Need a LOW cost Logix system

I am going to soon start writing an Ethernet/IP protocol to read/write data in a ControlLogix/CompactLogix and need to get some hardware for testing. Because this is a "non-profit" application that will be submitted to the open source community, I need to spend as little money as possible.

How can I get a system with ethernet at the lowest possible cost?

One thought was the possibility of a SoftLogix5800 demo that I can load on another PC. In theory that would be free because I already have the PC with ethernet.

I checked on ebay and it looks like the hardware route will easily get me above $1500.

Any suggestions?

Archie

Greetings Archie ...

Orangeburg is only about an hour or so from Charleston ... not sure whether it would help you out or not, but if you want to drive down and use the ControlLogix hardware in my training lab (for free) I'm sure we could work something out ... naturally I can't let the stuff leave here because I use it quite often for testing and development as well as for training ... but maybe it would be helpful for you to use my gear - at least until you line up something of your own ...

let me know if you're interested ...

Aren't you reinventing the wheel here? What exactly are you trying to do?

Ron.... I definitely appreciate the offer and may take you up on it if I do not aquire any hardware by the time I begin testing.


Abwiz... If I were simply in need of a communication driver, then yes I would be re-inventing the wheel. But this is part of a larger project that will contain many communcation protocols and each communication component must be:

1) Purely .NET 2.0 managed code
2) Open Source and freely distributed
3) Every communication component must contain a common set of methods and properties so they can be interchanged without code modification

Similar to OPC, but using newer technology and these will be much more efficient since they will become part of a compiled program and not an external component.

So far I have not found anything that meets these requirements, so that particular wheel does not yet exist.

Gotha...!!!

Sounds fun!! Let us know your progress.

I could probably get you an Ethernet/IP slave BL67 from TURCK if you wanted that to tinker with. But you still will need the AB PLC though.

Joe_WaZoo