Choice of hardware

Hello everybody,

I have a task to bilt a system which have 100+ digital inputs, 100+ digital outputs and to communicate with a software built in visual basic or visual c++ via ethernet.

Software reads status of DI and gives a message which of DI is activated. Also when a software button is pressed software activates the DO.
That is all I need from the hardware and nothing else. Voltage to be used to activate DI should be 110V DC

This system will be used to simulate behaviour of different machines so when client selects machine from a library, software will interpret status of each DI differently. For that I need to use visual studio.

Can you propose DI & DO modules for which you know that communicate with Microsoft Visual Studio?
 
As far as I'm aware, there isn't any I/O module that directly communicates
with Microsoft Software never mind Visual Studio ! Where is the software and
it's working environment ? I'm guessing desktop, laptop or tablet.
Beckhoff PLC (https://www.beckhoff.com/en-gb/) design their I/O around
PC based systems but do not have 110vDC modules.

From the above you can choose any mid-sized PLC system as most have ethernet
capability. But why is it doing almost nothing ? and can it justify the cost
and size of what you are trying to achieve ?
 
Are you 100% sure you want to use a PC with an unreliable OS like windows. It will hang now and then.....
Another possiblity is using a Pro-face touchpanel (running windriver OS) conntected via RS-485 RTU modbus.
You could use a Pro-face GP4116 touchpanel https://cascade.net/en/visualisation/
And connect that to these promux IO modules: https://cascade.net/en/modular-plcs/
Take the PM16DI110, this has 110Vac inputs. There are 16 of these inputs on a PM16DI110 module and up to 32 of these modules can be connected to the GP4116, totalling in a max. 32x16=512 inputs.
You then have a rugged and reliable solution. If you take a larger Pro-face touchpanel like for example the GP4201TAD you can also access the touchpanel remotely with your smartphone/tablet or a windows based application via ethernet.

Another solution is using a windows PC and write your own modbus interface. This is discussed often on this forum and there are many open-source solutions available. When you implemented the modbus interface you can:
Connect the PC via a USB->RS485 interface to the PM16DI110 110Vac input modules
On the bottom of this page you'll find the COM-K2 interface that can be connected to an USB port and on the other side it has a RS-485 interface (for modbus RTU).

Lots of possibilities. I can also make something for you using a Pro-face touchpanel with these IO modules if you want.........the programming of Pro-face touchpanels is quite easy and fast. And the PLC functionality can be programmed in either script language and/or ladder logic for easy programming.
 
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