Bedrock Automation - New PAC

Possibly the worst page i've ever seen.
Sure its a nice design but nowhere can you find any technical info or pictures of hw/sw without having to sign up.

That is no way to make people interested in their products imo.

ojz0r said:

Possibly the worst page i've ever seen.
Sure its a nice design but nowhere can you find any technical info or pictures of hw/sw without having to sign up.

That is no way to make people interested in their products imo.

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As sad as it is to say, I also don't want to fill out a form to access a datasheet. The controller looks like it offers a lot of promise but they've got a long battle ahead competing with the big boys and their endless pockets.

They also mention 'lower cost' then anyone else - that I'd like to see. I'm not a fan of CoDeSyS though.

The webpage appears to just be full of buzzwords and marketing. I think the only solid piece of technical data was the 4GB backplane, which still doesn't mean much. I agree with you guys, having to sign up just to get basic info/data sheets seems a little overzealous.

I doubt its really vaporware, but they sure seem like they are trying to amp up the marketing and hiding the substance. Sounds amazing, though.

mk42 said:

The webpage appears to just be full of buzzwords and marketing. I think the only solid piece of technical data was the 4GB backplane, which still doesn't mean much. I agree with you guys, having to sign up just to get basic info/data sheets seems a little overzealous.

I doubt its really vaporware, but they sure seem like they are trying to amp up the marketing and hiding the substance. Sounds amazing, though.

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yeah nothing ****es me off more than that.

I agree with all your thoughts as well. Just not enough technical information to really explain what is going on.

If there is actually beta versions out there, I would have thought there would be some info on the software, somewhere maybe on another website, especially if they plan on shipping units this year yet.

I read the website carefully to figure out if it was really attempting to promote a product of if they had just tossed a word salad.

I'm not sure what made them decide they need precision time protocol, sequence of events buffers, and a high-grade encryption processor in a power supply module.

And I'm very skeptical of the boast that having a single chipmaker responsible for all of their silicon guarantees them a long product life. Semiconductor manufacturers are merciless about killing products with low volumes, even if it's an internal customer.

If Steve Hechtman's name wasn't attached to the project, I would say it was a pipe dream or a scam. Now I just think it's a niche product for customers with extremely high security needs and a tolerance for magic hand-waving.

I know how hard it is to diagnose an open protocol link with common IT tools. Now make the protocol and media proprietary and encrypt all of the data.

Edit: Their patents are all "ornamental design" patents that include only a single isometric sketch of the module. It is not a utility patent on what the module actually does.

They make no comments about communications. I guess you can make a processor very secure if there isn’t any way to communicate with it.

Firejo said:

They make no comments about communications. I guess you can make a processor very secure if there isn’t any way to communicate with it.

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True! Perhaps this is the MagicBox 2.0

I don't trust any company that can't produce an address on their "Contact Us" page. Also, the way Inductive Automation went to market(lots of buzzwords, little technical content) turned me off so much that I won't do anything with Ignition. This seems to be in the same vein. Might be a good idea, but time will tell.

Highland Controls said:

I don't trust any company that can't produce an address on their "Contact Us" page. Also, the way Inductive Automation went to market(lots of buzzwords, little technical content) turned me off so much that I won't do anything with Ignition. This seems to be in the same vein. Might be a good idea, but time will tell.

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I cant speak for when you were introduced to the product, but my experience is that they have one of the better websites in the automation industry. not many vendors give you access to a fully working demo without even giving an email address. access to a active help forum, access to the manual, and now free training videos. How could I forget that they actually give you the price of the product and let you purchase it online. IMHO they do business they way it should be done.

Highland Controls said:

I don't trust any company that can't produce an address on their "Contact Us" page. Also, the way Inductive Automation went to market(lots of buzzwords, little technical content) turned me off so much that I won't do anything with Ignition. This seems to be in the same vein. Might be a good idea, but time will tell.

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You must have looked at a very early version of Inductive's web page.
Been dealing with them since 2010 and have nothing but praise for their product and the support.

http://www.automation.com/automatio...ation-introduces-cybersecure-siou10-io-module
$3k for 10 points feels a lot!
Only maybe if you want triple redundancy, flexibility and (claimed) stronger security.

Here is a little more info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljRqISg8nTs

Some answers are here: https://www.bedrockautomation.com/support/

Anyone download the software to play with?

See also: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=102583