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July 02, 2025 Commission Siemens VFDs using StartDrive (P240)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Jackie Stokes of Siemens to learn how to commission VFDs using StartDrive in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated)
Shawn Tierney (Host): Everybody, thank you for tuning back in. In this episode, I actually meet back up with Jackie Stokes from Siemens to learn how to use a start drive to commission Siemens drive, specifically the g one twenty and the g two twenty. Although, I'm sure some of the other drives are very similar. And this actually came from a request from a viewer who's who asked that we have somebody on the show us that. And because I'm not the expert, I reached out to Jackie and she agreed to come on.
So I'm looking forward to that. Now we're gonna cover the g one twenty. The g two twenty, we're gonna cover how to change Siemens drives to be Ethernet IP instead of PROFINET. They have Ethernet IP built in, which is really cool. And then we're gonna cover some free training they have coming up.
I will include those links below as well as the links from Jackie below in the description. You should see that on all platforms. And I do wanna reach out to you and ask for a favor. I'm coming up on my ten year anniversary of doing this full time, and I was hoping that you guys could help me out to reach a 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. Now I know a lot of you listen on Apple, a lot listen on Spotify, a lot of you consume the shows over at the automationblog.com, and I appreciate you all.
But I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could hit a 100,000 subscribers over on YouTube by the end of the year? And maybe if we do, we could have a celebration. We could do a live stream, do some q and a. I'd love to hear what you guys thought over I actually started the channel twelve years ago. I was doing a part time to start, and I'd love to know what your favorite episodes were or what episodes what kind of episodes you like to see in the future.
And so if you guys I know even if you're on another platform, if you do have a YouTube account, if you could swing by, it's at insights I a. That's a lot shorter than insights in automation. So I shortened it up, I think it was a year ago or two years ago. So it's at insights I a. Again, if you guys are up to it, I'd love to try to hit a 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year to celebrate my tenth year doing this full time.
And with that, let's go ahead and jump into how to use StarDrive to set up and commission Siemens VFDs like the g one twenty and g two twenty. Jackie, welcome back to the show. I'm so happy to have you back on and here to talk about using, Siemens VFDs inside of TIA portal. Now we've talked about your VFDs so many times on the show over the years, and but we've never actually, like, put one in TIA portal and tried it out. And I had actually had a a viewer ask about that.
So thank you for agreeing to come back on. And just in case, some of the audience members didn't watch the previous episodes where you were on, Could you quickly introduce yourself before jumping into our topic for today?
Jackie Stokes (Siemens): Sure. And thanks for having me back on the show. So my name is Jackie Stokes. I am a marketing programs development manager at Siemens. I work in the motion control business unit.
I've been in the business for, oh my goodness, I'm getting old, like, fourteen years now. So I but I've been with Siemens for about three and a half years. So, yeah, we've talked about, our drives family. I think most recently, we talked about the Synamix g two twenty drive with Ivan, one of our product managers. But, yeah, happy to be back and talking about how to integrate our VFDs into portal.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. And I appreciate that. I mean, you don't know what you don't know. And so when we're going to integrate our first, you know, drive into TIA Portal, it's kinda like, well, what do we do? And so I wanted to have you on.
I I could have fumbled through it myself, but I'm like, why not just talk to the experts? So let me turn it back to you, and, let's go ahead and jump in.
Jackie Stokes (Siemens): Yeah. Sure. So, I have just brief slides before we get hands on. I have a demo unit with me, but just wanna cover what we're talking about. So we're talking about our general purpose VFD.
It is called SINAMICS g one twenty. So Sinamics is the name of our drive family, and g stands for general purpose. So that's kind of the decoder ring for Sinamics g one twenty. It does come in a few different flavors. It comes in a modular version version, which we're using today.
