Indusoft tag limit reached

[OkiePC]

any gotchas i should be aware of?

Ways to make sure the data is loaded before the screen opens?

Yes:
1. Alarms. You need alarm tags to be unique and dedicated.
2. Troubleshooting. You may cause some WTF moments for those who follow you and need to alter your work.
3. Entry limits. Are your data entry tags going to all share the same data entry limits? Are you going to have to do all the entry limits in the PLC so they can be unique? Does this mean the HMI can't display the entry limits for each tag accurately on its built in pop-up keypad?
4. Timing and cached tag values. You may have a situation where you change screens and, although within a couple milliseconds the PLC has changed all the tag values accordingly, the HMI is still using its cache of data for display until it has polled all those tags again. It might be acceptable or it might be so ugly that you need to hide it from view for a second or two.

 

[ganutenator]

Yes:
1. Alarms. You need alarm tags to be unique and dedicated.
2. Troubleshooting. You may cause some WTF moments for those who follow you and need to alter your work.
3. Entry limits. Are your data entry tags going to all share the same data entry limits? Are you going to have to do all the entry limits in the PLC so they can be unique? Does this mean the HMI can't display the entry limits for each tag accurately on its built in pop-up keypad?
4. Timing and cached tag values. You may have a situation where you change screens and, although within a couple milliseconds the PLC has changed all the tag values accordingly, the HMI is still using its cache of data for display until it has polled all those tags again. It might be acceptable or it might be so ugly that you need to hide it from view for a second or two.

Good points.
I forgot about entry limits. But then that made me remember formatting problems. big potential problem. In Indusoft, you make int tags real so that you can use decimal points and divide them by 1000. ugh

 

[jawolthuis]

IF it was me, then I would seriously consider Archie's Advanced HMI. I know that is not the answer you were looking for, but with the number of tags you are dealing with on a single screen, as well as having multiple pages open at once, it would probably be the wiser choice...

 

[ganutenator]

IF it was me, then I would seriously consider Archie's Advanced HMI. I know that is not the answer you were looking for, but with the number of tags you are dealing with on a single screen, as well as having multiple pages open at once, it would probably be the wiser choice...

quite the contrary, was definitely looking at Advanced HMI. Just afraid that will have to spend all the hours w/o getting paid. But if it worked out, I could probably make a lot of money.

Side question: Can I sell my developed project if I use Advanced HMI according to the license?

 

[Archie]

Side question: Can I sell my developed project if I use Advanced HMI according to the license?

Yes, you can sell your project. The only stipulation is that you must be willing to provide the full source of the AdvancedHMI project to the end user. This is the equivalent of the end user being able to upload and edit if it were on something like a Red Lion or Panelview.

 

[ganutenator]

Yes, you can sell your project. The only stipulation is that you must be willing to provide the full source of the AdvancedHMI project to the end user. This is the equivalent of the end user being able to upload and edit if it were on something like a Red Lion or Panelview.

so he is paying $700 per Indu runtime license now. so i would have to take him on his word that he would pay me $100-$200 per?

 

[Archie]

so he is paying $700 per Indu runtime license now. so i would have to take him on his word that he would pay me $100-$200 per?

There are 2 ways you could go about it. Charge an up front lump sum with the agreement there will no longer be any run-time fees for additional systems.

Or you can charge the $100-200 for each install.

When using AdvancedHMI in an OEM application, something very important to be aware of is that since you must be willing to give the full project source, you are technically not selling a run-time license. Instead you would be charging for the PC setup and software install. If you charge per install, your customer has the ability to setup the PC and install the software themselves without having to pay a royalty to you.

So if you decide to charge per install, you probably will want to get a contract saying that your customer must use you for future systems.

 

[baldone]

Have you tried contacting Indusoft directly to see if they could do custom licensing that would get the tag count you need without to huge jump to the next level?

 

[ganutenator]

Have you tried contacting Indusoft directly to see if they could do custom licensing that would get the tag count you need without to huge jump to the next level?

yup