"What I Want for Christmas"
With the August heat bearing down on us, I thought it might be nice to think about the holiday season if anything but to provide thoughts of lower temperatures and perhaps snow on the ground. Speaking of the holiday season; I assume that every reader of this column has seen the holiday classic film “A Christmas Story” so many times that all of its scenes and dialog can be recited ad nauseam with or without it actually being on the TV. I can remember TBS showing it over and over for 24 straight hours beginning on Christmas Eve (maybe they still do this every year?).
Anyway, one scene has our little Raphie daydreaming about how his teacher is going to gush with overflowing adulation and admiration for his literary masterpiece regarding the BB gun he wants for Christmas. The teacher says to the class that Ralphie’s theme not only gets an “A+” but also gets “an A plus, plus, plus, plus” and she continues to write “+” across the chalkboard. Ralphie gets hoisted upon the shoulders of his classmates and takes a triumphant victory lap around the classroom.
Ralphie was on to something because in our world today, simply adding a “+” to any product or service name instantly means it is better or provides more of what you want. Nearly every streaming service I can think of today offers a “premium” version of their content that is the original name with a “+” added: Apple+, ESPN+, Disney+, Paramount+. The list goes on. Certainly, this is marketing economy and simplicity at its finest: “Hey we don’t have to think or hire a focus group! Just tack on a “+” and we’re done!”.
Not to be left off of this hip and trendy marketing juggernaut; Pulseroller has followed suit and updated our tried and true EasyRoll software into something better and, lo and behold, the name we have chosen is none other than EasyRoll+.
I do not intend to get into the weeds here with all of the technical details of the enhancements and improvements. Gentle readers out there who are already familiar with our “classic” EasyRoll can go download EasyRoll+ and check it out.
However, I would like to point out a few new features:
Offline Configuration - you can create a network of ConveyLinx modules, select their modes of operation, select motor settings, connections, etc., and save this as a backup file. When you get to your jobsite, all you have to do is configure your ConveyLinx networks to set the IP addresses and then restore the backup you created offline.
Online Capture and Watch - you can select one or more properties from one or more modules and have EasyRoll+ capture and graph the data. For example, you could select motor current for a few modules as the data you want to capture and EasyRoll+ will capture the data and provide a graph over time of the changing data.
Advanced Power Management - even though this feature is only available for our 48V product lines, APM allows you to alter the operation and performance of a select group of modules by configuring how they use the available power. The benefit of which can allow you to get uninterrupted operation out of perhaps an undersized power supply system.
Just like our “classic” EasyRoll; EasyRoll+ is always free of charge. The only “minuses” that I will mention is that “classic” EasyRoll will no longer be updated and that if you need to use our 48V products, you will have to use EasyRoll+. We will of course support EasyRoll and make it available on our website for anyone that still wants to use it, but our focus going forward will be to work with EasyRoll+. For example, beginning soon, our ConveyLinx training classes will use EasyRoll+ exclusively for instruction and examples.
So, hopefully the sages of marketing buzzwords don’t abandon using the “+” sign anytime soon so we don’t have to rename or re-brand our ConveyLinx software, but one thing is for sure is that if you use EasyRoll+, you won’t shoot your eye out.
Don't Shoot Your Eye Out,
