C
Curt Wuollet
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> AB makes cards that allow a computer (that;s us) to be the I/O scanner
> for thire RIO. I ension supporting this very ealry in the project.
>
> Dont' other PLC vendors make such cards?
Hi Stan,
Yes, they certainly do, but, I expect their support for this project to be less than enthusiastic and it's extremely difficult to write drivers without cooperation. It's not easy with cards where they give you all the information you need. Some may give you the information, but, only under an NDA. This is worse than no cooperation, because it legally pollutes the project if any of it gets in. I would expect we can find an independent that is sympathetic and wants to become the reference provider of IO boards for the project. Almost all board vendors make as much money selling drivers and libraries as they make on hardware. I'm hoping the buying power of this group will sway a
board vendor to address this market. We, of course will graciously accept any cooperation from the PLC makers who would like to sell us
IO. That's where their money is also. We already have a board vendor who would like to help on some proprietary IO. Those of you who have
or want that type of IO should definately take them up on their offer. Reverse engineering can be done but you really have to want a driver
badly to put in the effort. Ron Gage can tell you about that. His driver required, I'm sure, a lot more work than if AB was helping. A board with one big asic in the middle and no docs could be a black box forever.
Regards,
Curt Wuollet
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[email protected]
http://linuxplc.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxplc
> AB makes cards that allow a computer (that;s us) to be the I/O scanner
> for thire RIO. I ension supporting this very ealry in the project.
>
> Dont' other PLC vendors make such cards?
Hi Stan,
Yes, they certainly do, but, I expect their support for this project to be less than enthusiastic and it's extremely difficult to write drivers without cooperation. It's not easy with cards where they give you all the information you need. Some may give you the information, but, only under an NDA. This is worse than no cooperation, because it legally pollutes the project if any of it gets in. I would expect we can find an independent that is sympathetic and wants to become the reference provider of IO boards for the project. Almost all board vendors make as much money selling drivers and libraries as they make on hardware. I'm hoping the buying power of this group will sway a
board vendor to address this market. We, of course will graciously accept any cooperation from the PLC makers who would like to sell us
IO. That's where their money is also. We already have a board vendor who would like to help on some proprietary IO. Those of you who have
or want that type of IO should definately take them up on their offer. Reverse engineering can be done but you really have to want a driver
badly to put in the effort. Ron Gage can tell you about that. His driver required, I'm sure, a lot more work than if AB was helping. A board with one big asic in the middle and no docs could be a black box forever.
Regards,
Curt Wuollet
_______________________________________________
LinuxPLC mailing list
[email protected]
http://linuxplc.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxplc