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Software/Controller development questions/advice.

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gonzalito:
Hello everyone,

my name is Gonzalo Moreno, I´m a mechanical engineer and I´m from Argentina. I find myself developing a milk delivery kart for calves in dairy farms, and I'm trying to improve what I already have. What I already have is a fully working Milk Kart. I'm using a Unitronics PLC for the logic and everything is working as expected.

But, my goal is now to develop a software which should be integrated to the kart. Many things are to be defined, but i would like advices for the following:

         - I need some kind of electronics, flexible enough that should be used as base for the software I plan to grow in the future, and also work as controller (or PLC) for the rest of the electric components.

Is a raspberry pi suited for something like this? Also I´m no programmer so everything will be later on passed to someone that cana ctually develop it.

Gonzalo.

MosherIV:
Welcome to the forum.


--- Quote --- I need some kind of electronics, flexible enough that should be used as base for the software I plan to grow in the future, and also work as controller (or PLC) for the rest of the electric components.

Is a raspberry pi suited for something like this? Also I´m no programmer so everything will be later on passed to someone that cana ctually develop it.
--- End quote ---
Rasberry pi - no and yes.
No - it is a cheap desktop type computer. Not really suited to embedded systems.
Yes - Some people/companies have developed products around it but they have dedicated electronics engineers to do the design work.
In your situation, you need to develop lots of electronics to interface the bare raspberry pi with the cart.
I think you may be better sticking to the PLC. Far easier to find components and interface to them

DaJMasta:
In addition to being rated as a consumer product, a lot of the emphasis of the Pi is graphics and UI capability - what you'd expect from a normal desktop computer - which probably isn't that relevant to your application, so you can probably find something that's more durable (temperature range, environmental seal, shock resistance, reliability features) and that uses less power with similar or better computational or control capability because it doesn't have the extra graphics processing parts.

I don't know a lot about the specifics of what's available, though, so I can't help you much there.

Out of curiosity, what doe s milk kart do?  Is this a vehicle of some kind, or maybe a fixed distribution system?  Knowing more about the thing you're replacing will probably help find recommendations for replacements.

gonzalito:
Thanks for the replies guys.

We are already using a Unitronics PLC with HMI, but what we are trying to achieve is to make the machine smarter, since our idea is to develop a software for which the kart will be the main tool for gathering information.
After the routine is done, the information gathered should be transmitted for analysis to a pc or an android app, or whatever. What I am trying to do iis something flexible hardware wise, so that if it doesn´t work one way i might some other way.

All electronics and electric parts are concealed inside a cabinet, protected from water. Vibrations might be strong though.


TomS_:
My two cents ....

What limitations doses the PLC have that will stop you from advancing your design? Perhaps the PLC is just fine, but only needs some help from e.g. a microcontroller to achieve some more complicated sequences or functionality.

Rather than looking to replace your existing setup, try to decide what you need it to do and then determine if it is still suitable for the task.

Perhaps it only needs a capable microcontroller, rather than a full system like a Raspberry Pi, which introduces complexities and limitations of its own (e.g. Linux administration, not real time).

Which ever way you go, write loads of documentation - in the code, user manuals, troubleshooting guides, etc. Who ever is going to come along after you will thank you for it.

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