I'm looking into the Beckhoff controllers. Primarily the CX1020 I like that fact that it runs WinCE and it has built in Ethernet and DVI. My hope is to use this as a PLC, but then also connect a touchscreen monitor. Then write an app with Visual Studio and AdvancedHMI for the operator to enter data. This data and then collected by the unit would then be uploaded to a SQL server.
Can I write a VB program to run on a Beckhoff?
I would think if I can, rolling AdvancedHMI and SQL into it would not be an issue. I'm just not sure what roadblock exist with CE and Beckhoff.
Yes, you can run a VB program directly on a CX102 with windows CE. You will need a professional version of Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 to do a device application (.NET compact framework app) along with the TwinCAT ADS Communication Library, which you can get free from Beckhoff. You can also directly communicate to SQL server, but requires a couple tricks.
I had published an article on that subject a few years ago:
I typically write a small VB application and copy it to a directory on the flash card, then use a NT_StartProcess function block within TwinCAT to launch the application. That function block will also allow you to launch an app on a remote PC as well.
However, AdvancedHMI will not run on Windows CE because it requires the full .NET framework for the graphic functions that it uses.
