HMI SCADA software

Rmiller

Member
Join Date
Dec 2002
Location
Vancouver, Washington
Posts
25
I work for a government sewage collection agency as an electrician and we have been researching various HMI scada software for monitoring all of our remote pump stations. We have about 50 pump stations but they are all almost identical in operation and not very complex.
Wonderware, intellution, Iconics ect. seem to be expensive for initial purchase and also offer yearly maintenance fee's that seem to be kind of high priced for our needs.
I did find a software called Elipse that has been developed in Brazil that is reasonably priced with no upgrade fee's or yearly maintenance cost's. There appears to be not a lot of users or support in the United States but the company in North Carolina that sells it seems to be very knowledgeable and willing to provide as much support as needed.
Just wondering if anybody can tell me about any experience with Elipse or any other competitive priced software out there with 3000 plus tag count.
 
I dont know anything about Ellipse and have actually only worked with Wonderware or Intellution, you are correct the latter are expensive, not only to buy but to maintain.

AUTOMATION DIRECT offers an HMI package in the $1300 US range but I cannot offer any advice on it. I have dealt with automationdirect though and they do make an effort.

Note click on Automation direct above and it will take you to their store to learn more.
 
Cimplicity (GE product) was one of the best HMI software packages that I have ever had the opportunity to work with. If my memory serves me correct it was around $2,000 several years back. It did then what Wonderware still can't do today at aprox. $10,000.

If I could do it all over...., I would highly consider just screwing all the HMI software and going with Visual Basic.

My 2 cents on HMI software (this sounds terrible, can't believe I am actually saying this), is this.... Go the cheapest, they all suck anyways and won't do everything you need.
 
Setting individual attributes for all objects in a group without having to.... break apart the object....set attributes......fix front to back order of objects.....re group....minimize > maximize screen (in order to refresh the screen). Maaannn, them were the days.


I am so sick of Wonderware.

Although the control and shift key action is superb (don't have to turn the grid on and off)

What is the purpose of the read only and read/write radio buttons in Wonderware anyways, if they don't do anything. (Switching your selection does #@@ck up your tag though).
 
Not all that cheap but have a good look at Citect - www.citect.com. You can download the package and work on it to your hearts content without shelling out a cent. Very good built in driver base - most drivers come free with the package with a few exceptions.
If you use Omron PLCs, Omron Cx-Supervisor is a good option. It is quite cheap as you buy a dvelopment package and a runtime version. You only buy the development package once. Unlimited tags as well.
BobB
beerchug
 
Entivity offers several PC based control/HMI packages. :oops: They are not exactly cheap, but they do offer unlimited tags, excellent features, and very good support. :D I have been using Entivity Studio for some time now and I am continually impressed with its features and ease of programming.
 
We have used the National Instruments Lookout package. This is the same as the AutomationDirect.com offering mentioned above. We haven't used it for telemetry, but we have had good results with it on standard communications networks. Works well, easy to set up, and the tag count is based only on registers read and written. It doens't count internally calculated or multiple displays of a variable as new tags. Telemtry should be no problem.
 
If you use Omron PLCs, Omron Cx-Supervisor is a good option. It is quite cheap as you buy a dvelopment package and a runtime version. You only buy the development package once. Unlimited tags as well.
A working demo of CX Supervisor with 20 tags is available at the following link:CX Supervisor Demo
:nodi:
 
HMI scada

Thank you all for the input and we do use automation directs plc's and have seen the Lookout package they offer with a 500 tag count but as rsdoran said they do seem to make an effort. I will call them to see about increasing tag count or any other option they might offer.

Also Tom Jenkins reply on where Automation Direct's Lookout came from was interesting to know.
 
We have used most of the above named SCADA / HMI software. Of the lot we like the National Instruments Lookout system the best. For many reasions but most of all the ease of use and cost.

Our group has just completed a project with 54 radio sites using mutiple protocaols from one RS-232 port through one radio. We talk on this to GE 90 serries and Control Microsystems as well as both S5 95u and S7 siemens products. There are two AB products slated to be added after the new year. Tis a cool thing not having to sweat the protocol or pay extra for tags. Just one price for the physical I/O count. It is a developers dream come true. No more night sweats as we worry if we got the tag count right when we bid the job.

Lenny
 
I looked back through the replys and have to wonder, who's controllers are you communicating to? That will narrow who will or will not fit the bill. Most HMI's will support OPC (OLE for process control) it uses the Microsoft, COM / DCOM technology. Some HMI's have their own drivers for their own PLC's, but no one elses. Some support PROCESS control but do little for DIGITAL controllers. I ask again, who's controllers do you nedd to communicate to?

Look for someone who stays current with technology and FREE support. Upgrades may or may not play as important of a roll. Once you have a working system, don't mess it up. The last thing you want is "Version-itous" when you have different versions installed and cause you head aches.
 
Look for someone who stays current with technology and FREE support. Upgrades may or may not play as important of a roll. Once you have a working system, don't mess it up. The last thing you want is "Version-itous" when you have different versions installed and cause you head aches.

Doesnt sound like anything Wonderware or Intellution can provide except the version-itous, since they are the major players in this field where do you go?

Talk to reps and in most cases you can get some form of demo version to actually use as a trial. In alot of situations you can isolate a part of the system to work with the demo/trial.

Long story but out of anger I threw away a full version of FIX DMACs with hardware key, I paid for this out of my pocket. To this day I regret that action but to this day I would never use Intellution.
 
Rrobbins I am not sure of your question.

We are using Automation Direct's 06 and 250 plc's (they come with Modbus) as the RTU's.

We will be using radio/modem's (Microwave Data Systems TransNET900) at each RTU for comunication. Radio's are spread spectrum 902 to 928 MHZ and under $1000 each.


The HMI software that we have looked at all seem to provide, at additional cost, driver's that will work with most plc's. This software will reside on a host computer at the district office.
 
Bulls eye. It looks as if you are trying to use the Modbus TCP over Ethernet as your communications. Using 902.11b allows you to communicate on ethernet at 11mb. Not to be confused with the new 902.11a which will communicate, wireless, at 72mb. The Modbus protocol is a pretty open standard but yet not all HMI packages support it. The other question is... are you trying to program over the ethernet link? I know Automation Direct supports ethernet, but can you program over ethernet and do data collection at the same time? Some PLC's can only do one protocol at a time.
 

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