It comes in a compact version, which is g one twenty c, And it also comes in a distributed or on machine version, which is, g one twenty d or a similar drive, g one fifteen d, and that d is for distributed. So the modular version of this drive, comes with a control unit, a power module, as well as an operator interface. So you can kind of see on the pictures to the right, what this looks like. So the control unit can be separated from the power, module, and then the operator interface can be separated from the components as well. So we're using control unit two forty e Dash two p n dash f, and then we're using a power module two forty dash two IP 20.
The firmware version, I believe, is the latest. It's firmware version 4.7 service pack 14 hotfix four. And the software, we are using start drive. StartDrive is our software for commissioning drives, and it's in TIA Portal. So if you don't, have a TIA Portal license, to program our PLCs, for instance, StartDrive is free.
So you can download StartDrive and it will open essentially in TIA Portal. It's just that if you're using the free version of StartDrive and you don't have a license for TIA Portal like programming the PLCs, you won't be able to program a PLC in it, but you will be able to commission your drive. So that's the little distinction between Start Drive and TIA Portal. There is also a Start Drive Advanced, for advanced features and programming in the drive that you do have to pay for, but, most of what you can do and what we'll do today, you can do in the free version of StartDrive, and we'll give you a link to that, how to download StartDrive. And, of course, this is just one way to commission a drive.
You can also commission it with that industrial operator panel, the IOP dash two, which you can see on your screen. We also have a basic version of it, and then we do have a smart access module which generates, a Wi Fi hotspot, and then you can, you know, step away from the drive, connect on your phone. So three different ways to commission that drive. But if you're a portal user and you're using a Siemens PLC or maybe you just, you know, want to do this in software, it's really easy to do as well. So I'm going to give you a brief overview of what we're doing, so the procedure, and then I'll jump into the software and show you what we're doing.
So basically, basic, we're going to start off with opening TIA Portal, creating a new project, we'll go online with the drive via accessible devices. This is where we have the opportunity to assign a name and IP address to the drive, and then we will add the drive to the project. So we are going to upload the device as a new station. So once it's in the project, we'll go online with the drive. We're gonna use a commissioning wizard, which is gonna step us through all the parameters and settings that we need to commission the drive.
We'll do a motor ID and tuning and optimization. And then finally, we'll just kind of take a look at the parameters and other features that we can see in portal. So with that, I am going to switch screens. So now we are in, my other computer, which we're gonna use to program the drive. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna open TIA portal.
I already have it open, but you can see the icon here. We are gonna use TIA Portal v 20, so this is the latest version of Portal. And this is what it looks like when you open Portal. What you wanna do is create a new project. So I'm just gonna hit create a new project.
We'll call this g column 20. Okay. So if you've never seen TIA Portal before, you have a lot of different options, and it can be slightly overwhelming. So I recommend we go to project view, and that's a good way to just jump into what we need to see, for our commissioning. So the first thing we wanna do so this is what portal looks like.
A lot of different windows, a lot of things going on. At the end, I'll talk about some free training we have. If you're unfamiliar with portal and you want to, just see what it looks like and understand all the windows and buttons and how to be efficient in the tool. But for today, I'm just gonna show you the commissioning. So under online access, I'm just gonna expand this on the left hand side.
So this is our project tree. You can see we don't have any devices here. You could add a new device if you wanted, but right now, we'll just look at our online access. So these are all the things that we can access online, our communications. I'm gonna click up here, which is accessible devices.
And up here, this is how we're gonna find the drive. So on my computer, I am networked to the drive. So I'm connected to an Ethernet switch on the drive itself, and then my computer has two Ethernet ports, and the port I'm looking for is this, gigabit network connection. So this is the one that's tied to the drive. You may have to adjust these settings on your own PC in order to see the drive.
But, once you have these configured, you know, you can see different options here. You're gonna hit start search, and as we're waiting,...
55 min
June 18, 2025 Trends in Robotics with Winston Leung of QNX (P239)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Winston Leung of QNX to discuss Trends in Robotics in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Note: As mentioned above, this episode was not sponsored so the video edition is a "member only" perk. The below audio edition (also available on major podcasting platforms) is available to the public and supported by ads. To learn more about our membership/supporter options and benefits, click here.
