[H-GEN] Remote process monitoring & control

[Michael Anthon]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Michael Anthon <mca at tams.com.au>)

This is a pretty broad subject.  There are many, many, many types of PLCs
and factory automation equipment out there.  Unfortunately, because it is a
fairly competitive industry, there was never a defined standard for
inter-communication between these devices.  Each manufacturer tended to come
up with their own protocol.  Some used RS232, some RS422, some optical
fibre, some a parallel interface.. etc etc.

That said, the Gould MODBUS protocol has become somewhat of an industry
standard and when I was last involved in this sort of thing (about 3-4 years
ago) there were moves afoot to produce a standard protocol (I think it was
called FieldBUS or something, F-BUS perhaps).

At what level do you need to interface to these devices?  If you are going
to have to write serial protocol drivers for them, then I would suggest that
VBA would not be the tool of choice.....

Just a few random thoughts

Cheers
Michael A.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Young [mailto:dougy at gargoyle.apana.org.au]
> Sent: Thursday, 15 July 1999 9:12
> To: general at humbug.org.au
> Subject: [H-GEN] Remote process monitoring & control
> 
> 
> (Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs "Doug Young" 
> <dougy at gargoyle.apana.org.au>)
> 
> I need to setup something to let me monitor and hopefully 
> control factory
> machinery from remote locations using either a dialup or internet
> connection. Anyone got ideas where to get info on this 
> subject ?? I guess
> something in the way of VBA programming or the like is needed 
> so I can see
> stuff in a GUI format, but currently the main thing I need to 
> know is just
> how to interface PLC's etc to either serial or parallel 
> ports. I have access
> to an old Stallion Brumby 16 port card but the Stallion site 
> is a bit sparse
> on info about using it.
> 
> 
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