Inexpensive PLC

wolf3000

Member
W
Join Date
Dec 2010
Location
Hawley, PA
Posts
7
I am starting a new project and am considering moving away from A/B to a less expensive platform. At first I thought about IDEC and then ran across automationdirect.com and do-more plc. Both the IDEC Pentra and the do-more have built in Ethernet connectivity which I need. Has enyone had experience with ether of these plc's. I am concerned about.




1) stability- Is the do-more and IDEC prone to lock-ups and crashes?


2) I have never heard of do-more. Is do-more a small company that may be out of business in a few years?


3) What kind of support do these companies have.


Any advise would be most appreciated


Chris
 
I have used AutomationDirect.com products for years and have had good results. I like the pricing so that you can know right away what something is going to cost, rather than waiting on a quote from your local distributor. AutomationDirect also has very good online manuals that can be downloaded for free (as well as paper copies that can be purchased). There is a AD support person (Member icky812) who hangs around on this site and often answers questions about their products.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=81763
 
Last edited:
I gave up on A-B more than 10 years ago when they changed to a local distributor that is impossible to work with. I have been using Omron because they have a good local stocking distributor and good tech support.
I suggest you do some checking around to see what is available in your area. Online tech support is OK and I use it regularly, but it is not quite the same as having someone local to work with when you need them.
 
Most of the 'Cheap' PLC's will not Lock up as they would be out of business.
never heard of 'Do-More' a lot of these are re-badged from somewhere.
the main reason people got into AB in the first place was good marketing - and it worked really well.
we have DMROEDER who has made cables and software patches to solve AB's
failings
- we also have ARCHIE who has advanced HMI FREE and geniusintraining (sorry)
- not to mention we have many people on this and other sites that are willing to help people with AB issues....
SO why do AB insist on high software costs.


Sorry my RANT for the month. :mad:

At the end of the day most PLC's will do what you want.
it also depends on the complexity you want. 🍺
 
@Mickey - now I know - thaks
@baldone - I think the 800 is the equivalent of a smart relay?
- still rockwell - I am thinking the 830 - please correct me
 
The 800 is a full feature PLC with the same program set as Wago, Beckhoff, and pretty much any other PLCOpen driven PLC.
 
The 810, 830, and 850 all use CCW and programming is the same across the family.

Being able to write your own function blocks and use them on the whole family is nice.

When I reference the Micro 800 that covers the whole family from 810 to 850.
 
The Do-more is a brand new CPU made by the engineers who designed AutomationDirect's ECOM modules and also write the Directsoft programming package, Host Engineering.

This time they decided to do it themselves - build the CPU and design the programming package. But AutomationDirect is marketing it. In my opinion it blows away anything else AD has done.

Right now it is in the CPU package that fits in the 205 rack. But it seems that plans are in the works to port the CPU to other hardware. The software is free and includes an emulator.

Best of all (again in my opinion) the designers are here (Tennessee) instead of in Japan. The feedback on problems is tremendous. In a few cases a reported problem was fixed (new firmware) within a week.
 
sounds good
Years ago I discovered a problem when dealing with the Japanese.
we did the usual "can we please have ...."
the reply was "no"
somehow the word Please translates to - "if you have the time"
we found using "We require ...." always gained the assistance we needed
 
Would be nice to know which AB PLC is the comparison point.
Micrologix ?
Compactlogix ?
Controllogix ?

How many I/O ?
Any special requirements ?

As to AB Micro800, I would ask the other way around, why chose an AB that is not compatible in any way with the rest of the AB world. Just to have the "AB" sticker ?
 

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