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 239 Show Notes:
To learn about becoming a member and unlocking hundreds of our "member's only" videos, click here.
Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-) Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (285 views)
39 min
June 04, 2025 Talking Automation with Rylan Pyciak of Cleveland Automation Systems (P238)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Rylan Pyciak of Cleveland Automation Systems to discuss Trends in Automation, Inspiring a New Generation of Controls Engineers, and more in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated)
Shawn Tierney (Host): Welcome back to the Automation Podcast. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights and Automation. And in this episode, I sit down with Ryland Pychak from Cleveland Automation Systems, a system integrator house, to talk about all things industrial automation, including how do we get more people involved in controls engineering as well as, like, what are the latest products and technologies people are using. So with that said, let's go ahead and jump right into my interview with Ryland Piechak from Cleveland Automation Systems. Ryland, it's great to have you on the show.
Now before we jump into our conversation, can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Rylan Pyciak: Yeah. Certainly. Well well, first and foremost, thanks for having me as well, Shawn. Definitely appreciate the opportunity. Yeah.
To give a little bit of background, I'm Radom Pyshak, founder, president of, Clearwater Automation Systems, as well as a controls engineer. You know, we've we've essentially been in business for ten years now. And, ultimately, you know, my background has been controls engineering through and through. Actually started the manufacturing floor myself. You know, a lot of maintenance technician role, a lot of day to day kind of supporting troubleshooting equipment and whatnot.
From there, obviously, went off to college, got a controls engineering background, did a little stint at Rockwell, also worked at an OEM as well as a system integrator. And then from there, kind of saw the entire picture of manufacturing and decided to go out and start cleaning automation systems myself. You know, so since then, like I said, we've been in business going on ten years so far. And, yeah, it's been been great. You know, there's a lot of unique things we've come across in the manufacturing industry, and, I'm definitely very passionate.
And it's, something that's very interesting from my perspective.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Well, I appreciate you coming on the show. And, really, that's our audience, the controls engineers, the, really, the automation electricians, those electricians who just really get into automation and do that as kind of a specialty, as well as the, maintenance technicians and control technicians, you know, maybe have an electronics background, a mechatronics background, and then get into automation. And so, really great to have you on. And it's you have a great pedigree. They have different companies you've worked with.
You've kinda seen the industry from different angles, which, you know, a lot of people don't get that get that chance to work for a vendor and a integrator and an OEM and on the plant floor. So what really, tell us about your company, Cleveland Automation Systems. What do you guys do? Like, what was the purpose and found doing it? And and, really, what's your what's your focus?
Rylan Pyciak: Yeah. Yeah. Certainly. So click on automation system is probably the best, you know, term for us as a system integrator. Right?
We typically have various clients that come to us to solve unique problems. That's anywhere from simple, you know, field troubleshooting, simple service calls we get to complex equipment development, a lot of custom automation, as well as a lot of integration. You know? So, really, we work pretty much with every clientele across the board. I would say the main one, pretty much the only thing we don't do is oil and gas.
But we support clients across various manufacturing industries. And, really, you know, we essentially got into business to solve a lot of these complex problems. What I saw from my perspective was a lot of, you know, lack of support for various legacy systems, you know, other challenges that our our clients would have where, hey. How do we integrate various components together? So really going into business kinda to solve a lot of those problems, and that's still what we do today.
You know, anywhere from upgrading, you know, obsolete components and hardware, software control systems, all the way to developing custom unique, you know, different kinds of equipment and machinery. So very interesting industry, and our client base is pretty wide as well.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Now I know with your background, right, there's probably a focus on, like you were just saying, on helping people migrate to the latest generation or to a platform that's gonna be stable for them. I know in the pre show we talked about some of your clients have, like, just a mishmash of controls. And so, and I know a lot of people in the audience, they have to deal with all different types of vendors. And so, just a, you know, a minute and not that not you know, we're gonna be preaching to the choir here. But when you're when you have a a one of your customers come to you and say, here's what I got.
