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Years ago I remember reading about the Puffin PLC project on Control.com. The idea was to make an open source PLC system that ran on Linux. You can still find lots of references to that project if you Google for it, but it didn't seem to come to fruition.
I was inspired, partly by that project, to make some kind of open ladder logic based automation platform. I wanted to aim it at the hobbyist/hacker types who just wanted to add a little automation to one of their projects but they're not necessarily traditional programmers. I also wanted it to be an open and extensible platform.
I ended up choosing Windows and the .NET framework, mostly due to my familiarity with it, but also because most people are familiar with it and already have it installed. I realize this goes against the original intent of Puffin PLC, but we have to make choices and live with them.
I'm pleased to announce that I actually have a working version of the software. It's called SoapBox Snap. The "Snap" part is a recursive acronym, in honor of GNU, that stands for "Snap is Not a PLC". The application is released under the GPL (version 3). Part of the application is a communication and file format module called SoapBox Protocol. That module is based on open standards (XML for data format, and SSL for communications) and it's dual-licensed as both GPL and CDDL. That means you could write a proprietary product that actually spoke the "language" of SoapBox Snap, but the editor itself can't be made proprietary because it's GPL'd.
It's still a work in progress, but it is a working application. You can write logic and it executes it. It has two drivers right now: Phidgets (a set of USB I/O devices) and Twitter (so you can actually control your logic from a your Twitter status updates). New drivers can be added with the built-in add-in architecture. It also has pluggable instructions, runtimes, and even language modules, if someone wanted to take it that far.
I just wanted to put it out there for anyone who wants to play with it. I appreciate any and all feedback. I'm going to continue working on it to make it better. You can download it here: http://soapboxautomation.com/products/soapbox-snap/
I was inspired, partly by that project, to make some kind of open ladder logic based automation platform. I wanted to aim it at the hobbyist/hacker types who just wanted to add a little automation to one of their projects but they're not necessarily traditional programmers. I also wanted it to be an open and extensible platform.
I ended up choosing Windows and the .NET framework, mostly due to my familiarity with it, but also because most people are familiar with it and already have it installed. I realize this goes against the original intent of Puffin PLC, but we have to make choices and live with them.
I'm pleased to announce that I actually have a working version of the software. It's called SoapBox Snap. The "Snap" part is a recursive acronym, in honor of GNU, that stands for "Snap is Not a PLC". The application is released under the GPL (version 3). Part of the application is a communication and file format module called SoapBox Protocol. That module is based on open standards (XML for data format, and SSL for communications) and it's dual-licensed as both GPL and CDDL. That means you could write a proprietary product that actually spoke the "language" of SoapBox Snap, but the editor itself can't be made proprietary because it's GPL'd.
It's still a work in progress, but it is a working application. You can write logic and it executes it. It has two drivers right now: Phidgets (a set of USB I/O devices) and Twitter (so you can actually control your logic from a your Twitter status updates). New drivers can be added with the built-in add-in architecture. It also has pluggable instructions, runtimes, and even language modules, if someone wanted to take it that far.
I just wanted to put it out there for anyone who wants to play with it. I appreciate any and all feedback. I'm going to continue working on it to make it better. You can download it here: http://soapboxautomation.com/products/soapbox-snap/