In one of our locations, we have a single ALLEN BRADLEY PLC 5 which will have Ethernet capability. It controls a simple conveyor system.
We are implementing a warehouse management system in the building. We need to get the shipping units (package labels) and associated divert lanes to the PLC.
Our original intention was to port our TRU64 UNIX interchange libraries (Rockwell) to IBM AIX and then create an application (C) that will watch for a file extracted from the WMS. Once the file arrives, the program will open the file and format the shipping unit/divert lanes into the interchange library format and send them to the PLC. The PLC would then receive the scan of the label, look it up and divert to the appropriate lane.
Since the interchange libraries have not changed since 1999, I'm looking at Windows based alternatives. I know there are lots of "big" packages like RSLinx/Factory Talk. I'm wondering are there supported systems out that that do what I'm describing above or am I better off getting a custom solution?
We are implementing a warehouse management system in the building. We need to get the shipping units (package labels) and associated divert lanes to the PLC.
Our original intention was to port our TRU64 UNIX interchange libraries (Rockwell) to IBM AIX and then create an application (C) that will watch for a file extracted from the WMS. Once the file arrives, the program will open the file and format the shipping unit/divert lanes into the interchange library format and send them to the PLC. The PLC would then receive the scan of the label, look it up and divert to the appropriate lane.
Since the interchange libraries have not changed since 1999, I'm looking at Windows based alternatives. I know there are lots of "big" packages like RSLinx/Factory Talk. I'm wondering are there supported systems out that that do what I'm describing above or am I better off getting a custom solution?