“Incredible,” is the single word that describes the response to our booth at this year’s Automation Fair, sponsored by Rockwell Automation. Throughout both days of the show, many people were standing in the aisles to listen to presentations and learn more about our xCoupler module for connecting the plant floor with business systems – and our newest product – cATM modules to connect ControlLogix PACs with installed Allen-Bradley controllers.

What we heard over and over was that these two data appliances eliminated the pain of custom programming to get dissimilar devices to communicate with each other – and the extreme pain of updating custom programming in the future when changes needed to be made because of upgrades.

We also heard from many xCoupler module users about how they have slashed product setup times by 500 percent, reduced finished good inventories, responded better to customer demands and more, by quickly and easily connecting plant floor devices with a business system. There have also been some creative uses for the xCoupler module beyond what it was initially intended for such as temperature/humidity monitoring and email alerts for sensitive warehouse atmospheres. 

Overall, we received over three times the number of information requests on the show floor than our last Automation Fair in Baltimore in 2006. “We’ve upped the planned production rates for both the xCoupler and cATM modules based on the show response,” commented Ron Monday, Online Development’s president and CEO. “We had already exceeded our forecasts for the second half of 2007 and made upward adjustments. After the first day of the show we knew that what we had in the pipeline wasn’t going to be enough.”

Visitors to the booth also met Amy who is featured in many of Online Development’s ads and sales promotion materials. Amy helped visitors register for more information and helped distribute the “No Programming” stress balls that were given out at the show.

On the second day of the show, we ran out of CDs that contain xCoupler and cATM presentations and literature. If you would like a copy of this CD, click the link below and we will get you a copy.

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Rockwell Automation is committed to helping their customers protect their return-on-investment in its products over the long haul. To demonstrate that commitment, this booth showcased the many resources available to help customers make the most of existing equipment and migration paths available.

Among those solutions was Online Development’s cATM module that helps users of SLC 500, PLC 5, MicroLogix and CompactLogix PLCs connect to the latest ControlLogix controllers without the need for programming. A simple browser-driven setup utility is used to configure these PLCs to a ControlLogix controller using popular data bridges such as Ethernet, ControlNet, Data Highway Plus and DH485.

Congratulations to Fred Tucker from Sage Automation for winning a personalized Apple iPod for his story about the savings an xCoupler module provided his company. Mr. Tucker uses the module to connect the robots Sage Automation builds to their customer’s SQL database. Thinking that it would take him a week to interface the robot with the database, Mr. Tucker was pleasantly surprised that it only took an afternoon.

Read the Whole Story by Clicking Here.

Over the past several months, we have seen many creative ways that our customers are using the capabilities of the xCoupler information appliance module. And not just by exchanging plant floor data with a database or IBM MQ. Some are doing things like using its SMTP and TCP/IP communications capabilities coupled with sensors to create out of tolerance alerts as well. Others are using the xCoupler’s audit log to prove to suppliers or regulators that data provided is true and factual.

Click on the link below to enter your story today.

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