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by: Thomas Leonik
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Book Description This book explores the world of Visual Basic 6 programming with respect to real-world interfacing and control on a beginner to intermediate level, with a home automation system. Includes HVAC systems, water pumps, temperature controls and more. From the Back Cover In Home Automation Basics, Thomas E. Leonik, P.E. shows you how to utilize Visual Basic 6 in a home-monitoring system. Some day soon, all the functions of your home will be automated by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), the backbone of all industrial controls in the world. Trailblazing toward that new era, Leonik demonstrates just how easy it is to establish ground-level communications with a PLC through Visual Basic. Visual Basic 6 is a flexible programming language that operates through Microsoft(r) Windows. With the help of a companion CD-ROM, Home Automation Basics guides you through the programming and installation portions of this project, giving you the ability to monitor a variety of functions in your home or office.
Home Automation Basics: This book explores the world of Visual Basic 6 programming with respect to real world interfacing, animation and control on a beginner/intermediate level. The original title of the book was "Visual Basic 6 : Real World Interfacing, Animation and Control. The title was changed by the publisher's marketing department much to the Author's chagrin. This is VB book that demonstrates how to create an HMI (Human Machine Interface) from scratch. A Home Monitor application was selected to provide a broad appeal to all readers. Most of the Visual Basic books on the market today and in the past do a very good job of describing the various control elements of Visual Basic and how they work. Typically examples are provided for programming some type of data base application of one sort or another. The focus of this book is interfacing to an external device via the serial port, showing the status of this device by animating objects on a Visual Basic form and then controlling this device. The Allen-Bradley Micrologix PLC by Rockwell Automation is one serial device that will be explored. An alphanumerical display is another serial device that will be investigated. The acronym "PLC" stands for Programmable Logic Controller. PLC's are the fundamental building block in industrial control systems today. Typically a PLC consists of inputs, outputs, a central processing unit, user memory for control functions, a proprietary operating system and a serial port. With a PLC, input devices such as push buttons, limit switches to name a few are wired into inputs and output devices such a lights, horns, motor control relays and so on are wired to outputs. All the cross wiring required to implement some desired function is accomplished with software rather then hard wiring and additional components. The intent of this book is Visual Basic but it will discuss to a certain degree the architecture and the programming of Programmable Logic Controller. The most popular language used to program a PLC is called "Ladder Logic". Ladder Logic is modeled from the way that one would actually wire up devices to relays. Input devices are represented as contacts and outputs are represented as relay coils. Essentially each rung of ladder logic is a graphical form of a Visual Basic IF THEN statement. Typically the PLC instructions set supports internal timers, counters, math functions (integer and real via floating point), move functions, Boolean functions and communication functions. The Rockwell Automation Micrologix PLC was selected because it is a popular, powerful, inexpensive PLC. Most of the material presented on the Micrologix PLC will also apply to other manufactured PLC's. The application example presented in this book will be that of using the PLC as home monitor. This example is more appealing and easier to understand as opposed to implementing an example of a wastewater pumping station with level control using a variable frequency drive. It is inevitable that some day the PLC or some form of the PLC will be controlling all the electrical operations of a house. As a home monitor the PLC will monitor the following digital inputs: front doorbell pushbutton, rear doorbell pushbutton, front door open sensor, rear door open sensor, first floor HVAC system on, second floor HVAC system on, water pump on, and mail box open sensor. In addition to the discrete digital inputs, five temperatures will be monitored (outside air, crawlspace, first floor, second floor and Great Room) and water pressure of the water pump will be monitored. Two PLC outputs will be used to drive a horn and turn on a blower fan under the control of the Visual Basic program. First a Visual Basic 6 program will be developed that communicates serially with the PLC using Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley protocol. This protocol will be considered to perform two tasks: an "unprotected read" and an "unprotected write". The structure of this binary protocol will be examined. The software developed to perform these tasks will be simply and clearly presented. Another Visual Basic 6 program will be developed that interprets the collected information and animates objects on a Visual Basic form accordingly, such as a door shown in the open or closed position along with an associated time/date stamp as to when it was opened or closed. Temperature and other data information will be stored as monthly files on the harddrive in CSV(comma separated values) format. Microsoft Excel can then be used to provide a graphical representation of the data contained in these files. Wave files will be launched to provide audio annunciation of certain events. A stand-alone full function-graphing program will be developed that interprets the data log files. This program will automatically update in conjunction with the data log file. A second serial port will be used to provide textual based status information from the Visual Basic home monitor program to a remote alphanumerical display. Through the process of developing the home monitor program many aspects of Visual Basic programming will be studied. Emphasis will be placed on keeping the software as simple as possible. The lessons learned in this book will be invaluable for future serial and animations projects. All programs presented in this book and contained on the companion CD have been thoroughly tested. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it and creating the software. Tom Leonik
Great Book and reference: I've read a lot of books on VB and PLC's but the book that I think about most and use as handy reference is Tom Leonik's --Home Automation Basics - Pratical apps using VB6. This book is fun and to the point. The example of a home monitor is cool and the material presented in the book can easily be applied to many different applications. The one reviewer who stated that you needed PLC software... obviously did not read the book. PLC software is only needed to program the PLC. The PLC in this application performs conditioning of inputs and stores key information in non-volatile ram. The book creates a driver to communicate with the PLC in VB no other software is required. This is an amazing task and it works.
Reviews:
Just use the softeware which comes with the PLC I was very excited when I found this book and read the reviews. Chapter one was a small intro to visual basic. The first half of chapter two explained how to input and output with the serial port, great. Then I get to the second half of chapter two and I read that all I need to do is go and get a PLC interface. Why bother with the book then. If I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on a PLC interface, just buy one which has software, and use the software which comes with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure for someone who already has a PLC and needs to revise their programs, this book would be valuable, however for the person who is interested in using the serial port to acquire ideas and tips for simple input/output application around the home, it is frustrating. Maybe the title should be Programming for the PLC in Visual Basic 6. That would be much more appropriate.
Awesome Book: This is an awesome book. It shows how to render external events into a Visual Basic window. It even implements a communication link to an Allen-Bradley micro plc using only VB. There's nothing like it. Great Job, Tom Leonik. I even adapted the software to communicate with an AB micrologix 1200 and it worked great.
Home Automation for people with too much money: This book will leave you scratching your head. Do not pay too much for it and you won't be disappointed. When it gets right down to it you might as well look for a plc with o.e. software because that's what you will need. Nice discussions on electrical basics and interfacing but just not practical or user friendly.There are just too many different devices to chase down and no real guidance as to where to get them. Writers should have non-technical people read their material before they publish.
Just a copy of AB manual: After reading the authors review I bought this book. It has nothing just a copy of DF1 protocol for Allen Bradley PLC (Unprotected Reads and Write). This book is a basic book not for advanced users.