Home automation system with HMI connected to 3 SlimLine

[Anonimo]

I’m starting preparing a home automation system. I have a Weintek HMI and i need to connect 3 SlimLine one in each floor of the house. I have a low knowledge about these systems, so my questions are.

It’s possible to make this type of connection ?
Wich is the best comunication protocol for this systems ?
All systems are master or one master and the others slaves ?

[Sergio Bertana]

Yes the solution you need is surely realizable, there are many ways to do it.

RS485: All systems are connected by using a two wire RS485 serial connection, the communication is done with a modbus RTU protocol. In this way the HMI is the master and all the SlimLine are slaves. The HMI reads/writes variables on the various SlimLine and displays the data. An object called DataTransfer can be used to transfer data between the slave systems (Obviously the transfer is made by the HMI that is the unique master).

Ethernet: All systems are connected to a LAN the communication is done with a modbus overIP protocol. The HMI is the master and all the SlimLine are slaves, but more than one communication can be done over the LAN, so the SlimLine can communicate between them by using the UDPDataTxfer function block.

The ethernet solution is the most powerful, by using the LAN you can also program the various systems (HMI and SlimLine). It’s possible to remotely access to the HMI by using a VNC client. It’s possible to load web pages on the SlimLine systems by using a FTP connection and display them with a browser.

[Sergio Bertana]

Exists also the possibility to realize a network between the SlimLine (RS485 or ethernet), in this way one of the SlimLine acts as a master and the other as a slaves. The SlimLine master provides the data exchange between the other systems and the HMI is connected to it.

In this way the SlimLine master is the director it knows all the informations and on it it’s possible to make useful operations. For example it can save a log on a CSV file (It can be accessed by FTP) on wich to store all the events in the house.

You can have on it web pages to manage the house informations and settings, this is the web page we internally use to define the scheduling for the climate system (See the page).

[Anonimo]

On the configuration that the HMI is the master and the SlimLine are slaves, for instance if i use a ladder program i need to program the SlimLine or i control everything from the HMI ?

[Sergio Bertana]

It’s possible to use the SlimLine only as a remote I/O controlled by modbus and in this way all the logic can be done on the HMI. But this solution is a bad solution, the HMI can be programmed only by macro language and that language is non so easy. To manage logic it’s better to use the proper language, and this language is the ladder. So my suggestion is to manage all the logic into the SlimLine.

Moreover the SlimLine is a PLC and has all the securities to manage automation tasks, that is not true for the HMI. The IEC61131 standard provides 5 different programming  languages that can be mixed in a unique program, so the IL and LD languages can be used for the logic, the ST language can be used for the calculation.

[Autore]

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