PROFINET & EtherCat drivers ... is there a demand? If yes: How do you want it to be?

Ignition
1

Hi all,

I've recently finished my ToddySoft Connect PROFINET driver and as I am planing on shipping almost all of my drivers as Ignition modules, I have a few questions on prioritization.

Is there interest in something like this? I'm also working on an EtherCAT driver which is coming along nicely.

In contrast to regular PLCs where usually there are hundreds to thousands of tags, with PROFINET or EtherCat I usually have very few IO points per device. This would result in users having to define loads of Connection in Ignition (I know as most devices only support one controller the number will not be that big however). I was thinking of allowing to add one "PROFINET" or "EtherCat" device, where you select the list of devices that you want and they all appear in one browse tree.

Would you like that? Or stick with one-device-one-connection?

Chris

2

Combining into one device is how I run EtherNet/IP Scanner mode in my driver. Mainly because they have to share a UDP socket, but the convenience is worth it. (At least one host device per gateway IP address.)