Hardware Advise for an idea?

water-man

Hi,

I'm looking for some hardware advice to begin with (just want to know if it is possible) for an idea I have. I've no idea where to start so I thought I'd ask in Boards.

I work on a line where there are up to 6 machines in this line. The machines are not physically connected but would feed product from one into the next. These machines can be removed, added or changed position depending on the production requirements. Machines from other lines are interchangeable.

Currently, on any machine if there is for example a fault or an adjustment to be made to a parameter I have to go to that machine.

What I'd like to know is there any hardware (or companies) out there that could be installed in each machine and this hardware can transmit the machine info to a tablet. Would love video to be transmitted too.

Would I be looking for wifi routers on each machine? But am i correct in thinking that a tablet could only connect to one wifi network at a time?
Or
Is there something out there where I could configure one wifi router to be the "master" and the others as "slaves"? Is it easy to set a "slave" to master in case the machine with master is removed?
Or
Do I need something else all together?

I'd rather not have to connect cables between machines if at all possible due to the nature of the machines.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts but please note I don't want to say to mush about my idea.

Thanks,

WM

ED E

Are they all in the same workshop?

Setup a decent AP on the roof to start with, then add wifi cards to each machine if possible? Do they run XP Embedded or similar? Then you can use RDP to just grab the screen of whatever machine you like.

water-man

Thanks for the response.

If this makes any difference: The machines are not used indoors, they are used in fields and are moved week by week (maybe even daily).

I'll have to do some googling to see what AP, XP embedded and RDP means.

Regards,

WM

liamo

There is a difficulty addressing your question in that there is no information on what these machines are or if it's even possible to make a connection to them, or if they are designed to allow information to be extracted and delivered to an external device. Or if they can ever be interacted with remotely.

Are they computers? Or a computer-controlled machine? Do they have any way of establishing a connection to an external device? A network card, for example? Or a serial port?

A little more information is needed before any meaningful answer can be given.

water-man

Hi,

I'll try and provide more info:

1) Each machine talks to itself via CAN
2) Each machine has a PLC and a HMI
3) The HMI has an Ethernet port. Not currently used.

I have been looking around and came across one device (not sure if it's ok to post links to a company so will hold off). This device can connect to the CAN network and transmit the info over WLAN. But this device is limited in that it can't send video.

Another option I was thinking of is connecting a small PC (Raspberry PI) to the Ethernet port on the HMI and then a WLAN card to the PC?

What I don't know is, is it possible on a tablet/smart phone/laptop to see more than one WLAN? i.e if I had 6 machines each with its own WLAN can it see them all at the one time on one device and "zoom" in on a machine if needed?

Thanks again,

WM

liamo

Hi

Thanks for the additional information.

Is the essence of your problem that you wish to network these devices without cabling them?

If so, given that you have an unused ethernet port on each, you could consider an ethernet-to-wifi adapter for each machine. Set up and configure an Access Point nearby to connect all the devices and that should be that.

water-man

Hi,

Yes I wish to network the machines without cabling.

Can you recommend any hardware or companies that could do what I'm looking for? PM if not allowed to post links to companies?

Thanks again

WM

liamo

Hi

I'm afraid I can't make a recommendation for companies.

You might want to check out this wifi adapter. It may be what you're looking for.

However, there may be other considerations.

That is, what do you do with the machines if and when they are successfully networked? Would you be able to use that network? Do the machines facilitate remote connections and/or control? Do you need additional hardware or software?

Not being familiar with the machines, I can make no suggestions myself. Perhaps the supplier of your equipment could help?

ED E

Is this perhaps a fairground? Cant think of much other than mountain lumber gear and fairgrounds that might meet this criteria.


You need to find out what the HMI supports. If you want a video out of its display it would likely need to be something their OEM supports.

Wireless bridges and a mobile base station(if the field changes?) could definitely do this but will be limited to what the HMI will offer to the network.

rolion

Did you tried to approach the supplier and/or manufacturer of the device !?
Seems quite strange that you "know nothing" about machines and keep talking about interconnecting them via some standard networking protocols, that works fine in the IT world but ...do those machines are "talking" via TCP / IP or some other unknown protocol.
I fixed a CNC based machine some time ago, by hacking under the GUI and found is running MS-DOS 5.0 and not 6.22,therefore I wasn't able to get the TCP/IP networking client side working with latest Microsoft servers, IP and SMBs !! Sais sorry and moved on...kept using floppy disks even today.

IS very easy, from the comfort of my couch:
IF they are some sort of Windows OS based machines, happy day. You can use some of the above posters solutions.
IF they are running some proprietary OS or protocols, based on the manufacturer, you are very limited (restricted) in what can be done)

Best advice, before jumping to WiFI and access points and other stuff is to come back here with more details of the machines itself or contact the supplier and ask for professional advice. You will need the basic commands, operating systems and options from them.
Also, take note that if those machines are using control feedback protocols / commands and due to a poor implementation of your design, it may create unknown sequence of commands resulting in unpredicted events ,movements or commands been issued to that local device ! Are humans near them, life / health threating !??

Any way...have fun !

water-man

Hi,

OP here. So took your advise and contacted the hardware supplier and my idea is gaining momentum. My company have asked me to lead the project.

I'm ok on the overall idea but now am beginning to struggle with the more tech details. I spoke to my manager and he is more than happy to pay for me to attend courses. Can anyone here recommend any good network courses?

About me: I have a BEng in Electrical Engineering but all my work experience would be more in manufacturing and fault finding. I wouldn't have any network/wifi/App development experience.

I'm hoping to find a course or even modules from University course that I could attend to help get me up to speed on all things networking and Android app development.

Any one any ideas?

Thanks,

WM

ED E

If this is for production I'd probably recommend you have somebody else code an app required. For your own networking try an N+ or CCNA for starters.