As a software consultant on projects with different companies,

I Don't Care About Making Money - I Just Love To Write Software...

Yeah, right...

As a software consultant on projects with different companies, I had the opportunity to specify and use ActiveX Controls for communication with PLCs. Over time I have used or recommended Cimquest and Parijat OCXs (and VBXs) in different projects. Both companies produce good ActiveX controls and I was generally happy with their performance and ease of use. I have no personal experience with Automated Solutions' products - though I have been in companies that did use their controls.

Since I work mostly with VB and VC++ there were many times when I had to communicate with a device (other than a PLC) whose manufacturer did not support the device with an ActiveX control. While I would have preferred to find a third party solution, most of the time I would have to write the control myself - so over time I gained a lot of experience writing ActiveX controls to communicate with various devices.

While evaluating the use of a Parijat ActiveX control for a customer it came to my attention that some of Parijat software's licensing agreements require that a run-time fee of $100 be paid for each control distributed with the application. In this particular application the cost would have been prohibitive in relation to the overall cost of the application. At the time neither Cimquest or Automated Solutions offered an equivalent ActiveX Control for the particular PLC that I needed to communicate with. I decided then to write my own ActiveX control for this application.

Once I had great success with writing the first ActiveX Control, I decided that I would continue to write my own ActiveX controls for all future applications. The main advantages to me were:

A consistent interface to the different PLCs and devices. Cimquest and Automated Solutions don't have as many different ActiveX controls as Parijat offers. If you have to interface with a wide variety of PLCs and you want to avoid run-time fees, then you are forced to use solutions from more than one vendor and the interfaces are different between each company's controls.

No run-time fees!

I avoid the high prices of these ActiveX controls.

After my controls were proven and debugged after many hours out in the field, I decided to offer them for sale. Here are the guidelines that I set:

Offer quality ActiveX controls that have all of the features offered by other company's products and to add additional features that enhance the real world use of these controls.

Keep the price of the controls LOW!

No run-time fees! I think that if you purchase a development copy of software you should be able to distribute the end application without additional cost or restriction.

No copy protection! Copy protection would require more work (and cost) on my part and implies a distrust of your customers.

Email based technical support. Phone support would require that I have multiple phone lines and someone to answer the phone at all times which would drive the costs up also. Email is more effective and I am able to actually respond much quicker to technical questions. I can access email from wherever I happen to be and the chances of getting your question answered quickly is much higher. How many times have you called a company for tech support and have: a) been put on hold and then "accidentally" disconnected? b) got lost in their voice mail system and just given up? c) actually gotten to talk to a tech support person and he/she turned out to be a technical incompetent or were indifferent to your problem? When you email CTIAutomation for tech support, you get to contact the person that developed the software directly (me).

No 16 bit VBXs, only 32 bit ActiveX controls. If you need a 16 bit VBX, Cimquest, Automated Solutions, and Parijat all have various VBXs.

No demo versions of the controls. Demo versions would require me to maintain multiple copies of each control and have to provide a way for the user to download a copy of the demo (requiring storage space on a server somewhere). I personally don't like the idea of demo software that lets you enter a registration number after paying so that the software fully works. First the validation/registration functions of the software bloats the code size of the control forever. Second there has to be stored on your system a way to differentiate the demo mode of the software from the registered mode and this is usually the Registry on Win9x/WinNT based systems. If for some reason the Registry gets corrupted or the operating system is re-installed after a hard drive crash, then it is likely that the software will go back to demo mode just when you are pressed for time to get your application working again. In the end, I would have to charge more for each control to provide demo copies. Instead I offer a no-questions-asked money back guarantee for each control. If you don't like my ActiveX controls I will give you a complete refund and additionally help you find a Cimquest, Automated Solutions, or Parijat control that fits your application.

Examples, Examples, Examples! I don't know about you, but I really dislike software that comes with little or no examples of typical use! I don't know how many times that a simple example would have saved hours of searching through manuals or trial and error in trying to figure out how to use the software. All CTIAutomation's ActiveX controls come with plenty of real-world examples of use.

Finally, here's an account of my dealings with one of the above mentioned companies that provided additional inspiration for me to write my own ActiveX controls. A company that I worked for purchased one of their ActiveX controls and was sent a floppy disk with the software on it. This was before you could download a demo copy from their Web site. The disk contained the software in demo form. After it was installed you had to call the company and get the registration number to get it out of demo mode. So far no problem...

A few months later the system that the software was installed on had a hard drive crash and the operating system was reinstalled. After reinstalling the ActiveX control from the original floppy disks the software was back in demo mode. I called the company and explained what had happened and asked for the registration number again. The person helping me told me that I would have to pay an additional $500 to re-register it! The software was originally purchased for $999. After protesting strongly and reminding them that I had purchased or recommended the purchase of their software in the past, he agreed to give me the authorization number. I was told that next time I would have to pay the fee or for an additional fee (like $800) I could purchase their special software that allows you to move the software to another computer. I declined to purchase the special software but asked him to send me more information on this software via mail. I never received the information. I noticed about six months later that they were offering migration software to accomplish the same task for $300. Hmmm...

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