Using OMRON PLC's

APB

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Join Date
Jan 2004
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VT
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I have a client who wants to use OMRON PLC's
How do they stackup and what are the warts (or beauty mark) ?
Should I try to talk him out of it?
 
Omron is one of the leadind manufacturer in the automation industry.
They have excellent stuff.
Their PLC are very reliable and easy to program.
CX Programmer is the best programming software I know.
I just got an P.O. from customer who want to replace all his ML with Omron PLCs.(On-Line edits for all models)
I have hundreds of Omron installations with great sucssess.
 
The small Omron PLC's have the key advantage that they online edit. In this respect the older AB MicroLogix family is now hampered in the market.

My guess is that AB could have easily incorporated online edit into the ML family (and rumour has it that this is planned for an upcoming firmware release) at the outset....and they probably should have....BUT the US distribution chain squeaked at the prospect of the MicroLogix prematurely cannibalising SLC500 sales...so it was not included. The SLC/Micro family concept now dates from a product first released in 1988 and has been leapfrogged by many other products in that time. SLC500 is quite definitely in the last quarter or so of its commercial life.

The correct and current comparison product for small/medium projects is CompactLogix. RSLogix5000 Mini Version (for Compact Only) is about the same price as RSLogix500...and the hardware range is rapidly catching up to the huge and mature range of I/O for the SLC500. Compact's main weakness is still at the lowest end for very cost sensitive "brick plc" applications under say 60 I/O. At this point in time Omron have a clear edge in this market segment.

No doubt Rockwell has a plan to fill this hole at some point in the future...probably the products are sitting in some engineering lab right now....but as always the US distributors always seem to get things their way in terms of protecting their positions. Sighs.
 
Thanks for the feedback,

On line edit is an extremely valuable development feature. Nothing like having a machine freeze for 30 seconds while you download code.

For that alone, it is worht while.
 
my 2 cents...

It should be noted that, as far as I'm aware, on-line editing is available on all AB PLC's except the ML line. So if you are dealing with equipment having more than a few dozen I/O, you would likely be using PLC's that are capable of on-line editing anyway.
For the smaller machines we build, using a micro PLC is a no brainer.
Typically, on medium to large machines, I use AB SLC's when I can, but when it comes to micros, I think Omron has a much better selection.
The MicroLogix line is a little limiting in regards to outputs. It seems as though you are stuck with a bunch of dry-contact outputs. The last time I was looking for a Micro, AB was forcing me to deal with half transistor outputs and half contact outputs. Contact outputs have a mechanical closure of contacts which is naturally subject to wear and tear over time. That's fine in many circumstances, but if I want to blink and LED, I am turning that contact off and on and off, and that is eventually is going to break.

Omron's CPM2A line (Omron's Minis) has a really good selection of PLC's. There is even a 60pt PLC, 36 inputs, and 24 transistor outputs, and even incorporates a 9-pin serial connection that I use for a touchscreen. I think its right around 600 bucks.
A similar AB micrologix 1000, has a port that is used to program, and also doubles as a touchscreen interface. The problem is that you can only do one thing at a time. I worked around it, but it took a bit more time to program.
All of that, along with the ability to edit code on-line, made Omron an easy choice, at least for the smaller machines.
 
Price of OMRON PLC is much cheaper than AB. Another advantage is that you don't need to buy development licenses for all your PC. One license is enough for you.

For communication with other devices, OMRON provide some software like CX-protocol to configure the protocol easily. OMRON also have some ActiveX control like FinsGateway and Compolet if you want toconnect PLC to application on PC.
 
Omron manufacture a huge range of PLCs, all of which can be programmed using a single application - CX-Programmer - so no need to pay out for add-ons and upgrades for different families of processors or for increased functionality.
The latest ranges of PLCs, (the CS and CJ series) are extremely powerful, flexible and (with the CJs) extraordinarily compact, and all offer industry standard Ethernet, DeviceNet and Profibus networking, as well as Omrons proprietry networks and serial protocols.
The technical support offered by Omron is usually pretty good as well (Eh Jay! ;) ).

However, as usual with PLCs, it's horses for courses, and there may well be other vendors equipment that is also suitable for your task (sic).
Take a look here http://www.knowledge.omron.com/ for brochures and manuals - if it's Omron, you can pretty much guarantee it'll be here.
 
Highly recommended. My first choice if given a choice.

CX-Programmer is the best software I have used by quite a long way. Fully porgrammable to how you want it to work. I guess AB would be my second choice.

CX-Protocol is great also as it makes connecting with any serial device very simple. No writing lots of Basic to communicate. Simple details are all that the software requires to communicate.

