Add Remote Monitoring to Your Maintenance Toolkit
ApplicationCommunicationsData System MonitoringProduct

Add Remote Monitoring to Your Maintenance Toolkit

Remote monitoring options help maintenance personnel respond faster for the systems they manage and support, saving time and money. Bill Dehner, technical marketing engineer for AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the March-April 2020 issue of ISA InTech titled Add Remote Monitoring to Increase Maintenance Personnel Productivity. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for…
VFDs Take Control
ProductProgrammable ControlVariable Speed Drives

VFDs Take Control

Many VFDs now have on-board logic programming and I/O, enabling them to perform real-time control for localized applications. Jeff Payne, Product Manager for the Drives & Motors Group at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the April 2020 issue of Design News titled The Logic of Balancing VFDs and PLCs. Here’s a summary, click on the…
Enclosures Overview and Selection | White Paper
White Papers

Enclosures Overview and Selection | White Paper

Enclosures are an essential part of industrial, municipal and practically any application involving electrical control and automation systems. Learn about the many types of enclosures, their specific features and how to select the best enclosure for your application. Today’s enclosures are built to provide a lifetime of service when the correct enclosure is used to…
AutomationDirect Works with FIRST Robotics to Teach Students
Company TopicsNews

AutomationDirect Works with FIRST Robotics to Teach Students

Showcasing the excitement and wonder of science, technology, engineering, and math to students in Forsyth County is a key AutomationDirect.com community initiative. Perhaps the most successful way AutomationDirect has done this is through its multi-year participation in Forsyth County Schools’ FIRST Robotics programs. Founded in 1989, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a not-for-profit STEM…
Can a Raspberry Pi Challenge a PLC?
Open source controlProductProgrammable Control

Can a Raspberry Pi Challenge a PLC?

Single-board consumer microcontrollers are popular with hobbyists, but how do they stand up to industrial PLCs for more advanced process control applications? Many readers expressed considerable interest in a previous Control Design article comparing an Arduino microcontroller with a programmable logic controller (PLC) for basic flow control. This led author Doug Reneker to consider how…
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
Company TopicsIssue 44 - 2020News

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

If you know us well, then you know our training partner Doug Bell and his company Interconnecting Automation. Doug has been with us from the beginning and offers several services that our customers, and many others, gladly take advantage of. Whether it’s free online PLC training videos, on-site/hands-on PLC classes, or control system consulting and…
Keep Things Simple to Create Great Automation HMI Designs for Your Applications
CommunicationsProduct

Keep Things Simple to Create Great Automation HMI Designs for Your Applications

Human-machine interface (HMI) design standards vary and evolve, but end users always appreciate simplicity and clarity. Bill Dehner, a Technical Marketing Manager at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the February 2020 Applied Automation supplement of Plant Engineering titled Configure Intuitive HMI Screens to Simplify Automation, detailing some HMI configuration best practices. Here’s a summary, click…
Product Focus Brochure: Enclosures
+Tech TopicsLearning Resources

Product Focus Brochure: Enclosures

Enclosures are widely used to house electrical or electronic equipment along with switches, knobs and displays while providing a safe installation that prevents electrical shock to equipment users and protects the contents from the environment. Today’s enclosures are designed with features and materials that allow safe and protective use in hazardous areas, but also designed…