I'm the leader of a free/open source software project called MBLogic. The overall project includes several packages, including one also called MBLogic. The MBLogic package does communications, soft logic control, HMI, system management, remote monitoring, and various other functions.

One of the newer features is what we call "generic clients". This is an extension mechanism to allow adding such things as additional protocols and other features. One of the MBLogic team members (Juan Pomares) has written clients for the Modbus/RTU and Hart client (master) protocols. We are looking for volunteers who have access to Modbus/RTU and Hart hardware to assist us by testing these protocols with their hardware. Juan has performed his own testing on his hardware, but we are looking for people who may have other field devices and PLCs that they can use for additional testing.

The latest release of MBLogic can be downloaded from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mblogic

It comes in both MS Windows and Linux versions. I have been told that it will also run on Mac OS/X, but I have not tested that for myself. You will be automatically presented with the version which is compatible with the operating system on the computer which you use to download it.

Since the Modbus/RTU and Hart clients require serial ports, your computer will need one or more serial ports to conduct the testing. If anyone would like to help us with this, let me know and I will tell you how to contact Juan and me directly and we can discuss how to conduct the appropriate tests.

If anyone has any other questions about MBLogic, I will of course be happy to answer any questions about it. MBLogic is Free/Open Source Software under a GPL license, so this is the complete package, not a limited demo version and you are welcome to use it in your own applications free of charge.

 

>The latest release of MBLogic can be
>downloaded from:
>http://sourceforge.net/projects/mblogic

The download starts, then aborts almost immediately after only sending about 250Kb.

Source Forge mirror yields almost 500Kb.

>let me know and I
>will tell you how to contact Juan and me
>directly and we can discuss how to
>conduct the appropriate tests.

How would I let you know?
Sending a message from Source Forge requires registration, whatever that entails . . .

 

At this point I'm going to have to delay this request for help. It seems that Sourceforge (where the project is hosted) has been under attack. They've now locked all the accounts, and it looks like any uploads that were made yesterday were rolled back, so the the download files for the newest version (which was made yesterday) are now garbage.

This is all rather ironic given the recent discussions of computer security that we've had. Apparently someone was trying to break in, so the site administrators have been taking some precautions until they have that sorted out.

I expect the site to be running again by tomorrow, so I should to be able repeat the uploads and try this again.

When the site is running again, you will be able to download the new version. When you unpack the files, there will be another archive called either "mblogic_2011-01-27.tar.gz" or "mblogic_2011-01-27.zip" (depending on whether you downloaded the Linux or Windows version). That has installation instructions called "MBLogicInstall.pdf". That in turn has a section titled "Developer Contacts" with contact e-mail address for both Juan and me.

I will post again when I have been able to restore the upload.