I am from a start up control solutions company and we are developing some software applications and sell to manufacturers.

I am thinking of developing the HMI as a VB .exe animated with Activex objects. Instead of recurring licensing costs if we buy SCADA HMI software like Cimplicity or iFIx we only need a one time investment on a VB developer license.
I have seen some software like http://www.reichard.com or http://www.softwaretoolbox.com.

Anyone with experience in using these? Hope you will be able to give me your opinion if it is good to invest in an activex library software like this.

Are there any other similar software you could recommend?

It would be good to take a look for comparison.

Thanks

 

If you have a good VB programmer on board then VB is definatly the way to go. It gives you the greatest flexability and lowest cost. And there are usually no run-time licenses to buy.

If you are an end user with plenty of money and you are programming just one HMI then you don't mind paying the $4,000 per runtime license.

There are thousands of ActiveX's available - just search Google for "activex". Lots of them are even free. If you can't find what you want then you can write one yourself in VB.

Warren.
http://www.pc-pid.com
"the PC-based PID Controller people"

 

There is a guy that I keep see selling a disk on ebay for $5 or 10. he advertizes just these parts for you to assemble in to your VB project. for more money (not much, maybe 20) he has the whole do-it-yourself HMI kit, which I think is VB based. search ebay for automationdirect and plcdirect and look for his disks. I have never bought one, but it looked like an easy way to get the protocols already writen and the objects created too.

ms

 

If You are developing a new application , consider using .NET native controls instead of ActiveX , which are still supported by VB.NET by means of another layer.
For instance: http://www.developersdex.com/gurus/code/218.asp
Miguel

 

VB is a great temptation, but be careful. You must save a many licenses to make up for the development time. If you are doing two or three operator interfaces, stick with the packaged solutions. If you are going to sell 100, then VB is probably your best choice. Somewhere between those, and you will have to decide where based on your experience, programmer costs, etc., is a break even point.

That's from a purely cost based view. If you want the customer locked out of the software, or alternately if you want the customer to maintain the product themselves, you must factor those into the equation as well.

From my own personal experience, I had one job where VB paid off big - the customer demanded it and paid by the hour, one job where VB cost me a small fortune - I bid it fixed cost, and many jobs where it was a sensible addition to an HMI package.

MB
--
Michael R. Batchelor - Industrial Informatics, Inc.
Contribute to society: http://www.distributed.net/ogr/

 

I admire your courage, if not your wisdom.
Best of Luck

Regards

cww

 

I bought one of these disks with the Automation Direct Serial interface. It worked well. There was no documentation and as a novice I had to hack away at it a bit but I was pleased that my VBA (Excel) application worked.

 

Dear Png Ser Tiong,

Amongst other things, your applications will probably need OPC connectivity. You might be interested in looking at our OPC client development toolkit OPCWare Client Developer (http://www.opcware.com/OPCWare.html). This is a suite of ActiveX controls that will enable your VB HMI applications to connect to the hundreds of off-the-shelf OPC servers that are available today.

On the website you can register to gain access to a free download, which includes an OPC server browser and OPC item browser, both of which are free to use. The download also includes a 30 day evaluation of the full product, for which runtime free licenses are available.

The full product includes two additional controls for reading and writing OPC data including the ability to automatically bind OPC item values to properties of controls on your VB forms - no code required. I'm sure that will be of value to you.

We have vast experience and provide professional services relating to the use of VB for HMI development - e.g. alarming, trending, logging. Therefore we have experience with using the various commercially available ActiveX controls, and have developed several libraries of our own.

I would be glad to assist you in any way I can whether regarding our products, professional services, or on a free advice basis (free advice has a limit I'm afraid - try me). You can contact me using my email (given below) or through our website.

Regards,
Neil Kingston - email: neil<at>opcware<dot>com
Data Layers
http://www.opcware.com

 

If you have a good VB programmer on board then VB is definatly the way to go. It gives you the greatest flexability and lowest cost. And there are usually no run-time licenses to buy.

If you are an end user with plenty of money and you are programming just one or two HMIs then you don't mind paying the $4,000 per runtime license.

There are thousands of ActiveX's available - just search Google for "activex". Lots of them are even free. If you can't find what you want then you can write one yourself in VB.

Warren.
http://www.pc-pid.com

 

I cannot find this guy on ebay, have any idea where is he