AIEglobal has seen many makes and models of PC’s and PLC’s come and go over our 25 plus year history. At one point we even manufactured the RTI 1000 Programmable Controller which we had succeeded in supplying to companies like BHP and James Hardie. There are a number of criteria necessary for a controller to be able to implement modern control systems, and for us the Beckhoff range of embedded programmable controllers meets them all.
Programmable Controller criteria –
- Support for all levels of IEC61131-3
- Multitasking Operating System
- MS Windows support for access to IT programmes and Cloud communication.
- Support Open Network Communication protocols like OPC_uA, BacNet, and DNP3.
- Provide real time data acquisition to distributed I/O hardware with task scheduling times determining program performance, not I/O communication limitations. (See Ethercat).
- Provide I/O level communication protocols like Modbus RTU, IO-Link, Profibus, and CAN etc…
- Able to execute application programs and support HMI operator panels without additional processors.
- Able to utilize multicore processors when needed.
- Execution of high level languages used for advanced processing algorithms. i.e. C/C++, Matlab/Simulink.
- Software library support for communication protocols and advanced processing functions. i.e. Modbus TCP & RTU, PID, Data Filtering etc……
- Long product life
CX2020 is example of a high performance processor with HMI support included.
Whilst at the lower end the CX9020 still provides ample real time performance.
Ethercat I/O
Small distributed I/O banks and IP67 field modules considerably reduce the amount of field wiring required, with the IP67 modules pluggable directly into the field devices.
For more details – Ethecat IO