Wireless or Hardwire

Hi all,
I have a project to upgrade a waste treatment facility in a factory and would like to get some feedaback on using a wirelss system vs hardwiring with a AB Compact logix.The range would be up to 400m and there would be about 5 nodes at different locations monitoring and controlling sump pump levels.I am evaluating Banner,Phoenix Contact and Prosoft systems. Any thoughts or experiences using wireless over hardwiring.Thanks.

I've used both banner and phoenix contact. I usually lead with Banner just because I am familiar with them.

You really need to look at that you are doing. I always like to do a topology layout and look at what speeds are needed.
some of the things to think about are what happens if a node falls off the network? How does that effect the systems? One if the ways I have fought that is to use multiple remote PLC. In small systems I have used Micrologix as nodes. Now I can do some simple logic in them and don't have to worry about a loss of connection.
The system could only handle about 1 minute of water being pumped in or sucked out. The station was to small for the flow.

Hi Jeffkiper
I have done a site survey to determine speeds and range and the Banner syetem worked well.
How do you connect your Micrologix's to the network?
Have you experienced droped nodes with the Banner?

No I have NOT had dropped nodes with Banner. Do you need multihopping radios of just nodes and gateways? Banner has a new Ethernet radio that was in a UL and CE testing stages for the Ethernet multihop. I don't know if it is out on the market yet.

I set up my 1100 on a Modbus RTU because I needed multihopping. It worked great.

The next system I will do with the Ethernet radios. I have tested them and they work fine.

Looked at Multihop but i can do this with just a DX80 gateway and nodes.Would like the gateway to communicate directly with a Compact logix through Ethernet.

OK what I/O are you going to use?
There are several different ways to make this happen.

Each node will require 3 Dicrete Outputs and 1 analog input.

I would look at the DX80N9X6S-P2 as your node. and a DX80P9T6S as your gateway. This should be a easy job.

Thanks Jeff, I will look at these. Are there any concerns i should be aware of seting up the etherent to Compactlogix.

NO you will want to talk to your technical sales guy. They will have some papers to help you setup the system.

If I can find my notes on setting this up I will pass them to you.