I am looking for a Linux based HMI programming environment, and went looking for PuffinSCADA. I found recent references to it, but have been unable to actually locate the software. Is it still around? How do I get to it?

 

The company that was behind it (Chiron Consulting) seems to have dropped off the Internet. The web site for the software itself was http://www.puffinscada.org/, but I don't get a response for it when I do a search. So far as I can tell, they did a demo at the ISA in (I think) 2001, but not much happened after that.

However, an HMI is not really the same thing as a SCADA. What features are you actually looking for in an HMI? I have a Free (GPL) web based HMI (HMIServer) that runs on Linux (as well as MS Windows), and there are several others as well (for example the guy behind PVBrowser often posts here).

 

Michael -

I am interested in looking at your HMI. I can be reached at davis_gentry [at] yahoo.com (i'll give my work email through that one - don't want to post it). I am more intested in an HMI product - I want to qualify it on our new Linux based motion controller, and write up an app note for anyone who wants to use it.

 

I will reply directly to the e-mail address that you gave me, but I will also describe it briefly here for the benefit of anyone else who is interested.

HMIServer is a stand alone version of the web based HMI in my MBLogic project. The project is hosted on Sourceforge at "http://sourceforge.net/projects/mblogic/". HMIServer is part of the MB-Tools package (the various programs in the overall project come in three independent packages - MBTools, MBLogic, and MBLibs). You would want the latest release of MBTools (currently Release 11).

HMIServer includes of a server program that acts as a proxy and protocol translator between a web browser and the actual controller. It also serves the HMI web page and associated files (e.g. CSS, PNG, etc.).

The web client consists of an XHTML web page, a variety of stock XML for SVG graphical controls, and Javascript libraries. This runs as an AJAX style web page which uses SVG for things like push buttons, pilot lights, gauges, strip charts, etc. It uses ordinary HTML for displaying things like alarms, events, and errors. Because it is basically just a web page, you can add anything else you want as well. SVG is the standard means of representing vector graphics using XML and is supported by almost all web browsers. You can create your own graphical shapes and animate them the same way the provided ones are.

To make an HMI screen, you have to know how to make a web page. That however would be mainly just using cut-and-paste from the provided examples and documentation. There are also demo pages that can be modified and used as the base for your own client HMI page (from what I have seen, this is what most users prefer to do).

All the documentation is available on-line as web pages from HMIServer, which can also serve any other web pages you want to add as well (e.g. application specific documentation). The help and system monitoring web pages are written in a way which makes it easy to remove any "MBLogic" branding (basically just replace some logo image files) and replace it with your own if you want to use it while still presenting a consistent brand image to your own users.

The server is a Python program which runs on Linux, MS Windows, and (I was told by one user) on the Mac. The web browser polls the server for updates (this is handled automatically in the background by one of the included Javascript libraries). The server then translates these requests into Modbus/TCP messages and forwards them to the controller (e.g. PLC, servo system, etc.). The responses of course follow the reverse path. The push buttons, pilot lights, alarms, etc. are then automatically updated in the web browser.

As it stands, HMIServer uses Modbus/TCP to talk to the controller (e.g. PLC). It is possible to use other protocols if you want to do the work of modifying it (as some users have done).

If you want to integrate the HMI protocol (web browser to server) directly into your program rather than using HMIServer itself, the protocol used between the web browser and the server is fully documented (it is in the final draft stage at the moment). The parties who worked on the protocol with me are planning on doing exactly that for their own systems. This lets you use the Javascript libraries, SVG art, and documentation while using your own server. This is how I use the same HMI in the MBLogic soft logic program (which uses the same HMI in a complete soft logic system).

Pretty much any modern web browser other than MS-IE will work. MS IE doesn't have the features necessary to do this sort of thing without resorting to special plug-ins (e.g. Flash). I looked at various plug-ins, and concluded that it was simpler from a number of aspects to just ask the user install a web browser that doesn't need any. However, I have tested it with Firefox, Epiphany, Opera, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Midori and they all work fine.

I have a series of screen shots at "http://mblogic.sourceforge.net/mbhmi/mbhmiintro.html" showing various versions of the demo page running in different web browsers. All the documentation is also on-line at this web site.

The software is free and provided under a GPL license.

 

May be PuffinScada disappeared because Linux HMI/Scada now is "grown up"

pvbrowser has already been referenced by somebody else in this thread.

Here is the official link:
http://pvbrowser.org

It does not only run on Linux but on Windows and OS-X also. Servers can even run on OpenVMS.

Platform independence is achieved by the usage of Qt within the client.

The task of the programmer of a visualization is to code a pvserver, which is almost like creating a web page with PHP (no Qt needed there).