Industrial automation

Virtualbox vs VMware Player

There are many articles comparing Virtualbox and VMware products, but I could find none that would list the points important for my industrial automation tasks. So here is my list, still growing, of pros and cons of VMware Workstation Player v15.5.6 as compared to Virtualbox 6.1.10. So far VMware Workstation Player better suits my purposes. […]

February 27, 2020
23686 views
  • Testing Modbus TCP

    Recently, I needed to check a Modbus TCP server. I went through several client utilities, and I liked one by Schneider most of all: https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/faqs/FA180037/ It also works with Modbus RTU via the COM port. The only drawback is that it only works with default port 502. With the ability to specify custom port, I […]

    August 30, 2019
    22438 views
  • How a heatpump task grew into math game in Java

    My customer from Germany gave me a small task – to develop a function for Carel PLC which would determine if heatpump is working in an optimal mode. The mode is optimal when the condensing and evaporation temperatures are within certain zones that are specified as polygons, so the essential part of that task was […]

    August 20, 2019
    23104 views
  • Step 7, Windows and Linux

    New Siemens PLCs S7-1200 and S7-1500, and TIA Portal software have already become quite mature products and they can be recommended for new projects now, but Step7 will be required for the support of old projects for a long time still. Recent release of the new version Step7 v5.6 (Step 7 Professional 2017) with Windows […]

    April 16, 2018
    1345 views
  • Compressor sequence

    Revision 03-Apr-2014. To run the applet please install Java runtime Download applet. This Java applet illustrates the work of refrigeration compressor sequence algorithm, which has been developed by our company basing on several years of experience. In this example, there are four screw compressors with slide valve capacity regulation, and one screw compressor with frequency […]

    April 4, 2017
    1283 views