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by: Jeff Weigant
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From the Publisher Reviewed in Control Engineering magizine and articles published in the Start magazine.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Book Description Learn how to use Visual Basic to develop your own HMI/SCADA application with the 3rd edition of Creating Human Machine Interfaces using Visual Basic. Over 200 pages of illustrated, step-by-step instructions provide you with real-life sample applications utilizing Visual Basic and the best industrial automation add-on components available. Sample applications include the use of MS Access and Ms Excel to log data to databases and display in graphs.
About the Author Jeff Weigant has been teaching industrial skills for over 14 years. Jeff has taught Allen Bradley and GE Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programming in industry, trade schools, and in his own business, IndustrialVB. Jeff has spent his whole career around industrial electronics in a variety of settings. Some of the languages Jeff has worked with and taught include: AB6200 Series PLC5, AB APS500, ICOM SLC500 and PLC5, RS500, Panel Builder 550 and 900, AB GML, GE Series 90-30/90-70 PLC, and GE Fanuc Cimplicity. Jeff has written student workbooks for PLC's, Variable Frequency Drives (VFD's), and other Human Machine Interface (HMI) courses. He is also the author of Creating HMI/SCADA Industrial Applications Using Microsoft Access ISBN 0966312031.
Visual Basic Evangelism: This book is written with the beginner Visual Basic developer in mind. If you are already an experienced VB developer, but know nothing about HMI systems, it is also a useful resource. It is the only book I have run across that addresses developing industrial applications using non-proprietary software. It's a life-saver if you are interested in developing a low-cost, low-maintenance HMI or SCADA application for your factory environment. It provides step-by-step instructions for connecting an HMI front-end to a PLC. If you are new to Visual Basic or interested in learning VB and specifically how it applies to an industrial application, I would highly recommend adding this book to your reference material. If you want to further your education in this area, I would also recommend contacting the author to schedule on-site training.
Reviews:
A good start... This book will get you started with ideas on how to write a Human Machine Interface application in VB. Books on this subject are few and far between. The only other book that I have found to be useful is "Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic" by Russo and Echols. More advanced programmers will be somewhat disappointed that this book doesn't cover more advanced issues with HMI. Another excellent resource is ... where you will find the actual source code to a complete HMI application that you can modify to fit your needs.
For wealthy beginers only: I found this book too simplistic and way overpriced. It provided little information that could not be found for free on the internet. Furthermore, references are made to specific products, which means that the programs can not be run without downloading (or buying) the demos (some of which are severly limited). It doesn't even have an index!
Superior: Jeff's knowledge of creating HMI/SCADA applications are all,"learn as you go", through this outstanding book. With all the "design as you go", it can't be beat!! And it always becomes the "reference", when you can't remember the little tricks. Very simple minded: I've been working on a lighting control program in visual basic that reads and writes to PLCs, and this book didn't give me any new ideas. It might be useful to someone who wanted to create an HMI interface but knew nothing about Visual Basic (or programming in general), but the project would have to be almost exactly like one of the examples in the book
A Good Book: This book was written for a specific audience. If you are familiar with field devices and are moving into VB and the interface side of things, then this is the book for you. If you already know VB, then you will pick up a few things but not enough to justify the price. All in all, a good book, possibly a great one, depending, of course, on where you are coming from.