PLC -> Libplctag -> Individual addressable LED strip lights

[thicke...@gmail.com]

I have a project where I would like to use a led strip light as an indicator to show what is being tracked on a long conveyor (50 feet).  There would be a 50' LED strip light running the length of the conveyor and I would turn on different colors for the different products and different led's depending what and where the PLC thinks the part is.  Currently I use libplctag on a windows program to graphically display the data.  We would like to take that to the next level so its more of a real-time support tool.  

So far I have only used libplctag on windows pc's, but for this I could look at something like a PI f it would be better suited for this.  I have done a little with addressable LED's but nothing with this kind of granular control so I am not quite sure what light controllers support full control of each LED.  The conveyor moves fast so I need something that can be updated at least every 100ms or so.    

I am open to other ideas as well if anything comes to mind.  I see Banner sells some strip lights that can be PLC controlled via IO link so I am looking into that as well.  

 

[Kyle]

I have compiled and run it on my RPi without a problem.   Smaller than that might be challenging.  I hope to someday find a way to slim it down to run on a small RTOS like Zephyr.

Running it from the PLC means fewer parts to fail.  An RPi is not an industrial SBC.

Best,

Kyle