Control.com’s Most Popular Content: a Recap of First Half 2023
After an amazing first half in 2023, with site records being broken in many categories, we have you, our viewers, to thank! But what content have you been enjoying most? Articles, forums, the textbook?
Our mission at Control.com is education: teaching engineers how to engineer the future. Education involves learning about theories, discovering brand-new technology developments, and leveraging the experience of an entire community to learn critical problem-solving and troubleshooting advice. If you ignore any of these areas, you’ll quickly find yourself limited in your view of control automation.
In the first half of 2023, we enjoyed a massive year-over-year increase in viewers, just like you, visiting our site to gain more knowledge across all kinds of subject areas. You might be interested to learn what topics the rest of the community have found exciting and engaging. If you haven’t read these pieces of content, maybe head over and check them out.
Countdown of the Top 10 Most Popular Content
#10: Technical Article: Three-wire vs Six-Wire Three-phase Motors
Perhaps not as common as 9-wire motors, these devices are found across many industries, but how do you use them?
#9: Technical Article: Active, Reactive, and Apparent Power and the Role of Power Factor
In the fields of power generation and industrial power consumption, we can't escape from inductive loading, but when AC is subjected to capacitive and inductive effects, how does this affect power consumption?
#8: Forum: Communication Problems - Modbus Timeout Error
Quick secret: Do you know how to get your hardware and software to work perfectly 100% of the time? Answer: Never, ever use hardware or software. Problem solved.
Things don’t always work right, and network problems will always be in need of troubleshooting. Join the conversation on the forums, if you have a question or can provide an answer to another engineer, hop in–this one’s for YOU.
#7: Technical Article: Arduino PLC IDE Tutorial 2: Analog I/O and External Devices
We’ve really enjoyed working with Arduinos for many years, but recent developments in the PRO lineup have opened the door for industrial PLC usage like never before. We got to play with some hardware and build some great new tutorials this year.
#6: Technical Article: The Important of the Neutral Wire in a Three-phase System
When dealing with AC systems, you will encounter 3-wire and 4-wire arrangements. The difference is a neutral wire. Why do you need it in some cases but not in others? And why do 3-phase motors never have a neutral wire connection?
#5: Technical Article: Common Windings and Wiring for Three-phase Motors
Here we go, this is your ultimate breakdown of the most common ways to wire up those 9-wire three-phase motors for high and low voltage wye and delta systems. All motors have the wiring guides on the data plate, but WHY do you make those certain connections?
#4: Textbook Chapter: Instantaneous and Time-overcurrent (50/51) Protection
This textbook chapter leans heavily toward high-voltage power systems where grid protection is a critical component. Overcurrent in a facility branch circuit can affect operations pretty badly, but overcurrent across an entire region? That’s something else entirely.
#3: Technical Article: The Difference Between Wet and Dry Contacts
Sometimes it’s not about the theory that we find confusing, it’s the terminology. You run across a word or phrase that doesn’t make sense on a spec sheet, and it takes a bit of exploring to learn how to confidently proceed down the design path.
#2: Forum: BARG and BARA
This is always one of our top most-viewed content pieces. The question is about gauge and absolute pressure. It’s proven over and over: some of the simple questions in engineering prove to be the most common for new and experienced engineers alike. Join the conversation!
#1: Event: Control Automation Day 2023!
YAY, our biggest event was Control Automation Day this year! We had a great event discussing PLCs back in 2022 and enjoyed even more success talking about the nuts and bolts, in-the-trenches applications of IoT for all of you who hate buzzwords and love actual information.
Stay tuned for next year, Control Automation Day 2024 is all about robots!
Honorable Mention: Top News Articles
News and current events don’t tend to be as popular as the theory and educational guidance content, but we have published some wildly successful announcements from many of our favorite manufacturers this year. Here are the two articles that have reached the top of the news list so far this year.
#1: News: Rockwell Automation Invests in Ready Robotics to Bring Forge OS to Logic Controllers and Software
#2: News: Siemens Releases a New Virtual PLC: The S7-1500V
Bring on the Second Half!
Thanks to every one of you for an amazing first half of 2023. I can’t wait to see the next few months.
Once again, if you haven’t yet joined our community to share your expertise with others, I’d like for you to consider doing so.
The entire world can benefit from your knowledge. Don’t believe me? Our recent millions of page views across the globe say it’s true.
That’s an impressive increase in readership!
Very interesting distribution of top topics. It never ceases to amaze me how much confusion there is over ‘wet’ vs ‘dry’ contacts.