Password Protect Software

PAC Project
1

Hi, I’m ready to install Opto22 Controller in the oven at the end of this month,

(great sucess with developing it, thanks to Opto Community.)

my boss is wondering if I can password protect the PAC Control Strategy/software, so nobody can go and temper with it, I have been looking around but no sucess with it,

Thanks
David.

2

David,

Have you had a look at “PAC Terminal Secure Strategy Distribution (SSD)”? It’s here on the Opto website:

http://www.opto22.com/site/pr_details.aspx?cid=1&item=PACTERMSSD

From the description:

PAC Terminal Secure Strategy Distribution (SSD) is used with Opto 22 PAC Project software (either Basic or Pro) to provide a level of strategy security that is most valuable to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that use Opto 22 equipment in their own systems, although it is not limited to that application. Using this security system, you can:

  • Protect strategies stored and running in a controller
  • Safely distribute updated strategies and keep them protected once downloaded
  • Ensure that new firmware is from Opto 22 and has not been modified by anyone

David

3

yes I look at that, but it looks a bit pricey, but if that is the only option I guess the company will have to cough it up.

thanks

4

I am always amused whenever I hear someone says something is a bit pricey, to which the philosophical answer is “Compared to……”.

Sometime, somewhere in the past, people got tired of moving 10 hens and 20 cows down to the village market only to then take them back home again if they couldn’t exchange them for something else they needed. So the coin was invented as a representation of the value of goods and an agreed exchange rate between people with different items and services. I guess sometime between that moment in time and the fall of Lehman Brothers, something went wrong with the idea, but the concept is actually still pretty valid.

Your boss wants to make sure that no-one modifies the developed, proven and tested software now that it finally works. If someone messes that up, perhaps there is damage to attached equipment, or maybe a software modification could affect production quality. Even worse still is if no one even realizes this has happened. There is a risk this could get expensive.

I suppose you will also be the person who then has to sort the mess out when someone else starts fiddling with the software. Unless you work for free, your time also has a cost and a value. Maybe the idea that someone doesn’t copy your program and sell it or just give it away to a competitor is also interesting.

Maybe that PAC Terminal Secure Strategy Distribution (SSD) software price-tag is not so pricey after all. After all, it does professionally resolve your problem for a fixed one off fee and it looks like it was designed and developed for necessities just like yours. Thinking over the above alternatives, maybe it’s actually too cheap. :slight_smile: