Blocaine

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Blocaine is a software platform dedicated to
industrial process automation.

Blocaine general architecture

The Block Editor allows creating programs by assembling functional blocks.
The Interpreter executes the programs created with the Block Editor, thus controlling industrial equipment via remote i/o.

See also the installation tutorial (less than 3 minutes)

Features

" Hot Reload^* ": a new version of a program can be loaded without stopping the installation
Graphical programming in the form of chained functional blocks
Each variable natively has a validity bit
Blocaine being Python-based:

Functional blocks can be written in Python
Dynamic typing of variables

Debugging:

Real-time visualization of variables
All variables can be forced

The execution order of blocks is generated automatically
Layout is automatic
A web server displays the status of tasks currently running on the target PC
An OPC UA server provides an interface with a potential HMI/SCADA system
Blocaïne is multi-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS...)
Blocaïne is royalty-free and "Open source"

Advantages

KISS " philosophy (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Low cost
Minimizes obsolescence thanks to perennial standards (PC, Ethernet, Python)
No license required

Limitations

CPU Resources: Blocaïne is not suited for large projects requiring significant CPU time; block execution time is around 2µs on a Raspberry Pi 5, allowing for a maximum of half a million blocks per second.
Real-temps: Since Blocaïne is not based on a "hard" real-time system, some latency must be accepted, although it remains below 1 µs on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Libraries: As the project is new, you may not find all the "system" blocks you require (see list below).

Project Status

Blocaine is at the "Functional Prototype" stage (Alpha version)
Blocaine is downloadable from github.com (see installation and evaluation procedure)

Evaluation

The evaluation of Blocaïne is greatly simplified because the downloadable version is configurated so that:

The Bloc Editor and the Interpreter run on the same PC, so no network configuration required
Serveral features are disabled (OPC, GPIO, Modbus/TCP), so there's no need to install any specific Python module

Documentation

general doc:

System blocks:

add addition
and logical AND
append add an element to end of list
cablin adds an element to a structure
cablout extracts an element from a structure
clock clock
comp comparison
const.pi pi constant
delay rising or falling edge delay
differential differential
div division
dt task cycle time
edge rising and/or falling edge detection
filter_FO first-order filter
geti returns element [n]
GPIO_DI read GPIO digital input
GPIO_DO write GPIO digital output
GPIO_PWM write GPIO PWM output
hold hold function
information returns variable info
input block input
input_output access output from another process
insert insert element into list
integrator time-based integrator
len returns number of elements
limit high and low limits
memory memory (RS flip-flop)
minmax minimum and maximum
modbus_conn ModBus/TCP connection
modbus_read ModBus/TCP input reading
modbus_write ModBus/TCP output assignment
mult multiplication
not logical NOT
OPC_node create an OPC UA node
OPC_read get an OPC UA variable
OPC_server configure an OPC UA server
OPC_var create an OPC UA variable
OPC_write set an OPC UA variable
or logical OR
output block output
pop removes element from list
previous stored variable
puti sets an element in a list
range loop iteration
readbit get a bit in an integer
select selection (if then else)
sub subtraction
time system clock reading
type type conversion
validRead validity bit reading
validWrite validity bit writing
writebit set a bit in an integer

User blocks:

loop incrementation

contact: contact@blocaine.org