Can a single software program be used almost universally in industries as different as power stations, environmental projects, and chemical companies? To answer this question, one must first understand what an interface does in any process of industrial automation.

Drivers are programs that allow information exchange between the software and automation devices (remote hubs, programmable relays, PLCs, etc.). For this purpose, both the Driver and the device must implement the same communication protocol. Communication protocols are standard languages that enable this exchange between the supervisory and the controller where the variables involved in a certain process are stored.

Picture 1: Elipse Software’s Driver’s Development Team. From left to right: André Quites Ordovás Santos, Marcos Paulo Ludwig, and Cesar Mello Fehlauer de Mello.

For the last 23 years, Elipse Software has developed over 350 Drivers, fully compatible with devices from countless manufacturers and protocols (Modbus, IEC 61850, etc.), which allow their solutions to be employed by several different industries. In addition, new Drivers are created on a regular basis, and pre-existing ones are adapted and improved to meet the demands of specific cases requiring a personalized solution.

“Driver development is a strategic action for the company, because although protocols and interfaces for data exchange between devices and systems are standardized, there is still a great demand for customized solutions for each client. Even in cases where it is not necessary to go past the standard, it is important for Elipse to have complete control over the solutions presented, which makes it possible to offer the best communication performance for each case”, says Elipse’s Business vice-president, Marcelo Salvador.

However, not only is the company focused on Driver development, but also on their maintenance and technological improvement. To achieve that, it is important that Elipse Software’s development team be fully aware of the state-of-the-art Driver solutions available in the market as a whole.

“Over the years, Elipse has developed a production line for the creation, maintenance, and implementation of improvements for our Drivers. This has only been possible due to our development team, as well as to the evolution of the platforms where these interfaces are configured”, says Salvador.

A partner in software applications for six years, Betacontrol’s projects coordinator Ricardo Torralba credits much of his success to the wide array of Drivers supplied by Elipse. According to him, this reflects the reality of the market nowadays.

“On a daily basis, we have to deal with a large number of devices, from many different manufacturers, each with its own communication protocol. Since the automation scenario consists in interconnectivity and information exchange between different components in the system, we must have a tool that helps us perform this communication. Thanks to the several options in Drivers made available by Elipse, this is no longer an issue for us”, says Torralba.

Picture 2: IEC 61850 Driver’s settings window.

In order to meet all types of demands, Elipse Software develops not only a great number of drivers, but also a great variety of them, for several different segments in the market. For example, the company has recently announced the support to IEC-61850 protocol via a new I/O Driver. This product helps develop applications for supervision and control of power substations quickly, via direct communication with protection relays from different manufacturers.

“For power systems automation, we need to integrate smart devices from different manufacturers on a communication network with supervision and control system. Elipse’s system meets our demands perfectly because it has a great number of Drivers. In some cases, special Drivers are required, and they are quickly developed by the company”, says Paulo César Carvalho, Altus System’s account coordinator for the power sector.

Created in the 1970s by Modicon, Modbus is one of the highlights among Elipse’s Drivers. This is one of the oldest protocols used in Programmable Logical Controllers (PLC) for the acquisition of instruments signals and actuators commands. Since its rules and specifications became public, Modbus has been used with several devices, and has become one of the cheapest network solutions in the automation market.

Picture 3: Modbus Driver’s settings window.

In addition to these, Elipse also supplies systems for building automation processes that use BACnet/IP driver, as well as more generic Drivers such as ASCII, RS-232, etc. All the drivers developed by Elipse Software can be downloaded from the website.

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