ryangriggs
Lifetime Supporting Member
I was just reading Archie's post about the open source AdvancedHMI system they have developed. This is a great system, but in order to grow in popularity, it needs to be able to talk to a wide array of PLC brands and families.
I think there needs to be a good open source server available to facilitate communication between existing architecture and new open-source HMI software. OPC could be supported, but it would be great to expose the PLC tag data in various other formats too (i.e. JSON, CSV, XML, etc).
As an example, with the advent of Linux it became cheap and easy to spin up your own servers for nearly any purpose. However, this move to open source has not yet overtaken the PLC industry, and every piece of the puzzle carries a large cost and restrictive licensing terms, as did server architecture in the past. An open-source data access server would allow HMI development to take place in a wide range of languages and architectures and would potentially kickstart widespread open-source projects in this industry.
I've tried to find such an open-source server, but with very little success. So, since I'm a programmer, I have been tossing around the idea of building one.
Would anyone like to join me? Initially I would like to support Ethernet/IP so that the AB PLC families are supported, since that's the brand with which I'm most familiar. But if done properly, such a project could support driver plugins for various brands and families.
Any thoughts/suggestions welcome!
I think there needs to be a good open source server available to facilitate communication between existing architecture and new open-source HMI software. OPC could be supported, but it would be great to expose the PLC tag data in various other formats too (i.e. JSON, CSV, XML, etc).
As an example, with the advent of Linux it became cheap and easy to spin up your own servers for nearly any purpose. However, this move to open source has not yet overtaken the PLC industry, and every piece of the puzzle carries a large cost and restrictive licensing terms, as did server architecture in the past. An open-source data access server would allow HMI development to take place in a wide range of languages and architectures and would potentially kickstart widespread open-source projects in this industry.
I've tried to find such an open-source server, but with very little success. So, since I'm a programmer, I have been tossing around the idea of building one.
Would anyone like to join me? Initially I would like to support Ethernet/IP so that the AB PLC families are supported, since that's the brand with which I'm most familiar. But if done properly, such a project could support driver plugins for various brands and families.
Any thoughts/suggestions welcome!
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