Archie,
Congrats on a fantastic idea. Keep up the good work.
I down loaded the Advanced HMI, but could not find an exe to run or install. Am I missing something??? Like the IDE???
I wrote a VB6 program like this to replace the multitude of obsolete HMI's in our plant about 10 years ago... and it's still in use today.
A few features I have that you may want to consider.
1. Ladder Logic Viewer with address descriptions. (I imported RSLogix Library Files to get this to work because I could not read the PLC Ladder Logic. Had to import the address descriptions anyway)(useful for troubleshooting)
2. Data Table Viewer allowing data table read/write. Same as RSLogix. (useful for troubleshooting)
3. Access Levels on all Screens/Controls. Any controls assigned a Guest level would not require a login. Good for locking out Screens/Controls reserved for Maintenace use or Quality Control etc.
4. Ability to enable/disable controls based on the state of a PLC address.
5. Logging of each control activation by the user. (Great for when the operator says "I don't know why it stopped".)
6. Logging of data changes by the user. (Date/Time, Control Name, Old Value, New Value, User, Comments if required)
7. Flow Chart Control - My program will build flow charts on the fly (with comments from the PLC descriptions), but we only have 2 styles of step by step programming to contend with. Troubleshooters can click on the step transition icons and the Ladder View will pop up and show what condition(s) is needed to advance to the next step. A real time saver on breakdowns. A lot easier to keep up to date than a fault display. I still have fault displays as well
8. I only used common Windows controls for my interface. (Labels, Buttons, Combo Boxes, Images - no animation). Yours is much better graphically, but should include these controls as well.
9. Support all PLC's. My program only supports PLC5's and SLC's via AB DH+ through an AB-PKTX or Control Net Bridge and Control Logix via Ethernet. Both the DH+ and Ethernet are 3rd party drivers. Yours is much more flexible by the sounds of it.
10. Make the program stand alone. I can walk up to any terminal, log in, modify any screen... done. No re-compiling. (Of course I would have to re-compile if I was adding a new type of control the the project. Coding would be required as well)
11. Support communication to more than one PLC at a time. My program has a main menu where each node on the DH+ is configured. I can only communicate with 1 plc at a time. A main menu may not be necessary if you plan to support communication with multiple PLCs on the same screen.
Well its 2am on a backshift I'm getting inkoherant...
I hope some of my suggestions spark some ideas.
I'll try to get the VB IDE so I can do some real testing.
Good Luck
Wally