Groov View - VNC client to other devices?

groov View
1

I am looking at an application where I would use groov EPIC as supervisory control system for a site where there are distributed OEM controllers. The OEM controllers have Modbus TCP, so will use that for R/W of various setpoints and values, but they also have local displays with tons more data than is exposed in Modbus registers. We have confirmed they act as VNC server and tested connection using VNC client on local PCs.

Is it possible to connect a VNC client remote view to those local OEM displays in a groov View HMI application?

Any other ideas that would avoid us having to put a PC or separate device in the network?

Thanks!

2

Hi Jeff,

I looked into this a bit when you raised with it @Arun last week.
Did some more digging when you posted just now.

There are two challenges here.

  1. There is currently no way to run an application inside groov View.
    At this stage (its on the to-do list) we cant even run an iFrame to embed web pages.
    This means that its not going to be possible to run VNC Viewer inside groov View.

But…

  1. Its a bit of mute point because installing VNC Viewer on the EPIC Linux system is beyond the current Linux libraries.
    Here is what I get when I try and install an older version (newer is even worse) on the EPIC from the command line;
opto@lcben:~/vnc$ sudo dpkg -i gvncviewer_0.6.0-3_armel.deb
    Password:
    Selecting previously unselected package gvncviewer.
    (Reading database ... 82626 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack gvncviewer_0.6.0-3_armel.deb ...
    Unpacking gvncviewer (0.6.0-3) ...
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gvncviewer:
     gvncviewer depends on libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4); however:
      Package libatk1.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libgcc1 (>= 1:3.5); however:
      Version of libgcc1 on system is 5.2.0-r0.
     gvncviewer depends on libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0); however:
      Package libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.26.0); however:
      Package libglib2.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.0.0); however:
      Package libgtk-3-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 (>= 0.5.1); however:
      Package libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libgvnc-1.0-0 (>= 0.5.0); however:
      Package libgvnc-1.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0); however:
      Package libpango-1.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on libpangocairo-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0); however:
      Package libpangocairo-1.0-0 is not installed.
     gvncviewer depends on zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4); how
    dpkg: error processing package gvncviewer (--install):
     dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     gvncviewer
    opto@lcben:~/vnc$

Trust me, that is a LOT of failed dependencies.
In my experience, its just not going to be possible to install / build those missing missing libraries.

So, at this point, I have to call time-out.
If someone has an idea on how to install a VNC Viewer application, I’m all ears.

3

Jeff - any chance that the local displays have an API? Or alternately some mechanism to make API calls to something else? Long shot I know but maybe worth asking.