Modicon Programming Languages

Can someone provide the major differences between the Unity Pro and Concept programming languages? I am going to develop a project using the Quantum hot standby controllers. It seems either package can be used and they pretty much look similar.

Go with Unity Pro. Concept is really 8 bit software, and in my opinion not ready for prime time.

Dazed and Confused

Thanks for the info. We want to upgrade an old Siemens controller in a installed Profibus DP network. The Hot Stand-by option provided by Modicon using the ProSoft Profibus master module is highly desirable. To use the Siemens H controllers, we would need to run a second Profibus network and add redundant ET200s. Not an option.
The problem that I am having with Modicon is that it seems everybody I speak with that uses these PLCs uses 984 ladder logic. When I talk to the distributors, they seem to be more familier with ProWorx rather than Unity or Concept.
Hopefully I will get more feedback before a final decision needs to be made.

Unity is the current software platform, as far as I know Concept is not being updated only maintained.
Using Unity you would be able to the new PRM (Profibus Remote Master) module to integrate a Profibus network - this has lots of advantages
-configure the module from within Unity
-tags are then autogenerated for each profibus device
-the tags for each device are automatically mapped by the software
-diagnostics for the PRM module are easily available in an autogenerated tag

infineum said:

The problem that I am having with Modicon is that it seems everybody I speak with that uses these PLCs uses 984 ladder logic. When I talk to the distributors, they seem to be more familier with ProWorx rather than Unity or Concept.

Click to expand...

That is unfortunate because Proworx32 is bug ridden garbage. However there is such a large base of installed 984 PLCs that its not surprising that is what most people are familiar with it. There was enough demand that Schneider has recently added a 984LL editor to Unity Pro for those who want to migrate old 984 programs to new platforms.

Unity Pro

It looks like configuring hot-standby CPU with the ProSoft Profibus DP master is only possible with Unity Pro. So that dictates using Unity Pro.
I started my career many years ago primarily in the DCS world (with a large oil company). We only used Modicon PLCs and ladder for interlocks and discrete logic. The idea was this type of logic and I/O is better handled with PLCs rather than the DCS. I am kind of surprised how few new Modicon installations there are. It seems like AB and Siemens passed them by. Thanks for all of your help.

The demand for the LL984 editor for Unity Pro is in a big enough demand that one of the customers here is going to be beta testing the Schneider M340 LL984 support for Schneider in Canada.

The 984LL editor as Alaric stated is currently available for the Quantum platform only.

I suggest looking into the promotional Processor packages:

UNYKIT31110LFU
UNYKIT65150EFU
UNYKIT65260EFU

Atleast in Canada with these promo packs, you get the 140CPU31110, 140CPU65150, or the 140CPU65260 including a single license of Unity XL with the 984LL editor for the price of the processor.

Well in the rest of the world there is alot of new installations

AB probably has about 2/3 of the US market with Siemens getting most of whats left. Modicon however gets a good chunk of the left over scraps. If I were to hazard a guess the top scrappers are Modicon, Omron, GE, Koyo. However in our area there is a serious lack of vendor support - a distributor exists but absolutely no one on the distributor's staff has a clue about the product, which means no one is pushing it in our area. We are mostly an AB house but we have twelve 984 racks. When we need Modicon stuff we go out of state rather than deal with the local boneheads.