Opinion on Horner PLC's

any input on experience with Horner Electric Plc's & why they would or would not be preferred over AB, Siemens, GE, etc. would be appreciated.

I used Horner about 10 years ago and I have to say then they were very limited as to the programming software and there comand set. It seemed to me they were about the equivlent of an AB 150. They were primative at best.
If you have limited needs they will probably work just fine. If you need to do continuous batch processing running multipul PID loops then you might wanna opt for the AB stuff.
As I stated though, my experience is limited with the Horner stuff.

We've used their OCS (controller and HMI and I/o combined) series with good success. The programming is almost identical to GE, but I've found their support and quality to be better than GE. Communications capability is excellent.

They have quirks, and occasionally some growing pains - incompatible firmware and software, that kind of thing. However, they don't have any more than Rockwell and other majors, and their response is faster.

They aren't the answer for everything, but I call them a good value.

Tom Jenkins said:

We've used their OCS (controller and HMI and I/o combined) series with good success. The programming is almost identical to GE, but I've found their support and quality to be better than GE. Communications capability is excellent.

They have quirks, and occasionally some growing pains - incompatible firmware and software, that kind of thing. However, they don't have any more than Rockwell and other majors, and their response is faster.

They aren't the answer for everything, but I call them a good value.

Click to expand...

As Tom said, they have an excellent product for the money.
Their OCS series XL6, combines PlC, a 6" color HMI, High speed counters inputs, PWM outputs, analogue I/O all configurable through the software package called Cscape and a couple of jumpers.
Recipe handler, alarm handler, trends and such are free.
PID included, pwm control as well as stepper control blocks.

Some other instructions that come in handy, multi shift and multi rotate.
They can handle floating point math.

As far as comms go, you can pretty much talk to everything via
the 2 ports that can do protocols that come free with the software.
If you need more, add an Ethernet option module.

Expansion can be done via remote I/O which is a breeze to setup (inexpensive as well).

At some point they offered a free version of KEPware called the OPClite or something if i remember correctly.

The programming software is free.Firmware and upgrades are also free.
They'll tell you how to make your own programming cable!! (instead of charging you an arm and a leg to get their own).
Support is excellent.

Their command set is more than what you can bargain for.
I have used OCS for pretty much anything (within limitations that is).

As far as pricing goes it's a win-win situation.
Only draw back, if you want to call it a draw back, their scan time is 0.2ms/1000K of instructions worth.
Their limits, 256K.
If you have a complex or heavy on instruction program you suffer with scan time.
I have seen 40msecs but then the PLC resources were at 93% utilization!!
Be aware that their Relay outputs are rated for quite a few cycles but the derating will kill them quickly if you are not carefull!(I learned the hard way).
Firmware releases usually cure any issues that may come up with their hardware.

I'd use one in a heartbeat as I can offer my customers a PLC and a color HMI for the same price of an AB micro or S7-200.
I do not work for Horner!!

I second Tom's opinion. They are a good small controller/display combo. We've got a number of them in use, and haven't had any failures so far (although I've probably just cursed myself.) They few times I've had problems, I gotten a solution by the next day at the latest. The software is very functional, and better yet, is free. I would recommend using the OCS units if they fit what you are doing as far as I/O count and processing speed.

We have been AB only for about 25 years. Customer asked, and we implemented (4) Horner XLT's. About 40 I/O, and an embedded touchscreen.

HORNER,Economical, YES. Functional, YES. We even did ASCII writes to a printer, and ASCII reads from a scanner.

I am an "Old Dog",and would prefer to program in my learned and favorite PLC programming environment, but a PLC is a PLC, and I can learn anything to please a customer.

Fully agree with all above...and not a sniff of a tech connect or SUS anywhere...ticks (most) boxes for me!