Hi all,
I am rather new to the field and I was asked to plan a remote control solution for an industrial machine. The machine is composed of about 6 modbus interfaced devices and needs to be controlled from the internet through a VPN. Do I need a PLC? Or can I just plug all the devices to the COM ports of a normal PC? This is not a harsh industrial environment, so a normal PC would be resistant enough. Can you point me to a software application that would allow me to control modbus devices, store data and so forth? Or do I need to code my own? I have also noticed that many industrial applications are coded in VB. Is there any particular reason for that? I hope you people can englighten me on these matters.
Thanks!