I'm currently involved in several SCADA software projects and am finding a variety of devices being used by manufactures to read sensors and control turbines. Most of these devices tend to be PLC's although some are custom manifactured. We would like to design a device that would be simple and low cost for small SCADA controls application with our low cost software package that operates in a windows OS.

I'm looking for information on how the device reads the sensor information and communicates with a generator? you can refer to a wind turbine if you need to present a specific example. I would like find or create a sub $500 controller, we are computer experts but this seems to be a PLC type function any suggestions?

 

Try these guys... http://flash.ezautomation.net/ezplc/ezplc_overview.htm

Bill Sturm
Abbeytronics LLC

 

It really sounds like a PLC type function. And for good reason. Turbines are spendy and machine safety depends on reliability. That said, there is no magic about what a PLC does. If you know how to control a turbine, what you control it with is a matter of preference. Computer Measurement and several others sell boards that will provide the IO needed. A study of existing systems should turn up the requirements. At your price point you aren't going to be able to buy much software. The hardware will stress your budget.

Regards
cww

 

The most simple solution would be to use Modbus.

With our open source HMI/SCADA project: http://pvbrowser.org, we have implemented a Modbus class.

See: http://pvbrowser.de/pvbrowser/sf/manual/rllib/html/classrlModbus.html