A modular PLC that might some day be open-source
The professional world is full of PLC manufacturers. They are doing a great job and you can buy almost anything you can think of.
The DIY world is full of Arduino-like hardware that is ultra flexible and super-easy to program, but you always end up with a lot of PCBs, soldered together like hell and stuffed into cardboard boxes.
But wouldn't it be nice to have something that combines these two worlds? A PLC in a decent housing that is both modular and easy to program?
We took a shot at this and started our own PLC, based on the seasoned STM32F103 controller family and the great stm32duino project.
There are 2 ways to use this PLC:
- For those who are brave the code of the controller can be modified to match your application
- A lot easier is using the "stock-firmware".
Here is what it does:
- auto-detect the connected modules at startup
- collect data
- display the current state of all in- and outputs on a tiny OELD display
- listens to commands on the USB and serial port
The serial commands are easy, jsut like this:
"SET 2 3 1.23" -> Set Module #2 , Channel #3 to "1.23"
"GET 3 1" -> Get the value of channel #1 on module #3
"?" -> Get all values, depending on the modules, the answer could look like this:
< == 08.01.24 14:19:00 == 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
0.53 0.00 0.00 0.00
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
25.83 25.98 25.32 25.72
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 >
More specs to come....