New standalone OPC server for Ethernet/IP...

Today we released a standalone OPC server for Ethernet/IP. It can communicate with ControlLogix, FlexLogix and CompactLogix. All the atomic data types are supported for reading and writing. The number of connections to PLCs and the number of tags is unlimited. And the price is only $49. What a deal!

We are considering releasing a standalone OPC server for the PCCC protocol.

The 13 channel analog input board is still in progress. The code is done, the first run of boards is due back in a couple of days and testing will begin very soon.

The PID additions to the RLL program are almost complete. The derivative component is the only remaining portion.

Work on a report generation unit for PeakHMI is in progress.

Process control additions...

When we release the analog input board we are also planning to release process control support in the RLL program. We are adding proportional, integral, derivative, PI, PID and F(X) (sometimes called a lookup table or a FGEN or a characterizer, etc.).

The program already has limits, min/max selectors, ramps, lag, scaling, etc.

We are looking for input as to which blocks are needed, wanted, nice to have, must have, would not use without...

We are also looking for a few people that want to test the new features and provide feedback. Each tester will receive a free license and really good testers would receive a free license of PeakHMI. Contact support if you are interested.

Support for the Opto22 OptoMMP protocol is under consideration.

Relay ladder logic program...

Integration of the FX-731 USB digital board with the MODBUS RLL program is complete. The program supports multiple cards. New installers are at the normal links.

We are also now including one full license of the program, FREE, with each FX-731 purchased.

We started production of videos demonstrating the ladder editor, configuration of external connections and generally how to use the program.

IDEC release...

We released support for the IDEC (OpenNet) protocol yesterday. Reading and writing of all allowed memory types and addresses is supported. A demo project was also created.

We clarified the help file regarding characters allowed in tag names. When using a browser or OPC servers/clients the range of characters is reduced.

New USB I/O board and other updates...

Yesterday we released the new USB digital I/O board. Here is a link to the datasheet.

 

Update 07/13/2012

We have several example projects demonstrating how to read and write the I/O pins of the FX-731 USB I/O card.

· Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2010 Express

· Microsoft Visual C# .NET 2010 Express

· Delphi 2007

Update 07/13/2012

The analog input board is progressing. At present it has 13 analog inputs with 12 bit resolution, 0-20 or 4-20 mA, MODBUS RTU slave, switch selectable RS-232 or RS-485, designed to occupy any point in the circuit after the current source and with a high common mode input range.

The IDEC (OpenNet) protocol support is progressing. The configuration portion is complete and runtime support is being added and verified.

We did some testing on Windows server 2003 R2 and found PeakHMI executed without error.

We also added some protective code for DCOM configuration errors. We found during testing that improperly configured DCOM settings would cause our embedded OPC client to sometimes fail. We also verified the rule that if the OPC client and server work locally and do not work remotely, it is a DCOM setting error.

The embedded web server now supports 'digest' authentication as well as 'basic'.

Let us know if you have a protocol request or feature request.

New version and new program...

Today we released a new version of PeakHMI and a new program.

We added MODBUS Master ASCII serial (RS 232/485) support and released a new MODBUS Slave ASCII serial simulator.

The PeakHMI MODBUS Master ASCII driver has all the same features and supports all the same function codes as the MODBUS Master RTU driver.

The MODBUS Slave ASCII simulator has all the features and supports all the same function codes as the MODBUS Slave RTU slave simulator. All the simulators are free.

We also corrected a few help file document errors and typos in the script prototype examples.

Version 4.1...

Today we released version 4.1 of PeakHMI. The graphic engine has always had the ability to change the color, pattern, pen, etc. of graphic elements based on the state of a digital tag. And to choose attributes based on the value of an analog tag.

One frequent usage of color was not covered as smoothly as it could be accomplished. We now have a new animation we named 'Digital Compare'.

For example, a valve has several exclusive states - closed, opened, purge and travel. The desire is to have one graphic element to change color based on the state of the valve. Closed, opened and purge each have a digital tag. Travel is the condition when none of the other conditions are true. In the past an analog tag could be created and its value based on the value of the digital tags. Or several graphic elements could be created and placed one above the other and using a combination of color changes and hide/show achieve the goal.

Now with the new animation one graphic element can be used. In the above configuration we created the valve graphic element and made it yellow to signify travel - the state when another state is not present. Closed will be green, opened will be red and purge will flash between a light red and grey. The animation starts at row one and process rows until it finds a true condition and then applies the attributes configured. If a 'true' row is not found the design time attributes are applied. The new animation should make animating valves, light trees, motors, etc. much faster and easier in the future.

Testing of the USB digital board is complete and we hope to have a production run by the end of next week. A couple of photos and more specification details will follow very soon.