Combined hardware and software in the Snap Pac Learning Center gives users a self-paced training system for control, monitoring, and data acquisition. Opto 22, Temecula, Calif., (opto22.com) developed the system to train users on its Snap Ethernet systems.

The standalone Learning Center includes a Snap-Pac-R1 programmable automation controller, three analog and two digital Snap I/O modules, a Snap I/O mounting rack, load panel, and accessories. A comprehensive nine-lesson tutorial introduces flowchart-based programming, digital and analog control, scripting, building an operator interface, trending, and alarming.

The Learning Center comes with Opto 22's ioProject to configure and operate the system. Control programming software, ioControl, lets users develop applications with flowcharting, or scripting, or both. Users gain experience configuring, reading, and writing to I/O points, developing simple and advanced control strategies, and performing real-time debugging in an intuitive, visual environment, says the company. Advanced tutorials cover PID-loop tuning, FTP and file management, and radio frequency identification (RFID) integration.

IoDisplay lets users build detailed graphical screens for interacting with the control system, archiving and presenting data, responding to alarms, issuing operator instructions, or downloading recipes for process controls. IoDisplay uses and works with ioControl's single-tagname database to further simplify designing a human machine interface.