In a recent project, we needed to set up communication between a PC running LabView and a Siemens S7-1500 PLC. Thankfully, Siemens provides the LCom communications library, shown below, for setting up TCP communications on SIMATIC S7-300/400, SIMATIC...
Energid’s Actin SDK is a C++ robotic control toolkit that can be used to model and simulate almost any type of manipulator. Users can define a robotic system, specify tasks and constraints (such as dynamic collision avoidance), and the Actin sy...
As of TIA Portal V14, the built-in remote access utility called WinCC Sm@rtServer is now available to Basic Panels and no longer requires a separate license for Comfort Panels. This means that if you have a Comfort Panel-running device (version 14.0....
I was recently working on a project with a tricky trending feature: display a trend over the course of a batch while the batch is running. No matter how long the batch had been running, we wanted to show the process value for the length of the trend....
DMC worked on a project where we wanted to log data to a local Microsoft SQL server to be able to save and display it using Microsoft Report Designer. However, the standard format of Siemens’ data log did not match up with the schema ...
Automation and control come in a lot of different varieties and flavors. On the surface, Arduinos, PLCs, and embedded controls all appear to do the same function. So how do you determine which is best for your application? In this post, I’ll...
Have you ever wanted to create multiple PivotCharts in Excel showing different data from one table? I know I have, plenty of times! This step-by-step tutorial will show you a quick and easy way to create PivotCharts that all refresh, update a...
DMC is excited to exhibit at AWC Best Fest on February 21, 2019. This event will take place at Top Golf in San Antonio, Texas. DMC is proud to help sponsor this event. AWC's Best Fest will include four different tech seminars, a tech...
Modern industrial communication is often performed over Ethernet protocols, especially within the Siemens product ecosystem. However, some external devices (especially non-Siemens devices) communicate using serial protocols. Luckily, Siemens provides...
Every month, all DMC offices meet via video conferencing to share information and catch up together. The most anticipated part of the meeting is the office update video. Each DMC office takes a turn updating the rest of the company on their new proje...