Raspberry Xpert Wanted

[WarrenG]

Hi Folks,

I'm looking for someone to design, build a Raspberry Pi project to communicate with industrial machines for my own personel use. I run various engineering projects throughout the UK for industrial customers and I'll think it great to be able to throw my big bulky laptop into the bin so hence this project .......

The Pi device needs to be small, compact and neat as possible (external case/shell can be done by me) with built in rechargeable power source, LCD monitor, and connectivity to either 25 pin RS232 and/or standard USB port . The software needs to be simple, send & receive text data, also the option to view that text on the LCD screen . Ideally with built in storage of minimum 1GB.

Ideally you need to live around the Shropshire/Staffordshire/Midlands area, Once the project is completed then I would pay you.

If your interested please post your location, estimated price & target completion date & I'll be in touch .

Regards

Warren

[rpiswag]

What kind of industrial machines where you looking to control? I don't think with the money and time you would be spending with this project I don't think it would be worth it. I would get a tablet/laptop hybrid. Get someone to design an application for you and have the raspberry pi hooked up to the machine that you want to control. It will be more powerful and you get your own personal choice of laptop/tablet hybrid or just a plain laptop or table. It will be cheaper depending on what device you choose and you will get more freedom and it will be less bulky.

[WarrenG]

I'm not looking to control anything - just import/export text data .

[rpiswag]

Ok then the system I wrote of before will still work just the application will be different. I think it would be best if you used a web application.

[DougieLawson]

If your interested please post your location, estimated price & target completion date & I'll be in touch .

You haven't given anywhere near enough information to estimate the time or cost of what you're requesting.

What's on the other end of the wire?
What protocol does it use?
Is it synchronous real-time? Or async?
What's your budget?
Does it include the cost of the RPi? Which model? A+?, B+? Or 2B?
Does it include the LCD (the one I'm thinking of costs £140)?
You say "or standard USB", USB is a connection standard but the data at the application layer can be anything but standard, just look at the number of device drivers in the kernel for USB.
Who owns the code?
Do you have a prescription for which language you want to use?

Why does location matter, we've got a worldwide network that works well? [I live in Hants, I'm writing this in Horsens, Denmark, my daughter lives in South Staffs.]

[PiGraham]

If you want a portable system with screen and battery power why not use a tablet or smartphone?

[rpiswag]

That's whatI said in the beginning.

[ame]

I'm looking for someone to design, build a Raspberry Pi project to communicate with industrial machines for my own personel use. I run various engineering projects throughout the UK for industrial customers and I'll think it great to be able to throw my big bulky laptop into the bin so hence this project .......

Step 1: Buy small laptop, such as Aspire One or one of those tiny Lenovos.
Step 2: Throw big bulky laptop into the bin.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

I'll send you my invoice later.

[PiGraham]

That's whatI said in the beginning.

You made a good point!

[cptdodgerm]

Hi Folks,

I'm looking for someone to design, build a Raspberry Pi project to communicate with industrial machines for my own personel use. I run various engineering projects throughout the UK for industrial customers and I'll think it great to be able to throw my big bulky laptop into the bin so hence this project .......

The Pi device needs to be small, compact and neat as possible (external case/shell can be done by me) with built in rechargeable power source, LCD monitor, and connectivity to either 25 pin RS232 and/or standard USB port . The software needs to be simple, send & receive text data, also the option to view that text on the LCD screen . Ideally with built in storage of minimum 1GB.

Ideally you need to live around the Shropshire/Staffordshire/Midlands area, Once the project is completed then I would pay you.

If your interested please post your location, estimated price & target completion date & I'll be in touch .

Regards

Warren

I think what is confusing people is the need to have a portable device that can send and receive text data and not explaining properly the reasons why.

If I may elaborate a little on your behalf. Please tell me if I am wrong though. Being an ex-engineer I am somewhat familiar with the technical difficulties you face. Saying that you need something simple and then say it's main requirement is just to send and receive text data is a bit of a red herring and it is confusing people into thinking that current tablets or netbooks will suffice. This i believe is not actually the case. As part of an engineering team, my role was to provide the hardware to communicate with various industrial machines, in this case Panasonic BGA surface mount machines and conveyor line control boxes. Configuration data, setup data, sensor data, error data was all sent and received in text format via serial communication. Some of the machines had 9 way or 25 way serial connectors on them. Other members of the team wrote the communication software. If i am right, I believe this is the type of thing you deal with, hence why it is not just a simple case of a device being able just to send and receive text data as it is slightly more complicated than that. Am i right?

