Product category:
Automation, control software
News Release from: System Devices | Subject: FactoryFloor 4.0 industrial automation software
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 July 2002
Complete control automation much easier
Users can develop control programs, design easy-to-use human-machine interfaces, expand their manufacturing systems' connectivity, and complete control automation projects easier than before.
Opto 22, a developer and manufacturer of I/O and control systems for data acquisition, machine automation, and process control applications, has announced the release of FactoryFloor 4.0, the latest version of its award-winning industrial automation software suite The new FactoryFloor 4.0 software is designed for use with Opto 22's widely deployed line of powerful, stand-alone industrial controllers (including the popular M4 series) typically combined with the company's SNAP Ethernet I/OT and SNAP Serial I/O products
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Aug 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Using FactoryFloor 4.0, users can develop control programs, design easy-to-use human-machine interfaces, expand their manufacturing systems' connectivity, and complete their control automation projects faster, cheaper, and more easily than ever before.
Priced at under GBP 300, Opto 22 FactoryFloor 4.0 software is comprised of four powerful, integrated components: OptoControlT, OptoDisplayT, OptoServerT, and OptoConnectT.
OptoControl is a flowchart-based control programming environment that allows users to develop control and data acquisition applications quickly and easily; OptoDisplay is the graphical HMI package for designing human-machine interfaces; OptoServer provides OPC and DDE connectivity between Opto 22 systems and Microsoft Windows-based computers; and OptoConnect creates a bi-directional data transfer link between the Opto 22 controller database and Microsoft's SQL Server or Access databases.
Further reading
Automation controllers offer high performance
A family of programmable automation controllers have high-performance, are multi-domain and Ethernet-based for applications in automation and data acquisition.
Replacement 'brain boards' are simply 'dropped in'
E1 and E2 Ethernet boards provide all the functionality of the serial-based B1s and B2s but add Ethernet networking and additional protocol support.
A major enhancement included in this latest version of FactoryFloor is the addition of OptoScript, a new scripting tool that provides an alternative way to program within OptoControl's flowchart environment.
Built into OptoControl, OptoScript offers a new procedural type of programming language similar to C and Pascal that gives FactoryFloor users greater programming versatility.
OptoScript significantly reduces program development time by providing an easier method of creating math expressions, defining control loops, performing conditional branching, and manipulating strings.
Additionally, OptoScript delivers ease of use by providing scripting assistance in choosing commands and strategy variables and performing subsequent script syntax checking.
Other enhancements found in FactoryFloor 4.0 include improvements to the debugger that enable line stepping into blocks when performing full debugs.
Previously, debugging could only be performed on blocks as a whole.
Also noteworthy is a new runtime logging security feature within OptoDisplay that allows users to log all actions and modifications resulting from Operator Driven Dynamic Attributes.
Actions that can be logged include changing process values or discrete items, downloading or uploading recipes, launching applications, running menu commands, and detaching or attaching controllers.
Modifications to alarm point values can also be logged.
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