Fanuc 9030 CPU 311 (CPU built in the rack)

Anybody have much experience with Fanuc 311's or 313's where the CPU is built into the rack. Factory people told me years ago to avoid it. They have never steered me wrong yet.

Saw a bunch of them in Peoria today, so my curiousity is up.

Probably would never use them, just wondering.

But then, never say never.

regard......casey

cpu built into rack (backplane)

Casey, we have 2 Italian made systems with these CPUs.They have both been running from the early 90s.So far no problems with them.
They are used on "simple" aplications.If I remember correctly they are the bottom of the line in prcessing power.

Steve

They have their limitations. You can't force I/O like you can with the modular CPUs. There are a couple of modules that are imncompatible with them, the most important being the serial communications module. This limits them to a single serial port and gets you into a tug of war between a HMI panel and the programming software. There is less memory and they are slower than their modular brethren. You also have to realize that they are not expandable.

Other than that, they run the same function set as the rest of the 90-30 line. One of my clients has a CPU313 that includes a motion control module.

About 11 years ago I gave the GE FANUC ECLIPS State Logic processors a try that had the processor on the backplane. I'm not sure but I think I may have been the only one to ever use the ECLIPS software and hardware.

The processors put the S in Slow but the 4 systems that we commisioned 11 years ago are running to this day.

Regards,
Chris

I had a class in Eclips State Logic in 98. I don't remember it utilizing a 311 for certain, but it may have. If it did, then I think there was an auxillary module/co-proceesor card or something with it. I had my personnal laptop for that class, since the company laptop was a sad 386. I still hae the software/laptop. I wrote quite a few state logic programs for that company, but I don't know if any of them were ever used. They would start lots of expensive projects, I would get the materials, and they would go off on another tangent.

Fun and games at the tire plant. I now see why tires are so expensive. In the long run, that was a "BAD year" in my life.

Since I like 16 position input cards, and 8 position relay output cards, I think i will keep a 311 in mind if I get a smaller project with 20-30 inputs and 15-20 outputs.
My programs are usually fairly straight foward (READ "simple") so the smaller mamory capacity shouldn't be a problem.

Wouldn't mind if the expanded the micros a little more. Used a lot of 14 point, quite a few 28 point. I would think that there is some market for 42 and 56 point units. Well, there are always the ones with expansion modules.

Thanks for the replies

Best Regards.......casey

Chris:

Slow is the word to use. Got to looking thru the literature and saw the scan rate was1.8ms, and the 313 and most others was 0.6. The hot new 9030 module is 0.15.

I gusess that would be like using Windows 98 on an old IBM XT.

best regards...casey

We have several from these plcs in our factory. However I don't like them because they have a lot of limitations. (For example these plcs are slowly, I can't force the markers, I can't use blocks in the program, I can't download the program in run mode, I can't use CMM moduls and they have too few registers and markers) I use them just in simply applications. I offer them nobody