[BangPypers] Industrial Control Systems in Python

[Anand Balachandran Pillai]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 7:56 PM, Vishal <vsapre80 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 6:24 PM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at nibrahim.net.in
> >wrote:
>
> > Vishal <vsapre80 at gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > 1) The scenario you describe is very close to what we would like to
> > > have...except that I wish to have an SBC running the actual control
> > > code in Python and a small micro-controller board to manage
> > > peripherals like ADC and PWM pins...that would translate to the
> > > control actions. These two talk over wire, using some protocol...some
> > > request-response bytes structure that we invent :))
> >
> > I wrote a custom JSON based protocol but later in the project, I wished
> > I had used something more standard.
> >
> > > Now the next thing is...what is busybox and can I use it in this case
> > > on the SBC? and where to find such SBCs....
> >
> > Busybox[1] is a single executable that provides the functionality of
> > many of the basic UNIX userspace utilities (like ls etc.) depending on
> > what name it's called with. You can simply symlink ls etc. to busybox
> > and it'll work. It's very useful for embedded situations since you can
> > just drop in a single executable and get all the basic things for free.
> >
> > > Any pointers... ?
> >
> > Apropos SBCs, I recently bought a beagle board[2] for someone who was
> > working on a project. It's ARM based and is quite powerful. It has tons
> > of ports you can connect stuff to. I think he booted it with something
> > called Angstrom[3] and then we connected to it via. serial and got a
> > complete environment. It's powerful enough to run a proper small
> > GNU/Linux. I don't think you need busybox and things like that. This is
> > the only one *I* know of. You can order it in Bangalore from Tenet
> > technologies[4] and it costs a little less than 10k.
>

I recall there was an excellent presentation in Pycon 2010 by one Mr.Vijay
about a programmable hardware interface called with an I/O framework
written in Python by his company Zilogic.

Details about this are here.

http://in.pycon.org/2010/talks/52-device-interfacing-with-python-and-zio

Looks like the toolkit is mainly meant for hobbyists and for prototyping
but I think it could be used for your purpose as well.

http://www.zilogic.com/zio-mb.html

I wonder if it uses pyserial behind the scenes.

HTH.

--Anand







> >
> > > the search continues :))
> > >
> > > Recently I have realized that almost all problems in this world...are
> > > a form of search...No wonder the company that mastered search is a
> > > "G"iant now.
> >
> > My take is different. I recently met someone famous but I didn't
> > recollect what he was famous for. He was standing about a metre away
> > from me and instead of starting a conversation - something which I can
> > do fairly well, I actually googled for his name to find out more about
> > him. Later in the evening, I seriously wished that I didn't have the
> > ability to just "search" for him. The conversation would have been a lot
> > more interesting. But I'm a bit of a luddite so...
> >
> > > 2) Going the ST way is not recommended (BTW its called Structured
> > > Text) ...because only a compiler will not be enough, we'll have to
> > > come up with some way of debugging... It would be like creating a
> > > whole new language.
> >
> > Good point. My use case was a lot less complicated.
> >
> >
> > Footnotes:
> > [1]  http://www.busybox.net/about.html
> >
> > [2]  http://beagleboard.org/
> >
> > [3]  http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/
> >
> > [4]  http://tenettech.com/
> >
> > --
> > ~noufal
> > http://nibrahim.net.in
> >
> > "I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to
> > prophesy after the event has already taken place. " - Winston Churchill
> > _______________________________________________
> > BangPypers mailing list
> > BangPypers at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers
> >
>
> Noufal,
>
> Thanks for the links. I hope my search will lead me to a decent solution.
>
> Indeed, machines_and_automation (of all kinds) is most of the times against
> humanization...so, i guess the only way is to stay human, while surrounded
> by   machines all the time, is to exercise the humanitarian aspect of our
> personalities as much as possible every day of our lives.
>
> --
> Warm regards,
> Vishal Sapre
>
> ---
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-- 
--Anand