Point I/O Vs. Flex I/O

I have some flex i/o and point i/o in the plant and i want to make one or the other our standard.

Just wanted to gather some opionions from more Experienced users.

Pro's and Con's of each?

I've been using more and more Point I/O here, mainly due to size, cost, and the ease of putting just what I need where I need it, but really it comes down to your individual system needs.

I used to use Flex for most of my 'smaller' remote I/O drops, and still do in some cases, but really I'm finding the 1734 Point I/O much more flexible and easier to deal with.

rdrast,

We have used Flex I/O but never point I/O, what would you say is the primary difference between the two?

Point IO pains

If you use point io you will have to have some monitoring routines. The program has no direct way of detecting if the power is removed to a point io module. The inputs remain in the same state as when the power was removed.

about monitoring routines

Both POINT and FLEX have a "chassis status" DINT tag that indicates the status of each module with a bit per module. You can detect a removed or failed module (or the disconnection of the adapter from the network) by monitoring this tag, rather than using GSV instructions.

examples:

FLEXRack:I.SlotStatusBits

POINTRack:I.SlotStatusBits0_31
POINTRack:I.SlotStatusBits32_63

FLEX is a very mature product; the first modules came out in the mid-1990s, and the production and continuation engineering are done at RA Singapore now.

90% of the failures and problems I've seen with FLEX come from incorrect assembly of the backplane slider connectors, which is why the connectors were redesigned six or seven years ago. The EtherNet/IP adapter Series B is very good and has an improved interface.

POINT will have most of the new design done for it, like simple motion modules and the new Safety I/O modules. I really like the smart modules like the Counter and ASCII modules for POINT, and I like the way it works on DeviceNet best. It will get a ring-mode Ethernet adapter before FLEX does.

rta53 said:

rdrast,

We have used Flex I/O but never point I/O, what would you say is the primary difference between the two?

Click to expand...

Uhhh, Age? Size? Cost? Flexibility? I/O Density?

Maybe you should take a look at the catalog pages.