iOS HMI as the only HMI for small automation projects?

After looking at several options for iOS HMI products, it looks like one of the more popular ones is no longer being developed and others have sparse acceptance . . . I have a customer that simply wants to operate a drive to raise / lower a portable piece of gear with a joystick which is easy enough but he has the following requirements . . .

Operator is up to 1000 feet from the hoist with one part of the network connection being wireless.

He wants to set up the hoist feeds / accels / decels and hook position pick points using an iPad

Any thoughts on this? We have done a similar application using RS485 with repeaters and a standard PLC / HMI / setup.

Is the present state of wireless technology / iOS / networkable drives ready for this? The payload is a 5 lb sensor for observing air quality.

try here
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/index.php

I looked into this a little bit a while ago. I was more looking at Android though. In summary, the state of the market seems to suck. There were a few general options:

1) your PLC offers android/iOS remote access. I think Siemens has an app, there are a few smaller players with all-in-one PLC/HMI's that offer remote Android/iOS access as well.

2) run the HMI on a remote computer, then remote into it from the phone/tablet

3) PVBrowser should be able to do it, but I've never used the software for anything.

The PLC site didn't turn up anything . . . and we are going to avoid adding a PC to the mix. We might use an HMI that has a built in server that can serve up HMI pages to an iOS app - there seems to be a few of those. I tried that in the shop yesterday using my LG Android phone with a casting ladle control system we are finishing up and it worked pretty well.

I downloaded HMiPad and will see how that goes.

How did your test of HMiPad work out?

Also, what HMI are you using that will serve pages to an Android phone?

We have two HMI packages now that we have tested with webservers that serve up HMIs on an Android or iPhone/iPad . . . the first is "Ignition" which is a package that we have been recently introduced to when doing some automated casting lines. It is actually a very nice package with a lot of well thought out features that can be deployed across an entire factory. Ignition: One Platform, Unlimited Possibilities


The second is a package that we have been using for over a decade that is also very good called "Indusoft" which was recently purchased by Schneider (along with Wonderware which we have used but it is clunky in comparison) InduSoft Web Studio HMI SCADA Development Software | Wonderware by Schneider Electric

I will be working more with the HMiPad package this week and we will make a decision in the coming week or two. It is by far the cheapest option but it also looks like it is a bit shaky on long term support and I don't want to burden my customer with a dead product if this turns out to be a real concern.

We are using a C-more HMI which has a web server to remotely control our waste treatment plant using the $5 app on Iphone & Android. Access is via wireless cell modems from Digi. Alarms are sent by text messaging. We have over 100 set points, 16 automatic valves, analog sensors of all kinds. Works pretty well, no PC and once you program the local HMI screens you have the same screens remotely.

Motion; love Ignition here. I have it deployed all over the plant I work in.