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[on:]

The ControlCore system allows a user to completely configure, download, and monitor an arbitrary control algorithm inside a micro controller based communicating I/O device. It provides a visual, function-block oriented, programming experience allowing Industrial Automation and/or HVAC professionals to implement custom control strategies, with no coding required.

Watch a short video about ControlCore

ControlCore is thinking about adding support for arduino boards. And We would first like to get some feedback from the community.

Would you use ControlCore to program your arduino?
Which board would you like to see supported? ( we were thinking ArduinoBoardMega2560 would be a good fit )

Please post your comments or questions below!

[Reply #1 on:]

yes I could see this working where I work, keep the machine guys from buying a 300$ plc to read a switch cause they dont want to mess with code.

Its very similar to what they would be using anyway and it might make it easier for me to introduce more realistic solutions for simpler devices

[Reply #2 on:]

I think this would be a great idea.  It would be great if you supported this http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-mega-p-717.html?cPath=132_133 version of the Mega 2560 since it breaks out ALL the pins on the 2560 chip.  It would just be a matter of including the extra pin mapping in your code.

[Reply #3 on:]

Hi, An easy way to connect to the MEGA pins is with a Sensor Shield that provides 3-pin connectors for almost all I/O.

See: http://goo.gl/ijCt1  



How much code space does a minimal useful ControlCore application use?

Would the system be Open Source? Free to use?


DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop... but widely available elsewhere.

[Reply #4 on:]

How much code space does a minimal useful ControlCore application use?

The ControlCore firmware takes about 48K, and a big program (100 I/O 10 control loops and misc logic...)  ~5k

Would the system be Open Source? Free to use?

ControlCore is not open source, the IDE programing environment is free, however each device will need to be licensed ( about 10$ / license ) .

Your welcome to give our IDE a spin, no hardware required, you can set the environment on simulate, and get a feel for how to program in ControlCore.

Download The basic version here

http://www.isquared.ca/

[Reply #5 on:]

How much code space does a minimal useful ControlCore application use?

The ControlCore firmware takes about 48K, and a big program (100 I/O 10 control loops and misc logic...)  ~5k

Would the system be Open Source? Free to use?

ControlCore is not open source, the IDE programing environment is free, however each device will need to be licensed ( about 10$ / license ) .

Your welcome to give our IDE a spin, no hardware required, you can set the environment on simulate, and get a feel for how to program in ControlCore.

Download The basic version here

http://www.isquared.ca/

With the plethora of FREE Arduino programming alternatives, including a few graphical versions, I seriously doubt that you will get much traction with a per device licensing scheme. 

[Reply #6 on:]

With the plethora of FREE Arduino programming alternatives, including a few graphical versions, I seriously doubt that you will get much traction with a per device licensing scheme.  

Thank you for you comment. we suspected a licensing scheme might be frowned upon by an open source community. Perhaps a kick starter campaign would work better? I can't find any free graphical Arduino programming alternatives. Modkit appears to be 50$. We are looking for places to expand, Arduino seems like a gr8 product we could work with, but we simply cannot offer everything for free...

[Reply #7 on:]

a licence per device would kill me, when I make a widget at work its 10-25 of them

like recently I made a simple device that read a byte from the serial port / USB and controls upto 8 3 amp 24 volt SSR's, then returns a byte giving the status of upto 8 PLC inputs so we can interface our PLC mechanical world to our C# PC world

I made 20 of them, that starts to get costly considering I can say "stuff it" to the automation staff, and write it for free in C