What's the best path forward? What's some of the things you tell them about? Maybe not having every vendor on the planet every control system on the planet in your plan, well, that would be great for a museum, is not really great for your your people because it can be difficult. I mean, people struggle understanding an iPhone how to use an iPhone and an Android. Right?
Because it's so different. And if you take that times five or 10, it really just puts a lot of stress on the, the maintenance staff, the electricians, and and the engineers on-site. So what's some of the advice you give when when you're working with your your, vendors? Your I'm sorry. Your, customers.
Rylan Pyciak: Certainly. I mean, I think you hit the nail right on the head there with the, you know, the iPhone to Android comparison. I use that as well. You know, the biggest thing is what we like to do. First and foremost, we usually do a site assessment for our clients, and that is coming in and understanding everything within the facility.
Right? That is, you know, what control systems, hardware, software, motors, kind of everything that makes automation run. And really from there, it's identifying and saying, hey. You have these, you know, five, six, 15 different vendor hardware, software platforms in your facility. You know, which route do you wanna go?
Obviously, there's some name brands that, you know, all of us understand are are primary here, you know, at least in The US that most people use. And and, really, it's more of an educational thing than anything else with our customers of outlining and saying, hey. You know, to be able to hire somebody, you know, to fill a maintenance technician role, to fill a controls engineer role, you know, not only do they have to bring the skill sets of actually doing that work, they also need to bring along the skill sets of how to support these systems. You look at something such as DeviceNet versus Ethernet IP. Right?
There are, you know, different I'm gonna call it generations, different demographics that grew up supporting that versus what is currently used in the market. So, you know, really, it's sitting down, talking to our customers, kind of looking at that list we've developed with them and saying, hey. This is everything you have within your facility. Which route do you wanna go? What does your current maintenance staff look like?
What can you support? As well as what does your infrastructure look like? Because end of the day, it's you know, one, obviously, obsolescence is huge. I'm sure we've all been there. Right?
You have a an obsolete hardware software device that goes down. Now you're scrambling to go and find another one, right, typically on eBay, pulling it off the shelf, potentially opening up and soldering things. Nobody wants to go that route. So it's more so understanding this is the route you should go and a lot of guidance education on, you know, one, why you should migrate as well as two, what that's going to look like, you know, from your support and maintenance perspective where, hey. Now you only have one software license to manage.
You only have one platform to manage, and it's not, you know, five, six different platforms and somebody's old Windows XP sitting on the shelf that you have to clean dust off of every time. So that's, you know, I'd say in a nutshell, a lot of education, you know, goes into a lot of these conversations.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. You know, I think about over the years, all the peat times people upgraded and the reasons for upgrading and just the the cost of upgrading. There was a lot of people who upgraded in, for y two k when there was no reason to. And but they would there was a fear factor there. You know?
Fear and certainty, doubt. Right, FUD? And so they would do upgrades, and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I was just sitting there as a technical person being like, you're wasting your money. You don't need this.
And, you know, I often see, like, an end user where they have a, you know, they have a a storeroom full of every IO module and every terminal block and every, processor and memory card, and it's like, should we update the entire plan? I'm like, why? You not only is everything running smoothly and everybody's trained on it, you have all the speeds you could ever use, and this stuff will last forever. Whereas when you're sitting down with an OEM and they're like, well, now I need to do six axes, and I have to do, you know, coordinated motion. You're like, well, yeah, you're not gonna wanna use that old stuff.
Right?...
