DASTEC has been involved in software development in the industrial field since the late 80's. We started out developing custom communication modules and drivers to facilitate getting production data in to and out of HMI and SCADA systems. This involvement gained us an in-depth knowledge of popular HMI/SCADA packages leading us into developing medium to large size SCADA systems.
We work with resellers and integrators to provide software development in two areas:
- Development of standard, software products and
- Custom solutions to fulfill specific customer requirements.
The former case typically involves a reseller of some piece of equipment or products. As part of their interactions with customers they recognize and identify possible niche products or solutions that they think would be profitable to develop and resell. Typically the product they envision involves some hardware equipment they represent or manufacture married with custom software that we work with them to specify, design and develop. A recent example of this was the development of an inexpensive vibration analysis system. The reseller/integrator we work with sells a line of accelerometers, signal conditioners and embedded industrial computers. We developed the embedded code to do the data collection and the FFT analysis so that he can offer a complete vibration package to customers wishing to integrate such a system into their preventive maintenance program.
The second area that we are heavily involved is when a customer will contact us either directly or one of the integrators/representatives we work with will contact us concerning a particular software requirement. Usually the integrators will have a pretty good idea of functional requirements. Often direct customers will come to us with a fairly vague idea of the requirements. The big picture of what is needed is clear but all the details are not flushed out. They relied on our expertise to design a robust, easy to use solution and to do the development completely turnkey.
Whether working with an intergrator, OEM or end user, we work to develop detailed a functional specification for the project to ensure a satisfactory implementation. Often we are consulted to obtain a quick budgetary estimate for development costs or to discuss various approaches to designs.
DASTEC has extensive expertise in PLC communications (and other industrial communications) and database connectivity. One of DASTEC’s key businesses is the development and sale of communication application programming interfaces (API) products. These are products we develop in-house for resale that allow customers to easily add the ability to read and write data between their software projects and their industrial hardware. We have developed APIs for numerous PLC and controller manufactures. We are experts in this area.
Since data collection is a typical requirement of these HMI type systems, we also have the capability to interact with databases of all types. We have worked with MySQL, MS SQL Server and MS Access as well as others.
Data presentation can take more elaborate forms as well. We have developed HMIs that present data in many elaborate methods as well, from real-time updated color-coded tabular data to sophisticated data graphing and plotting.
We are proficient in numerous program languages such as Visual Basic, C++, C#, .NET as well as operating systems such as Windows 32bit, Windows CE and Linux.
A lot is covered in this brief overview of our capabilities in a shotgun approach to emphasize the breath of capabilities and skills that we can bring to bear in designing and developing custom solutions for you and your customers.