Many industrial machines still use serial as the method of communication, heck, even my Honton BGA rework machine uses serial communication so I can control heat profiles and it's just under 2yrs old. This makes using tablets out the question because they are not able to connect to serial connected devices. The best device to use is of course a laptop BUT the ones that have the communication protocols required are to old to and too big. That is one reason why you find many manufacturers still have very old laptops to date because they connect seamlessly with the industrial machines they use and to try and find a modern day equivalent would be too costly to research in time and manpower.

Any modern device used today must have cross compatibility with older communication methods, such as serial but unfortunately no laptop manufacturer builds a netbook or a small laptop with serial ports because they consider it outdated. There are companies who make inter-series serial communication cables but they are extremely unreliable, I know as I have tried many of the USB to serial adapters and when your being employed by a customer to handle data from their machines, the last thing you need is reliability problems. Hence the issue Warren finds himself in having to use an old and large laptop.

There are already serial devices made for the Pi, this is one of them https://www.abelectronics.co.uk/product ... al-Pi-Plus . A 25way to 9way RS232 cable is all that is then needed.

One method that could be used is using the Pi as a remote connection box to the industrial machines. The Pi is connected to the machinery either by USB or the serial port and Warren would then use a normal lightweight laptop to remotely connect to the Pi via WI-Fi. There are lots of web pages that explain how to use remotely connect to the Pi. This would negate the issue of having to buy a screen, keyboard and mouse for the Pi and have it all cased up.

So you've got the option of having a remote setup or purchase individual parts to make the Pi in to a portable laptop.

Rog

[PiGraham]

There are many serial interfaces that can be used with tablets via OTG USB, Bluetooth or WiFi Ethernet bridge.

Note that CANBUS BT interfaces are also available.

If a laptop did the job but is too large then a tablet is a good option.

Of course it is possible to use a Pi in a battery powered portable with display. It's just that it's not ideally suited and it is relatively expensive to do it that way, in both time and money.

At the other end of the scale is a serial data logger such as this:
http://proto-pic.co.uk/logomatic-v2-ser ... wwodzRcASQ

[cptdodgerm]

There are many serial interfaces that can be used with tablets via OTG USB, Bluetooth or WiFi Ethernet bridge.

Note that CANBUS BT interfaces are also available.

If a laptop did the job but is too large then a tablet is a good option.

Of course it is possible to use a Pi in a battery powered portable with display. It's just that it's not ideally suited and it is relatively expensive to do it that way, in both time and money.

At the other end of the scale is a serial data logger such as this:
http://proto-pic.co.uk/logomatic-v2-ser ... wwodzRcASQ

I do not think you understand the issue. It would appear the device will be used in a business environment therefore reliability would be of paramount importance. As I have said in a previous post, anything that uses inter-series cables is unreliable. I have just been doing some searching on OTG RS232 and reading the comments left by users and many report reliability issues with their phone or tablet device. If Warren is prepared to accept some slight reliability issues with communication between devices and industrial machine then he has a wealth of options to choose, like the ones you have suggested BUT alot of what is being discussed is really of no importance until Warren responds to these posts

Rog

[leggazoid]

Look up DNC systems for an explanation of what the op wants to do. This has been done in linux with the minicom program.

[ame]

I do not think you understand the issue. It would appear the device will be used in a business environment therefore reliability would be of paramount importance.

Hence buying a smaller laptop would be better than cobbling together a Pi, a display, a battery, an RS232 interface and a 3D-printed enclosure. Not to mention it would be cheaper, and OP could buy one right now without having to pay for any development.

[BMS Doug]

I do not think you understand the issue. It would appear the device will be used in a business environment therefore reliability would be of paramount importance.

Hence buying a smaller laptop would be better than cobbling together a Pi, a display, a battery, an RS232 interface and a 3D-printed enclosure. Not to mention it would be cheaper, and OP could buy one right now without having to pay for any development.

But the small laptop would not have a native serial port and you don't realise how unreliable USB to serial adapters can be ( I used to carry 4 different USB to serial adapters with me, in the hope that I would be able to get one of them to communicate with whatever equipment I was accessing that day).

[PiGraham]

I do not think you understand the issue. It would appear the device will be used in a business environment therefore reliability would be of paramount importance.

If that is the case don't use home made kit cobbled together from hobbyist components. Pay the few hundred pounds for a professional data logger.

I see no reason why a low cost tablet + peripherals is going to be less reliable than a low cost board computer + peripherals.

At least the tablet will have been more thorougly tested as a portable system than the Pi + battery + screen + keyboard.

[PiGraham]

Of course you can invest a good quality USB serial adaptor. Get one direct from FTDI and avoid the cheap knock-off stuff from eBay or Alibaba.

I've never had a USB serial device fail in more than 10 years (even cheap ones), but I don't use such things daily.