Re: Linux Internet Server Project

[Ricky Bryce <nedra@mcleodusa.net>]

Tim,

What are the "embedded computers"?  I teach Allen Bradley PLC's.  PLC's 
typically control industrial equipment, and are used for Data Acquisition.

I would be interested in how you are getting the data from the PLC into 
the access database.  A variety of methods can be used.  Let me use the 
example of how a PLC would get data to a hard drive on a windows 98 
machine:

The PLC (programmable logic controller) will gather data (input) from 
equipment such as a temperature from a heat zone (for extrusion 
processes).  This temperature will arrive in the PLC at a memory location 
such as N10:0.  Therefore N10:0 represents the temperature that a 
thermocouple is reading.  Now the problem is going to be getting the value 
of N10:0 from the PLC into an access Database in Windows 98.  There are 
several ways this can be done.  You can use Visual Basic to set up a DDE 
Link to a communication server program such as RSLinx.  Visual Basic can 
then set the value of N10:0 equal to a string such as zonetemp$.  Now 
zonetemp$ can be written into a database.  

(This is an example of one way to get the information into the database).  
Another way would be to use MMI software such as RSView, Intellution, or 
Wonderware.  

Maybe you can explain how the data is getting from the "embedded computer" 
into the access database on the win98 machine if you know.  I used quotes 
around embedded computer because I am not sure what exactly this is.

Whatever method you are using to get the data from the embedded computer 
to the access database, may be used to get the data into MySQL.

I believe Rockwell software makes a unix compatable communication server 
called INTERCHANGE which could run on Linux, I am not sure.  We would have 
to check into that.  I am not sure what your budget is, but my guess is 
that INTERCHANGE software could cost upwards of $2000 or more.  We will 
try to find a way around that, but need some more information.

I know it is very difficult when you are not sure where to start, but if 
we can continue to post questions and answers, we will probably get 
somewhere.  

Pulling the data from the Win98 Access Database to put into a Linux SQL 
server probably isn't going to be a problem, but I think you are wanting 
to write the information to the Linux box in the first place and not store 
it on the win98 machine, right?

In order to do that, we will have to know what is writing to that access 
database on the windows 98 machine, and get the software reconfigured to 
write to the Linux machine.  

Hha  I just configured PINE and noticed that my email address is set up 
as my wife's.  I will get that corrected.

Talk to you later!

Ricky


 On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Tim McDonough wrote:

> From: "Ricky Bryce" <nedra@mcleodusa.net>
> 
> > As far as gathering Data from the win98 machines...  What kind of
> data is
> > this going to be?  Is the user going to enter data on the windows 98
> > terminal, and that data is logged to an SQL database?  If that is
> the
> > case, you can do it with web pages.  The RedHat machine would run a
> web
> > server such as Apache, and you can use PHP and MySQL to write data
> into
> > the MySQL database (Or run database queries).  If the Windows 98
> machines
> > are going to simply store files on the RedHat machine, then you will
> want
> > to check into SaMBa server.  SaMBa will allow the Red Hat machine to
> show
> > up in Network Neighborhood on the Windows 98 clients.  The Windows
> 98
> > clients could then access shares on the Red Hat machine.  ( As if
> you had
> > an NT mahine set up and right clicked and shared a folder on the C:
> > drive ).
> 
> We have instrumentation scattered across the US that monitors a
> variety of industrial processes. These embedded computers call our
> host PCs periodically to report status, etc. The data we collect is
> analyzed by us and among other things the results are made available
> to our customers. We want them to be able to get their reports via a
> web page which they would log in to.
> 
> The data is presently stored on several Win98 machines in an Access
> database. One machine does data collection and another uses that data
> in conjunction with some GIS functions that do routing for service
> work. The data collection could be migrated to Linux at some point.
> The GIS would need to remain in Windows.
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
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