Labview vs other software for this application

[StefanCZ]

Hi, I'm involved in a project that consists on making an interface to supervise a job on real time and acquiring data from a controller to save it on a database.

I'm going to use Labview because the enterprise uses it for some applications on testbenches so they already have the licence. But I need to make a report about what the other solutions are, with their advantages and disadvantages comparing to Labview for this specific application.  

I read some topics and I understand that in general Labview's strenght is acquiring and processing signals, but for simple SCADA it's better to use software like InTouch, iFIX or Citect. So I would appreciate if anyone can give me information about if those softwares could be used for my application and what are the advantages and disadvantages.

I'll explain in detail my application:

There's an electric torque screwdriver and it has its own controller. On the controller you can set up all the torque curves to be used in different components, saving them in up to 99 different channels. The enterprise I'm working in bought a couple of these to use them in some electronic components that require precision on the fastening of the screws. A big detail is that it's important to make the fastenings in a sequence.   

So what I need to do is an interface where the operator chooses from a list the component that he's going to make the work (when he clicks on the name in the listbox, it should appear a photo of the component so he's sure that that´s the one). Then he chooses to start the job. The front panel changes to show the component with LEDs instead of the screws, to show the sequence of the fastening (the LED1 starts turned on, then after the operator makes the fastening it turns off and the LED2 turns on, and so on until he finishes all the sequence). It also has an indicator to show the torque being applied, and two LEDs to show if the fastening was OK or No-Good.

After the operator finishes the last fastening, he finishes the job and all the information is saved in a database (the serial number, total time, torque curves, results, etc) 

By the way, the communication with the controller is made with Modbus over TCP/IP. The provider gave a manual with all the addresses of the signals for the modbus protocol to make an interface on a panel pc.

So, can all the other SCADA softwares do exactly that? Would it be easier? I have only worked with Labview so I don't know about the other stuff, a comparison with one or two should be enough.

Thanks in advance, every information is useful.

[mikeporter]

I would say doing it with LV is a no-brainer. It will easily implement what you want to do, and if the client already owns it, they will be familier with the environment. Moreover, all the technologies that you mention are well within LV's capabilities. Should be a quick and easy project.

Mike...

[StefanCZ]

Thanks for the reply. I already started making it on LV, because the enterprise already works with it, they even made me take the courses Core1, Core2, Connectivity and Industrial Protocols. But this is a project for college (by the way right now I'm an intern at NI), and even if I already know what I'm going to do and with what software, I need to make a report for college about what the other options are available to make this project. It's burocratic stuff but I need to do it, it's a report called "solution alternatives" and then in the report called "chosen alternative" I'll explain why I used LV. Since I have only worked with LV, I don't know about the SCADA packages like InTouch and what are their capabilities, so it would be nice to know information from people with experience at this. Could you do exactly the same project with those SCADA packages? Would it be easier?  

I know that in LV you can do the same and more than the SCADA packages, but it's not designed specifically for that so I need to know what could be the pros and cons of doing the exactly same project with other software. 

[mikeporter]

Can you? Yes

Easier? No

Other factors:

Cost: Many SCADA packages have rather onerous licensing restrictions - like charging per data point.

Future expansion: System requirements are the one place in the universe where negative entropy is NOT in play. Requirements are always growing. You can easily out-grow a scada package - you can't out-grow LV.

Mike...