If you require Device Net, the Device Net Configurator is also really easy to use. AB fall down here but my local AB distributor tells me that there is something really good in the wind. I do not know yet how long or hard the wind will have to blow.

You really cannot go wrong with the Omron stuff, particularly the CJ1 and CS1 PLCs. The shoe boxes also have full online programming. I refuse to buy a PLC that does not have online editing facilities these days. Waste of time quite frankly.

I do not know about the US but in Ozz Omron gurantee ALL products for 2 years. You cannot beat that.
 
I am using Omron PLCs on a project and just wanted to give my opinion. I've liked them so far, except for their documentation and manuals.

Project
--------
Collect fault data from around 30 PLCs from the plant floor and bring them into one PLC. All PLCs are Omron CS1G-H Ethernet networked using the ETN11 card.

Pros
-----
1) Very good communication and data exchange capabilities (once you learn the setup)
2) CX-Programmer is easy to use after you spend a few hours with it. But, although it has online edits, there isn't a function to test your edits like you do in RSLogix. You just make the edit and send it to the PLC.
3) I think they have free tech support (I'm not sure), but Jay helped me out whenever I got stuck.

Cons
-----
1) I admit that I didn't read every word in the ETN11 manual and the CX-Programmer User guide. But I think the information is scattered around the manuals and its hard for a beginner to find all the information in one place and its a little confusing. The PLC is called a PC (Programmable Controller) and it gets confusing when they talk about communications to a PC (personal computer).
2) Compared to AB, there is lack of an online Knowledgebase, white papers and the help within CX-Programmer is not as good. The Instruction help does not give an example, which would really help a beginner.

Some of the things that I learned which were not explained well in the manual in my opinion:
1) Auto Adresss Resolution in the Unit Setup can be used only if all the PLCs are on the same Ethernet network segment. If you have to go across Ethernet network segments, you are limited to 8 network segments per ETN11 card and 32 PLCs in total. We ended up using 2 ETN cards because we had to communicate to 10 different Ethernet segments.
2) When you transfer the Unit Setup to the PLC, it overwrites the IP Address table for all nodes on that FINS network. In other words, all the PLCs on a FINS network share the same IP address table. This can create a problem if someone adds a new node to the network and unknowingly downloads the IP Adress Table to other nodes on the FINS network.
3) And when creating the control structure for FINS commands (SEND, RECV), if the manual had specified that the Unit number of the CPU be used, instead of just saying Unit number, it would have saved me a weekend :)
 
I learned how to program on Omron CK and SP series PLC's and I have always found the product to be very good. One drawback is the manuals are not as clear as an AB manual would be. Tech support is free and they usually don't ever give up until a solution is provided. They'll even sometimes come on-site if you're having major programming or hardware issues. If you call AB they ask you for your "Support Agreement Number" before they say hi. Even if you just dropped $10 000 on their products. CX Programmer is a good software and is improving constantly. Their new line of NS operator interfaces are also worth a look. I program Mitsubishi, AB, Siemens and Omron and Omron has the best support by far. Find out where the closest sales office is and they'll give you a tour of their products and training courses.
 
automatic

The edit is automatically checked to see if it kosher before you send it to the PLC. If it is not, it tells you.

I prefer Controller Link to Ethenet. Set up a database of I/O to exchange from PLC to PLC and it just does it. Token ring too.

Yes, they call them a PC these days for Programmable Controller. Logic is starting to be irrelavant I guess with the capabilities of the modern PLC. Confused me at first but I sometimes think my "old timer's disease" means that I am sometimes easily confused.

I guess that using the CPU number would cause some confusion to the unwary. Once you get used to it there is no problem. Nothing unusual I suppose as all PLC's have their little idiosyncracies. Learning curve 2 miles wide every time you use a different brand of PLC or different PLC from the same manufacturer. Big learning curve sometimes.

Yep, assistance is excellent, and free.
 
Historically, 'PLC' was (maybe still is) a trademark of A-B.
I think this is why Omron traditionally called it a PC (Programmable Controller).
If you check out some of their earlier manuals, you'll find PCs being refered to by that quaint old-fashioned term "Computer"...
 
Definately like the flexibility of the Omron product line their support is also very thorough. Cost is also a plus as opposed to AB

I typically prefer AB software but thats only due to being more familiar with RSlogix over Cx programmer. one other advantage is that Omron is far friendlier when it comes to revealing the pinouts on its cables and has fewer cables overall
 
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Our company uses all types of PLC's and PC control systems as we have to cater for a whole load of wierd and wonderful customers and their applications ...

Does anyone have a pie-chart or bar graph showing "market share" for PLC manufacturers ?

Siemens Vs Omron Vs Mitsi Vs A-B, etc... ?
 

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