Visual Basic to PLC connection

[Fritzfrederix]

Hi there,

Is it possible to use VB as a front end and communicate with a Siemens S7-400 (CP443-1?)?
At our plant we are using WinCC for visualisation, now for a new application I should need about 8 new licenses of WinCC which is very expensive. That why I thought off VB.
The only thing we have to do, when a certain production line comes in stop mode, I need to send the date and Timestamp to a SQL-server and (were the plc connection comes in) let a light flashing.

Thanks in advance

 

[typhonic]

To use VB you will either write your own communications driver for Siemens S7-400, or buy a license to use a commercial driver. Some drivers are easy to write, but I have no experience with Siemens S7-400 communications. One possible supplier of a pre-written driver is

http://www.kepware.com.