Comms Driver or Solution to allow interfacing between .NET and MicroLogix

[MorphuisOGrady]

Hi there,

I am developing an application which requires interfacing to a PLC.I will be producing quite a number of the same machine each year. I would like the "openess" to allow comms to multiple peripherals such as printer, Credit card readers as well as database connectivity and am exploring the possibility of developing the user interface in .Net (C#).

Has anyone any suggestions/recommendations on a way to interface to a PLC via .NET enviroment? OPC etc? Can it be done? Is it expensive?

Thanks

 

[Archie]

This will do exactly what you need:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/abdf1/


There is also a more in depth option that includes the above driver:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/advancedhmi/

These are all done in VB. If you are using Visual Studio, you can add a VB class libary, add the necessary files from the above projects, then the driver will show up in the toolbox after a build.

If you are only using C# Express, you can download VB Express, create a class project, add the files, then compile to DLLs which can be referenced in your C# project. I have done this for the DF1 driver, along with documentation on usage, and it is listed on Ebay under "DF1 driver for .NET"