IP addresses to the wireless LAN interface, configuring secure WPA (TKIP) and WPA2 (802.11i/AES) encryption, and testing wireless signal strength. To view or download the release notes describing all of the new features found in PAC Project 8.5, please visit
http://www.opto22.com/site/documents/drilldown.aspx?aid=3806PAC Project 8.5 and SNAP PAC Wired+Wireless hardware are both available now from Opto 22 and a worldwide network of authorized distributors.
http://www.opto22.com/site/documents/drilldown.aspx?aid=3561About PAC Project The complete list of PAC Project components:· PAC Control(tm)-an intuitive flowchart and scripting control programming software application for developing control strategies that run on SNAP PAC controllers. Ideal for sequential control, batch and process control, motion control, complex math, conditional branching, string handling, subroutines, PID loop control, and more.· PAC Display(tm)-a human-machine interface (HMI) development application used to create graphical interfaces that mimic a process. Support for alarm management, recipe handling, operator logging, real-time and historical trending, multimedia, and unlimited tags puts PAC Display on par with competing HMI development applications costing thousands of dollars more per seat.· PAC Manager(tm)-a configuration and maintenance tool used to inspect and view controllers and I/O data in real time.· OptoOPCServer(tm) (included with PAC Project Professional or available separately)-an OLE for Process Control (OPC) 2.0-compliant server used to consolidate and publish SNAP PAC System data to OPC-aware clients, including third-party HMIs such as Wonderware's InTouch®, Intellution's iFix®, and Iconic's Genesis®.· OptoDataLink(tm) (included with PAC Project Professional or available separately)-connectivity software used to enable bidirectional data transfer between the SNAP PAC System and enterprise databases-such as Microsoft® SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and MySQL-without brokering the data through an HMI.For further documentation relating to PAC Project 8.5, go to
http://www.opto22.com/site/documents/drilldown.aspx?aid=3134
