I was not sure where to put this post so I put in the general area.
I am building a control panel ... PLC ... touch screen HMI ... Cellular modem.
I have built industrial control panels for 30 years but this is the first one I have built for a remote location.
Got everything working ... I can monitor the HMI remotely ... turn on an off pumps .... send alert e-mails.
The problem is, I can't access the programing of the PLC or HMI.
Here I use a USB cable ... run the programing software ... upload a program ....
Then I realized I had used my computer in remote desktop mode to test the cellular modem.
My first thought is I am go to give the user a cheap laptop ... when they need me to do maintenance on the system, I will have them plug the laptop into a spare Ethernet port, connect up two USB cables (one to the PLC and one to the HMI) and I will take control of the laptop from the office. I can fire up the PLC and HMI programs ... make changes and monitor them.
Then I thought, wouldn't it be slick if I could put in a one board windows 10 computer. I could leave it on all the time, still leave it hooked up to the Ethernet (I have an open jack on the switch), PLC and HMI (using two USB cables). I would not need a key board or screen ... just remote desktop in when I need to use it.
So, since I have never touched a single board computer, I needed some advice ....
1) is this a practical or good idea?
2) what single board computer would you recommend?
3) am I correct I would not have to have a local keyboard or monitor ... just have it boot up on power up ... no login ...?
4) will I have enough memory (or how do you expand the memory) to run the to two "relatively" small programs? Also, how to I load the progams. Right now I download them from the web so I guess I would need a browser or put them onto a usb or ?
5) is there anything I am missing here?
I am not an expert at PC's ... much more of an end user but I think this could solve my problems of having to connect with an external computer to do maintenance (even simple things like changing a timer setting or an e-mail address).
Thanks .... Mike
I am building a control panel ... PLC ... touch screen HMI ... Cellular modem.
I have built industrial control panels for 30 years but this is the first one I have built for a remote location.
Got everything working ... I can monitor the HMI remotely ... turn on an off pumps .... send alert e-mails.
The problem is, I can't access the programing of the PLC or HMI.
Here I use a USB cable ... run the programing software ... upload a program ....
Then I realized I had used my computer in remote desktop mode to test the cellular modem.
My first thought is I am go to give the user a cheap laptop ... when they need me to do maintenance on the system, I will have them plug the laptop into a spare Ethernet port, connect up two USB cables (one to the PLC and one to the HMI) and I will take control of the laptop from the office. I can fire up the PLC and HMI programs ... make changes and monitor them.
Then I thought, wouldn't it be slick if I could put in a one board windows 10 computer. I could leave it on all the time, still leave it hooked up to the Ethernet (I have an open jack on the switch), PLC and HMI (using two USB cables). I would not need a key board or screen ... just remote desktop in when I need to use it.
So, since I have never touched a single board computer, I needed some advice ....
1) is this a practical or good idea?
2) what single board computer would you recommend?
3) am I correct I would not have to have a local keyboard or monitor ... just have it boot up on power up ... no login ...?
4) will I have enough memory (or how do you expand the memory) to run the to two "relatively" small programs? Also, how to I load the progams. Right now I download them from the web so I guess I would need a browser or put them onto a usb or ?
5) is there anything I am missing here?
I am not an expert at PC's ... much more of an end user but I think this could solve my problems of having to connect with an external computer to do maintenance (even simple things like changing a timer setting or an e-mail address).
Thanks .... Mike