Test Equipment

Finally got a small budget allocated to build a test stand, currently have access to GE 9030 IN/OUT/Ethernet, AB SLC500 IN/OUT, Modicon 984 IN/OUT, handful of PB's and 24V lights. Any ideas as to what I could add to make this as real as possible staying within a very tight budget ($1000), that's Canadian dollars so it's like $.50 US! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I don't know where to start.

Don't rule out purchasing stuff on ebay. Can find good buys there.

Do you use analog I/O? If so, you would want something to work with there. How about any other I/O networks (ControlNet, Fieldbus, DeviceNet, etc)?

ebay...what don't they sell, I wonder if they accept PO's!

I want to add a fieldbus but the cost is nuts, like $1100 for a profibus module for the 9030.

This SITE has a lot of used/refurbed "stuff" at about half price. You can setup an account and use P.O.'s. Everything has a 1 year warranty.

Thanks Ken, I like it. Have you used there stuff before, is it reliable, I usually deal with suppliers but for this type of project it would be great to get these prices.

Since everything I do is "in house", we have been using used/refurbed from this site for about 3 years now. I've never had anything arrive dead. Only had one part fail within the warranty period. I've bought a lot of SLC and PLC-5 and TI 500 & 505 I/O cards, and CPU's.
In a lot of cases if the latest and greatest is series C, then the ones they have will be series A or maybe B.

If you use purchase orders, you will have to call your order in, if you use a credit card, you can do everything online.

Thanks for the info Ken, sounds like a great place to start!