Arduino PLC Home

Welcome to the Arduino PLC Software Page.

The purpose of this project is to create a easy to use PLC style software environment for the Arduino MCU board and clones. The starting concept is to build the software within LibreOffice Calc using macro programming. The spreadsheet will have a macro to convert ladder into arduino code.This code can then be imported into the Arduino IDE and compiled and down loaded to the board. It may be possible to automate this process through the macro basic language or through python.

I choose to start with this method because of the ease of distribution and use. File handling (save, open, print etc..) is all handled through calc. When you down load the .ods file you get everything but the graphics for the buttons. This makes distribution easy. It's also platform independent. It also allows non programmers to get involved in the development of the project.

Ladder Logic has advantages and disadvantages. It is great for parallel processing but is not as well suited to sequential operations when compared to traditional sequential languages. In this language I would like to include the best of both worlds and allow ladder rungs to call sequential functions.