Scada software

Hi,

I just thought I'd ask about people's experiences with different SCADA/HMI packages.

I have just completed a project using Indusoft and despite it's ease of use, ease of programming and price, I have niggling doubts about it's stability. I only use the systems for integrating sets of gates onto a single screen, so not too tasking and not mission critical, but I like the ability to generate my own symbols easily.

I have downloaded a demo of Factory PMI and Citect SCADA I will play with them over the next few weeks but wondered if there are any other packages I haven't come across that people would recommend.

Btw, I use the package to provide control to Beckhoff PLCs, SNMP via OPC and whatever else may be on the system.


Jon.

I use Citect almost exclusively these days. It is fully compatable with Vista Business and I have 4 projects running on Vista now with no problems. Some of the drivers have not been tested on Vista yet and you would need to check those.

I normally use Omron and the FINS Gateway middle software and Citect FINS driver are fully Vista compliant.

I have Ethernet drilling into an Omron Controller Link network running beautifully, Omron Controller Link direct and a mixture of Ethernet and RS422 running on projects. The RS422 slows the whole system down but it is gradually being replaced with Ethernet. Work in progress.

The one thing we all disliked about Citect was the fact that is uses dbf files. Citect have released an Excel add in that allows you to open the dbf files, work with them in Excel and then save using the add in and the files are saved in the correct format for Citect. That has been the biggest improvement in my mind for many years.

I never liked Wizcon and my last experience with IFix was not a happy one, although there are some things in IFix that I would like Citect to take up.

Bob,

Thanks for the reply.

I had a quick look at Citect today after installing it, and the look and feel seems quite old school, though I am sure I would get used to it. I suppose it is like any package, once you get used to the navigation it just becomes second nature.

I will play with it some more and see how it turns out.

Jon.

I second the motion about Citect (although my only other PC based HMI experience was Fix32, which was terrible). There really is very little you cannot do with Citect.

Hello,

You might try http://www.peakhmi.com/

Ciao,

Mark

Good luck with the hunt! Keep us informed on what you find.

I'm happy to help if any FactoryPMI questions come up.

Jon R said:

Hi,

I just thought I'd ask about people's experiences with different SCADA/HMI packages.

I have just completed a project using Indusoft and despite it's ease of use, ease of programming and price, I have niggling doubts about it's stability. I only use the systems for integrating sets of gates onto a single screen, so not too tasking and not mission critical, but I like the ability to generate my own symbols easily.

I have downloaded a demo of Factory PMI and Citect SCADA I will play with them over the next few weeks but wondered if there are any other packages I haven't come across that people would recommend.

Btw, I use the package to provide control to Beckhoff PLCs, SNMP via OPC and whatever else may be on the system.


Jon.

Click to expand...

My favorite is a program call VTS from Trihedral Engineering. There out of Nova Scotia Canada and they have an office in the UK. Easy to use, works with just about any controller, fairly cheap and by far the best trending package I've seen.

Check them out:

http://www.trihedral.com

I have used many scada packages like factorylink, wonderware, ifix, RSview32 (& some real oldies), Fix32, AFE to name a few
I have not had any major problems (except factorylink on OS2 but that was the operating software not the scada)however I did download a package from Beijers called Cesar this is a low cost based scada & in trials it performed well had a simple interface had no problem configuring a reasonable size trial & the only thing I could not try was it's stabillity as it only ran for 10 mins in demo mode I've not heard any reports from anybody on this & would be interested in hearing from any engineers that have used this in a real life mini scada.

I have worked with Citect, GE Cimplicity, Intellution, Iconics,Mitsubishi MC-WORX (I think it's a brandlabeled Iconics product, and w/ Indusoft. I do like the power of Citect, but have prefered the ease of use with Indusoft.

Given that you say you use Beckhoff PLCs, you should discuss your Indusoft stability concerns with Beckhoff support as it is my understanding that they have a strategic partnership (there were a bunch of those folks in an Indusoft training class I attended recently).

Good Luck

There is a free demo of I/Gear:

http://www.igearonline.com/Products/DTU

have u ever tried ICONICS??? www.iconics.com

Pardon me if I hereby derail the discussion in an unintended direction.

Jon, did you ever consider loading the HMI on the Beckhoff CPU itself ?
Maybe even let the HMI be on a webserver on the Beckhoff CPU.
Then anyone can call up the HMI from anywhere in the LAN.
As far as I can tell, Beckhoffs own web-server solution does not have as much functionality as a regular SCADA package, but maybe it is enough for your application.
You say "I only use the systems for integrating sets of gates onto a single screen, so not too tasking and not mission critical, but I like the ability to generate my own symbols easily". I think that is within the possible.

Beckhoff "PLC HMI Web".
Intro Beckhoffs infosys website. Be sure to check what is NOT possible.

It is one of those things that I follow with great interest. In the long run, I believe that the separate PLC and HMI solutions will give weay to an integrated PLC + webserver HMI solution. Unfortunately, I have no chance to try this out myself.

If this is out of the question for your application - then please just ignore what I wrote.

edit: I forgot. Beckhoff do not have their own OPC-to-SNMP gateway, but I cannot see why a 3rd party OPC-to-SNMP cannot be installed, as long as it is an Windows XP embedded CPU.

We run Ifix, Wonderware, View Studio, and FactoryPMI here on plant.

Not a fan of View Studio really.

I like Wonderware but it is $$$.

Ifix I could take or leave.

FactoryPMI has been great for the new applications I've been making for the supervisors. Runs on any pc they happen to be on at the time which is a huge plus. Also runs on our thinclients w/ XpEmbedded we run on the floor.

John - any updates on your experience so far?

Nathan,

Sorry no updates as yet. I downloaded Citect and Factory PMI, but the chance to play with them has been limited due to lots of things to sort at work.

Hopefully this will ease off in the next few weeks and I will get chance to have a good look and maybe develop some small apps to test.

I am also going to investigate Jesper's idea of using the Beckhoff HMI Web.

Jon.