I am bidding a controls design, conveyor-type situation, and one of my client's top priorities is cost savings. They have European AB and Siemens machines in their plant already, and are turned off by the cost of the software and the proprietary nature of their European OEMs (hence why they chose to build their own machine). They don't have the software for the machines currently in their plant and they have no preference going forward.
They want to start out fairly simple but leave room to grow into a more advanced system (possible machine vision, possible integration into their inventory management system, possible integration with other lines, etc). So I am looking to throw a fairly advanced system at a fairly simple application, relatively cheaply. The Productivity 2000/3000 came to mind as I heard about it a while back.
The PLC will need to talk to 10 VFDs over a network, probably Ethernet I/P, so I would like for the chosen PLC to have the comms FBs built in and be easy to network. It will also need to do PID well, but other than that, not a lot going on inside for the foreseeable future.
I've looked at the specs and on paper it looks like a slam dunk, but I would like to hear from someone who has used it, is it as good as it seems? Is it easy to work with? I have used the older Automation Direct software (DirectSOFT) and was not impressed; Hoping this is (much) better. If this software sucks and doubles my programming time, then not much money is saved. I'm primarily an Omron guy, with some Rockwell experience - if that makes a difference in your recommendation.
Thanks in advance!
They want to start out fairly simple but leave room to grow into a more advanced system (possible machine vision, possible integration into their inventory management system, possible integration with other lines, etc). So I am looking to throw a fairly advanced system at a fairly simple application, relatively cheaply. The Productivity 2000/3000 came to mind as I heard about it a while back.
The PLC will need to talk to 10 VFDs over a network, probably Ethernet I/P, so I would like for the chosen PLC to have the comms FBs built in and be easy to network. It will also need to do PID well, but other than that, not a lot going on inside for the foreseeable future.
I've looked at the specs and on paper it looks like a slam dunk, but I would like to hear from someone who has used it, is it as good as it seems? Is it easy to work with? I have used the older Automation Direct software (DirectSOFT) and was not impressed; Hoping this is (much) better. If this software sucks and doubles my programming time, then not much money is saved. I'm primarily an Omron guy, with some Rockwell experience - if that makes a difference in your recommendation.
Thanks in advance!