New Visilogic Beta at Unitronics.com

Greetings all!

Visilogic, Unitronics' powerhouse software for their integrated HMI/PLCs, has a new beta with several new features!

There's a new canbus protocol that's more of a master-slave model, rather than the peer-to-peer structure that was in place, and can transmit more operands.

There's a new modbus function block that automates read/write commands into a single command (the original "regulation" commands are still available for you purists out there ).

You can now disable ladder nets to prevent them from being scanned. You can also "hide" nets to save screen space while working.

There's a bunch of other new additions I don't have time to cover right now. Go to unitronics.com, click on downloads, and see for yourself! Great stuff getting even better.

The part that amazes me is, they can make all these improvements with only changes in firmware and software. How do you make a PLC 6 times faster (my measurement) in software? How do you add 25% more ladder capacity without changing chips? Where do you come up with twice the memory bits and memory integers, add floating point support, then floating point support in serial communications, without having to upgrade your processor?!

And how do you do it *for free*?!

Seriously, if you haven't checked these out, you need to. They're rapidly becoming the most sophisticated small PLCs on the market, and the R&D team makes them more powerful about every 10 weeks. And even if you're hung up on AD for cost, once you write a stop light program in Visilogic, you'll wonder how you ever got by with AD software.

TM

Timothy,

You're sounding like a Unitronics employee or distributor. If you are, I wish you would disclose it. IMHO, if this post isn't an advertisement, it's awfully close to one.

I got no problem explaining myself - nothing to hide

I forgot to mention - although I've mentioned it many times before - I'm NOT a unitronics employee, salesman, or in any way affiliated with them, beyond being a rabid fan of their products. I work for a major american manufacturer of power tools and power tool accessories - but no, I can't get you a free drill

If my post sounds like a sales pitch, well, I suppose that can't be helped. Any time you recommend something, you are "selling" it. The difference between a vendor recommendation or a personal recommendation is disinterest. A vendor wants you to buy something so he can make money and stay in business. I want you to buy Uni controls so THEY can make money and stay in business, becuase I love their stuff, and think you will too, if you give it a try.

And the jab at AD is not without reason - our test lab has some 205 stuff in it, and while I don't know if the software is the same across all all AD products, the stuff in our lab is abominable.

Thanks!

TM

Yeah Unitronics

Timothy I agree with your enthusiasm for Unitronics.They are great PLCs.We have a large variety in our plant -GE,Siemens and many others.We are now running a pilot project to change all our HVAC to Rockwell.(PLC and HMI)

The big difference between Unitronics and all the "big fish" is that Unitronics is cost effective -PLC and operating panel in one,GOOD ,user friendly software for free(upgrades downloadebable from their site)

They are also open to making changes and listening to the client.
(Maybe I have an advantage -They are situated 20 min from our plant -in Israel)

They fill a definite place in the market for small PLCs with "big performance"

Stevez

TimothyMoulder said:

...our test lab has some 205 stuff in it, and while I don't know if the software is the same across all all AD products, the stuff in our lab is abominable.

Click to expand...

That's the VERY 1st time I've ever heard/read anything like that about DirectSoft..As an avid DirectSoft user, while I would agree that it's not exactly "feature packed" I find it to be very user friendly.

Happy Independence day Steve.
Israel is 57 years old today.

I am not big fan of Unitronics even I use them time to time.
I think the idea behind the product is great.
The fact they are small company and as Steve mention willing to listen.
I dont think the distance is matter(BTW Im closer to them then you are).
I think they have different attitude.
They lack is the software.I found it take much more developing time then OMRON CX for instance or others.
Also no on line edits.

Mike

AS user of AD and others I promise you if you will compare Direct Soft to some other brand.
You will find by your self what they have to improve.
AD have very nice PLC with lot of options which I like,that why I use them.
Direct soft is not the best of them.

Oh gawd, not another which PLC is best thread.

