Introducing the Mervis 2.4.2

Mervis is a full-fledged software platform provided for free for controllers Neuron, Patron, and 1.1/1.1 Lite complete sets. It is a professional platform suitable for a wide range of applications, from object monitoring to industrial automation. The Mervis IDE, the core of the system, is a development environment for creating, debugging, and managing control programs for Unipi PLCs. It also contains an HMI editor for creating and editing web user interfaces and a visualization editor for the Mervis SCADA service. Aside from the IDE, the Mervis Cloud online service package is also available, consisting of the Mervis DB database for data storage and analysis, Mervis Proxy for secure remote access to controllers, and Mervis SCADA interface. For more info about Mervis, please visit this link.

The new version of Mervis IDE 2.4.2 allows you to use the full potential of Unipi Patron LTE units. Unlike IDE version 2.4.1, which only allowed LTE Internet connection, it is now also possible to send and receive SMS, or enable/disable, or change the password for the SSH connection directly from the Mervis IDE.

A practical new feature is the "Watch" tab. It has the same interface as the well-known "Variable Browser", only it does not contain all variables and function blocks. “Watch” tab contains just those variables and function blocks that you choose in advance. This new function is very useful when you are testing your program and need to clearly see only some variables that cannot be easily filtered in the "Variable Browser".

In order to protect system storage (eMMC/SD), the location of historical data has been moved from system storage to RAM. This feature is included in Mervis OS 2.4.1.20 and later releases. The disadvantage of this solution is that the local historical data is lost when the power supply to the PLC is disconnected or after PLC reboot. However, in combination with the continuous storage of this data in the cloud Mervis DB, you will not lose any data, because the data in the Mervis DB is already stored permanently. So, the local history now only acts as a buffer for the Mervis DB.

In Mervis OS 2.4.1.28, certificate validation support was added, including default CA certificates. These certificates are guaranteed to be up-to-date at the time the OS image is created, and their future update is possible in the Mervis IDE. Full support is only possible in combination with Mervis IDE 2.4.2. Find out why (not) to enable certificate validation on our Knowledge Base.

Aside from the above-mentioned features, the Mervis 2.4.2 also brings several other changes, fixes, and improvements. The full changelog is available in Mervis IDE (Help tab → About).