siemens - vipa

Hi,
i just read the post Siemens and Allen-Bradley (15297). that remembers me, that we have a meeting last week from a representative here of vipa.
he told us a little of the history of vipa, and then he show us the plcs, and programed them with the siemens simatic software.
after that, he assures us, that the vipa are 100% compatible siemens, but bigger, more flexibles and more powerfull.
i just wanted to know if someone have worked with them before, and some opinions that you have.

thanks

I have no experience with working with them. But I have checked them out remotely quite a bit.

Others (on sps-foren.de in particular) testify that the VIPA CPUs are 100% compatible with regular i/o hardware, but NOT with specilty modules like the FMs and the CPs.
Code executes the same on the VIPA as on a Siemens CPU. Only the mentioned hardware and SFBs and SFCs for that hardware can give problems.

The biggest advantage with the regular VIPA CPUs as I see it is that some models have Ethernet built in.
Also they use a regular flashcard and not the specially formatted MMC card that Siemens does. Prices should be a bit lower than Siemens.
And, you can program them with a special serial cable that plugs into the MPI port. You can thereby save the expense for an MPI adapter.

There is also the new Speed7 CPU. This one is fantastically fast.
A small "gotcha" that I found is that the onboard Ethernet port only allows 2 connections (strange !).
A Speed7 CPU that is almost like a Siemens 315 comes with 1 MB onboard memory. However, to access more than 128kB require you to purchase a memory card with a release code (a peculiar way of doing business).

A Siemens PLC clone? Interesting. I guess it was bound to happen.

jesper,
yes, he shows us the speed7,
the reason they give for the ethernet connector limit, is that is the only way they have to sell the separated ethernet card ...

he did not mention the special card with code to enter the rest of the memory... good to know.

maybe in the next month, the firma in wich i work will make a fist project with those plcs.

VIPA has actually been around for quite some years. About 7 Years ago we used their profibus I/O system 200V with a soft PLC with good result.They are quite innovative and abot 8 years ago I used their Ethernet communication card for Siemens S5-135 rack to communicate with a FIX.

VIPA Website

What is VIPA Website?

The Speed7 is a cooperation between VIPA and another company.
So it has its own website: www.speed7.de

By the way, there have been other Siemens clones for a long time:
INAT (S5 and S7 compatible CPUs for existing S5 racks).
SAIA (code should be STEP7 compatible).
Helmholz (S7 i/o modules and memory cards).

Does anyone know how it is possible to clone the Siemens System???? I mean it must be a well kept secret at Siemens how their stuff work.

I've tried the speed7 several month ago.

For the same program :

CPU 315-2DP : average cycle = 120 ms
VIPA SPEED7 : average cycle = 3 ms

And for approximatly the same price, even if the speed 7 has an onboard ethernet port .....

Just be aware that VIPA and Siemens have been in the courts for a long time. Siemens charges that VIPA infringed on their proprietary property and it is not clear what the future of the rulings will be. To be safe, I would go with Siemens only until this is sorted out.

I just checked that court action Siemens vs VIPA.

It appears not to be so serious.
One point is that VIPA comparison of S7 vs Speed7 is unfairly done.
Another point is that VIPA has adopted Siemens parts numbering system too closely.
In other words nothing about the core technology.
I couldnt find anything about proprietary property infringement.

My main reason for not trying out VIPA is that 2 ethernet connections is not enough.

120ms ???

120ms ???

That's a creepy high cycle time

Galdrian said:

I've tried the speed7 several month ago.

For the same program :

CPU 315-2DP : average cycle = 120 ms
VIPA SPEED7 : average cycle = 3 ms

And for approximatly the same price, even if the speed 7 has an onboard ethernet port .....

Click to expand...

Our stuff is not that speed critical but we have the need for Siemens CPU 200 (MicroWIN) for some machines and CPU 300 for others. The thing we really liked is that all the VIPA range can work using one piece of software whereas Siemens CPU 200 you have to use MicroWIN and SIMATIC S7.

We've done a few projects on our test-bed and it all seems to work nicely. From what I understood of the Speed 7 (maybe others) is that you can download different instruction sets and use the CPU as a 313, 315 or 318.

I'm impressed with what we have seen but our customers are 90% blue-chip big pharma companies and we don't think they'd accept the Vipa's. I think its a real shame.

Unregistered said:

http://www.vipa.de/uk/hom/hom_ukindexf.html

Click to expand...

The correct one is:
http://www.vipa.de/en/home/