The part that amazes me is, they can make all these improvements with only changes in firmware and software. How do you make a PLC 6 times faster (my measurement) in software? How do you add 25% more ladder capacity without changing chips? Where do you come up with twice the memory bits and memory integers, add floating point support, then floating point support in serial communications, without having to upgrade your processor?!

And how do you do it *for free*?!

Click to expand...

Respectfully...maybe because it was done so inefficiently at the outset?

Philip

Or maybe they left a place for future updates?
The hard ware was ready. the software dont.

Hello Phillip,

I tend to agree with Arik, I think they left room to improve in the future. And it may also be that they've found ways to do certain things better, and applied those new techniques.

It raises an interesting question about a personal experience of mine lately. A year ago, we commisioned a printing machine that puts the corporate logo on jig saw blades. We developed it on time and on budget, with a target rate to 10k parts per shift, and we beat that by 10%. We later proved all of this by implementing SCADA on the machine (Unitronics Vision 280, love that built-in ethernet).

A couple months ago, we learned that we were going to have a huge jump in jigsaw volume, so everyone is scrambling trying to find ways to be more efficient and speed production. I've commisioned about 4 machines since the jig printer, so I decided to have a look and see what I could apply towards speeding it up.

After looking at it for about an hour, I decided I might be able to get an extra 10% out of it by making some changes to the cycle. I spent the morning writing code, lunchtime debugging it, and gave it back that afternoon.

Well, I didn't get a 10% increase. I got a 40% increase. We've had upwards of 2000 parts per hour off a machine never intended to do more than 1200. According to my boss, I saved the company $20K.

So was the machine inefficient? I say no. After all, it was doing what it was supposed to. Rather, I would say it had untapped potential. Prompted by the new crisis, I did some additional optimizing and found a diamond in the rough.

So even if parts of the OS for Unitronics could have stood some improvement, I don't see this as a bad thing, because those guys never sit on their laurels. Unlike my job, which is to program machines for a target set by management, their job is to optimize their OS to be as powerful as possible. And they do this on average about every three months.

Actually, I was leaning more towards a technical question when I speculated about how they do these improvements without changing the hardware - I thought the kinds of improvements they produced could only be accomplished by hardware.

That's my opinion of it!



TM

Good summary, I liked its attitude. You know considerate and evaluate. The differential of products, is a necessary consideration for determine, for which application is adapted Itself each person, summarize the product that possesses broad knowledge and detach the differentials, the readers would be able to evaluate the advantage/disadvantage in personal considerations.

It can detail, have new instructions? IHMO, detaches with good option in integrate communications.

Well Tim YOU asked the question "how could these performance improvements be achieved without changing the hardware", and assuming it was not a rhetorical question and proposed a potential answer.

I guess I could toot on about all the enhancements Rockwell have added to the original ControlLogix 1756-L55 processor since its release 6 years ago at Rev 1.0 and now at Rev 14.0, but those have been largely been in the nature of feature additions and bug fixes. By contrast the kind of changes you ascribe to the latest Unitronics firmware suggest to me that the original versions must have left a lot of room for improvement.

"Untapped potential" or "Inefficient initial design" ? Semantics largely...I'll leave to others to decide.

Now now...

C'mon Phillip, be fair... you asked a respectful question to which I gave a respectful reply. No need to be snippy. I appreciated your response and responded in kind.

As for the virtues of Contrologix - why NOT expound on it a bit? I will freely admit that Unitronics is weak in the motion control department, and if I was doing something that needed alot of servos, I might consider an AB product - but why should I consider AB over, say, G&L, or B&R?

Okay, not B&R... not for all the tea in China B&R ::shudder::

That was the point of my original post - to share some neat stuff I thought you guys might like to check out. So don't sit there and fuss around, dude, SHARE!

>>"Untapped potential" or "Inefficient initial design" ? Semantics largely...I'll leave to others to decide.<<

Semantics? I beg to differ. To press the point, here is an old riddle:

Q: What is the difference between an explanation and an excuse?

A: The listener.


TM