50 min
May 21, 2025 Rockwell’s New Ethernet/IP In-Cabinet Solution (P237)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Kelly Passineau of Rockwell Automation to learn about their new EtherNet/IP In-cabinet solution for networking motor starters, push buttons, and more in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The "After Show" for Members: Additional Thoughts & Comments Note: As The Automation Show "After Show" is a member/supporter only perk, the above video is not accessible to non-members. Learn more about our membership options here. The Automation Podcast, Episode 237 Show Notes: Special thanks to Kelly for coming on the show, and to Rockwell Automation for sponsoring this episode so we could release this episode Ad Free! Below you'll find links to more information about their Ethernet/IP In-Cabinet solution: Product Website eBook/Brochure User Manual Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-) Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (314 views)
44 min
April 09, 2025 MaintainX: Prevent Unplanned Downtime (P236)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Colin Morris of MaintainX to learn about their CMMS solution for preventing unplanned machine downtime in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 236 Show Notes:
Special thanks to Collin for coming on the show, and to Maintain for sponsoring this episode so we could release it Ad Free! Below you'll find links to more information about MaintainX:
MaintainX overview
MaintainX CoPilot
Reporting overview
Customer case studies
Implementation overview
Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-) Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (279 views)
31 min
March 24, 2025 First Time Using Ignition: Tags and Views (P235)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Kyle Van Eenennaam of Inductive Automation to learn how to use Ignition in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
Note: As this episode was not sponsored, the video edition is only available to our members on The Automation Blog and on YouTube. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Note: As mentioned above, this episode was not sponsored so the video edition is a "member only" perk. The below audio edition (also available on major podcasting platforms) is available to the public and supported by ads. To learn more about our membership/supporter options and benefits, click here.
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 235 Show Notes:
Special thanks to Kyle for coming on the show, and to our members for making this episode possible! To learn more about becoming a member, click here.
Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-) Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (487 views)
1 hr 3 min
March 12, 2025 What’s New & Next with Logix and 5590/L9 (P234)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Liz Prosak and Dennis Wylie of Rockwell Automation to learn what's new and next about Logix, including what's new with the 5590 L9 Controller, all in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
For any links related to this episode, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Member's Only Extended "RAW" Edition:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 234 Show Notes:
Special thanks to Liz and Dennis for coming on the show, and to Rockwell Automation for sponsoring this episode so we could release it Ad Free!
Until next time, Peace ✌️
If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-)
Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
(850 views)
46 min
January 09, 2025 2024 Audience Choice Poll Results (P233)
This week I cover the results from our 2024 Audience Choice Polls, recapping what industrial automation vendors our audience picked as their top choices in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
The Automation Podcast, Episode 233 Show Notes:
Special thanks to everyone who voted in our 2024 Audience Choice Polls! To unlock our extensive automation how-to library, become a member starting at just $5 per month. Visit TheAutomationBlog.com/Join to learn more.
Link to the 2024 poll results:
TheAutomationBlog.com/2024-audience-choice-polls/
Until next time, Peace ✌️
If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-)
Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
(146 views)
27 min
December 19, 2024 Position Guided Vision (P232)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Zack Steck of Pepperl+Fuchs to learn about their latest Position Guided Vision product in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
Note: As this episode was not sponsored, the video edition is only available to our members here on The Automation Blog and on YouTube. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 232 Show Notes:
Special thanks to our members for making this show possible! To learn more about becoming a member, click here. Links mention in the show can be found below:
2024 Podcast Audience Choice Poll
2024 Audience Choice Awards - Select Your Preferred Vendors!
Until next time, Peace ✌️
If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-)
Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
(119 views)
53 min
December 12, 2024 Anybus Defender Industrial Security Devices (P231)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Thomas Vasen of Anybus to learn about their new Defender Industrial Security Appliances in this episode of The Automation Podcast.
Note: As this episode was not sponsored, the video edition is only available to our members here on The Automation Blog and on YouTube. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video.
Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog:
The Automation Podcast, Episode 231 Show Notes:
Special thanks to our members for making this show possible! To learn more about becoming a member, click here.
Until next time, Peace ✌️
If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content :-)
Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
(179 views)
56 min

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The Automation Podcast is an audio and video show that covers Industrial Automation Products and Technologies and is produced by Insights In Automation and TheAutomationBlog.com. Visit InsightsIA.net…