Beckhoff, Allen Bradley C# HMI, Cognex V-Pro/CVL

[jflick]

Hi guys, I'm looking to design and program a robot pick and place cell. I'm in between using a Beckhoff or Allen Bradley. I like the Beckhoff because of the programming but our old time controls guys will never be able to support it.

But I want to use Cognex V-Pro or the CVL tools in a C# application to have everything be a seamless HMI. Can I build a WPF in C# to be used with an AB PLC. I know I can do it with the Beckhoff PLC. But with the Beckhoff can I run the WPF directly on the PLC or do I need a secondary computer to handle the HMI.

I want to be able to use the Cognex V-Pro/CVL has anyone done that in the Beckhoff PLC or does that have to be its own C# application as well.

 

[theColonel26]

Allen Bradley is widgetware, specifically designed to be as closed a platform as possible.


The 5480 can run windows, but as far as communicating with the PLC runtime your only option is ethernet/IP (as far as I know) and that is not at all seamless.


If you want to do an HMI in C# your only practicle choice is Beckhoff

 

[PreLC]

But with the Beckhoff can I run the WPF directly on the PLC or do I need a secondary computer to handle the HMI.

I want to be able to use the Cognex V-Pro/CVL has anyone done that in the Beckhoff PLC or does that have to be its own C# application as well.

2 Things:

1) Make sure your framegrabber(Source of image, camera) can work with the beckhoff IO ports. Beckhoff has some limitations on this, would suggest testing before buying if possible.

2) It depends on the computation power needed for your application, and what Beckhoff IPC is specced. There is a whole range of IPCs from beckhoff, some is not even recommended for basic web HMIs(I have a CX2030 which is incapable of this, I think this is the "Performance plus" variant, while others can do complex algorithms onboard using windows software.