Blue Ridge Test, a certified NI Alliance Partner, has successfully implemented a control / monitoring system with LabVIEW which interfaces to networked Automation Direct PLCs through ethernet (ECOM modules) and OPC. If you are interested, we would like to talk with you about your application to see how we might partner together to achieve an elegant, cost effective solution which meets your goals while removing months from your timeline.
If you decide to approach this on your own, there will be configuration challenges (e.g. extracting the correct tags from DirectSOFT 5, setting up OPC, etc.). Before addressing those, though, you may want to think through your programming requirements such as those listed below.
After the setup phase of your project (i.e. configuring hardware & signal conditioning, verifying connectivity, demonstrating various portions in LabVIEW, etc.), you might consider your architecture before moving forward. How will you store your data? How will you view / analyze the data later? Is the architecture readable, scalable, and maintainable? What will happen when you want new features (e.g printing reports, user logins, or controlling other external equipment or processes while saving data and displaying results)? What kind of user interface will you use?
Set yourself up for success long term by thinking about the right architecture today. We frequently have customers whose "simple engineering experiment" grew on them. And, interpreting bad LabVIEW code a year into a project can be a lot like deciphering abstract art (and equally expensive).
Jason B
434-525-7312 x114
Message Edited by Support on 02-10-2009 05:17 PM
