I have recently started a job with a company producing machines that are moving from the prototype to full production phase.

I am looking for options in version and bug tracking the PLC and HMI software along with other related files (recipes etc).

Most software I've found seem less appropriate for control systems.
Any recommendations?

 

Not clear to me exactly what you want to track.

Do you want to track the production line that is producing the machines that are sold to end users?

Or do you want to track the machines that are out in the field after being sold to the end user?

 

Bugzilla is free, very widely used and fairly flexible and customizable.

Regards
cww

 

So I presume you're moving from software development into commercial release and you want to keep track of issues in the PLC code reported by customers etc.

The problem with a lot of bug tracking systems is that they're integrated with a source code management system. And typically, PLC or DCS source code is completely different form any IT type of project. So source code management functions like branching, checking in/out, etc is of little use to you.

For this reason, lots of people end up with a bug tracking spreadsheet - which works but is typically rather unsatisfactory as a proper database and for assigning jobs and tracking changes if your project is more than 1 or 2 developers.

I'd suggest you try open source software (rather than spending money on essentially useless bug tracking databases designed for large IT projects). Something like "trac" http://trac.edgewall.org/ might be what you're looking for. It's open source (written in Python) but has a windows installer, so is easier to install than PhP or Perl based systems.

Trac's own bug tracking is - not surprisingly - managed in Trac. So there's a really handy demo right there on the home page.

Also, some other suggestions can be found here http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/bug-tracking-system/

I'll be honest - I've messed around with Trac for 10 minutes for a small IT related project, but I've never used it in anger for a DCS or PLC project (and I typically use Google Code or GitHub for IT type software development.) However, If you find that Trac suits your purpose, let us know how you got on.

Rob
www[.]lymac.co.nz

 

> Not clear to me exactly what you want to track.

> Do you want to track the production line that is producing the machines that are sold to end users?

> Or do you want to track the machines that are out in the field after being sold to the end user?

Each machine has an associated PLC system and each batch of machines will have an associated SCADA and supervisory PLC.

To complicate matters further, each batch may even use different PLC manufacturer.

We need to track the version of each software installed along with any bugs associated with that revision.

Thanks.

 

> Bugzilla is free, very widely used and fairly flexible and customizable.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into that.

 

Your analysis of the problem is pretty much spot on. I'll have a look at Trac - thanks for the tip.

In previous jobs, I've used Asset Guardian (http://www.assetguardian.com/), which I liked a lot as it is set up for control systems. Problem is that it breaks our budget, and I was wondering what other products were out there (though I couldn't find anything else dedicated to PLC / DCS / SCADA systems).

The other tool I've used was MKS Integrity which was not orientated towards control systems, and as such was OK, but a bit cumbersome. And I suspect it's pretty costly as well.

 

I would suggest using the Atlassian software cloud versions of Jira (bug tracking) and bit bucket (source control). For a small team (up to 10 users) it is a fantastic deal at $20/month for both.

http://atlassian.com/software/jira/overview
http://atlassian.com/software/bitbucket/overview

I've been using bug/issue tracking software for over 20 years, and Jira is among the best. Git (one of the source code control systems supported by bit bucket) takes some getting used to, but is among the best SCCM systems out there. You can use it for any type of file, and actually does a reasonable job with binary blobs under source control. You can also use Mercurial with bit bucket, but I've never used that on a project, so can't comment either way.

And best of all, since it is cloud based, no servers to manage!