The Vending Machine Control System

Tightly integrated hardware and software

When hardware and software are designed together, systems are easier and faster to build. It's not necessary to debug driver problems or fix incompatibilities, because no drivers are required and the parts of the system are built to work together.

If problems occur, you only have to call one company for product support or visit one website for information. Documentation is usually more complete, as well.

In some cases lower software cost may be another plus, as some PAC manufacturers, such as Opto 22, include surprisingly capable automation software with a PAC purchase.

A single development platform

The software built for a PAC is not just integrated with the hardware it runs on. It's also internally integrated: it provides not only an integrated development environment (IDE) for programming but also a suite of related programs for HMI (human machine interface) development and other purposes.

The IDE is a single software program that handles everything related to control programming, such as editing, compiling, debugging. A software suite, made up of two or more software applications, offers a similar look and feel in all of them, so that familiarity with one helps you use the others more easily.

More importantly, the software applications in the suite work together behind the scenes in ways that significantly reduce development time.

Common tagging means that names and definitions you set up in one of the IDE's applications are also used in the others. For example, if you define a string variable in the control development software, that same definition will be used in thehuman-machine interface (HMI) development software. If you name a digital I/O point in the control software, that name will automatically appear when you're configuring OPC data communications.

Because all these common tags you define are kept in a single database that all the applications in the software suite use, you don't have to reenter tags or maintain and reconcile lists of them. As a result, development tasks can be finished more quickly and easily.