DSC

[belou21]

Hello

I've to create an interface between industrial machines and users, using Labview.

I discover the DSC module and I think that it's the best way to collect informations from a machine and control it.

But I'm a new user of Labview and I prefer be sure before buy it!

Thanks for your answers

Belou21

[block1j]

If your industrial machines are already reporting data over OPC then DSC gives you some tools to build on that. Or if you have a number of independent machines and your user interface is a supervisory control that too would be a good application for DSC. DSC gives you some pretty pictures for making front panels but you can make your own for LabVIEW too.

Now if your industrial machines haven't been built or if you are incharge of their control system then you have a lot more options which may not require DSC.

[belou21]

Hi

I have to work with 4 indepedent machines of platic injection and my project is more to collect data from the machine (is it working, how many movements since it's working, some basic informations) than to control them but I want to try to do more if it's possible (for example a on/off control).

So if you think that DSC module is not necessary I'will not buy it, and if you can advise me something else it can be good.

Thank you

Belou21

[block1j]

How will you get that information from the injection molders? will you be adding the electronics and data acquistion equipment or use somethign that exists. if it exists how will you access that information programatically.

[belou21]

I don't know, that why i asked you more informations, the machines are equiped with ethernet conection but i don't know if it's possible to create a link without adding equipement. And at this moment i can't connect me on the network (informatic problem) and try to check if it's possible or not.

Do you think i need to buy a data acquisition equipement or ethernet connection is enough?

Thank you

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

I don't know, that why i asked you more informations, the machines are equiped with ethernet conection but i don't know if it's possible to create a link without adding equipement. And at this moment i can't connect me on the network (informatic problem) and try to check if it's possible or not.

Do you think i need to buy a data acquisition equipement or ethernet connection is enough?

Thank you

This sort of devices are usually CNC controlled. While they nowadays have and use Ethernet ports to communicate between each other and the master control software, the used protocols are seldom public protocols and most often proprietary ones without any documentation whatsover. I have no experience with your machines but used to commuincate with Heidenhain CNC systems in the past for one project. Their protocol is called LSV2 and on the Heidenhain site I did find a document buried deep in the document hierarchy that usually does not show up in their normal search. I managed to develop a driver to get the file hierarchy and information on a machine over that protocol but even that document itself wasn't sufficient. It was not before I used Etherreal to sniff on the actual messages send between the official Heidenhain tool and those machines that I was able to write VIs to actually do a reliable communication.

Without any document explaining at least the basic format of the protocol trying to develop such a VI driver is however almost impossible.

So your first action should be to contact the manufacturer or distributor of those devices if there is a protocol documentation and if that fails try to investigate if somewhere on the internet is some protocol documentation available in the form of a document, some example code in C or another programming language or possibly some more or less obscure scripting environment. I've in the past had to learn a bit of Perl to actually get at some protocol documentation of some sort.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[belou21]

I send e-mail to the manufacturer and i'm waiting the answer.

If somebody has any infirmation which is able to help me it can be nice.

Thanks

Belou21

[karol]

Hello,

I have been browsing the web, looking for ANY information about controlling the Krauss-Maffei machines and found your post. Here is what I have figured out so far:

1. the MC4 control unit can be controlled remotelly via ethernet

2. there is an OPC server, offered by the KEPWARE company, see: http://www.kepware.com/Products/download.asp

3. The server works with many drivers, one of them is a driver for MC4, and lets your code access it, if you can use OPC communication mechanisms. For details please go to:

http://www.kepware.com/Menu_items/industry...Foundation.html

4. The server can be downloaded as a demo, running 2 hours. After 2 hours it has to be restarted. It is quite good, because 2 hours seems be enough long time for tests before you buy a server (ca. $800)

4. The problem is, that you still need some documentation from Krauss-Maffei, because you need to know, what is a name of parameter, you want to read.

That's all what I know. Please contact me, if you want to discuss anything related to this topic. If you have made any progress, it would be very nice, if you can give me any hint.

Regards, Karol.