04-15-2019, 10:56 AM
(04-15-2019, 05:48 AM)Luke Wrote: What exactly do you need it for? how will the monitors connect ? what OS will you want to run?
1. We need for reading data from PLCs and sensors.
2. HDMI expected to connect
3. We will use Linux Debian derivatives are fine. Having a browser is a simple requirement, as they can see the dashboards live on TV in front of assembly line if they want. Otherwise a Java Program, running and collecting production data, report to other servers on network.
We are not doing DIY kind of work [we already done prototypes], now customers wants products.
These boards used for monitoring PLCs, so customers not interested in heavy amount for monitoring work, as they already invested heavily into PLCs and other systems. Honestly speaking, reading few modbus registers over RS 485 should be expensive for them too, rest of the work is taken care by the cloud. We also now building few extension boards for Raspberry PI compatible extentions which can extends more UARTS to RS 485/RS 232.
We are running few Raspberry PIs in industrial monitoring with ambient environments, we haven't faced any problems, running 24/7 with heavy workload, added heat sink, the temp is about 40-50 range only. Some features of our apps needs much higher RAM, sometimes 1 GB was not enough to handle DB, acquisitions, in memory computations.
We are targeting < 100 USD boards, range from 60 USD to 100 USD, where as our competitions has 400 USD to 500 USD boards, which our customers doesn't want.
I see a trend nowadays, most of the industrial boards on budget level are sold out very fast, I wish Pine team can do something for industrial. For Industries, you need more UARTS, USBs, Ethernet PORTS, less of graphics/videos stuffs.
