First I just want to say thanks to Archie for all his work on this project. Like many others, I have limited resources and just can't justify spending big bucks on the commercial competitors. I do however expect to purchase some of the additional controls as soon as a specific need arises.
After some tinkering I finally got AHMI to work with a DL05 over ModbusTCP. While I am not a VB developer, I have been able to create functional HMIs and appreciate the amount of work that goes into a project like this.
I'm currently trying to create my own custom controls but, the learning curve is pretty steep so it will take a while to gain those skills. In the mean time, I've been using various stock windows controls and overlaying them. By enabling / disabling them, you can still get pretty cool animated controls. It just takes more coding on the backend to switch the graphics back and forth.
I look forward to sharing any cool controls that I create with other forum members.
In the mean time keep hacking away.