Fast Analog - PLC, Delta or ??

I have a need for a system to monitor multiple pressure transducers to detect transients in the 1mS time range.

After looking at numerous A/B analog modules it doesn't seem like they have anything quite this fast. My knee-jerk reaction would be to use a Delta Motion Controller; I know they can run a 1ms control loop.

Does anybody have any other potential solutions they may have used in the past?

AB does have fast AI modules with sub 1 msec update times

Are you sure your pressure transmitters can update that fast?

Rupej - I looked at the ControlLogix #1756-IF4FXOF2F but got confused in the literature. So I played around in Logix Designer. Looks like I can set an RTS period of 0.3 milliseconds and disable the digital filter. Maybe that will work. Did you have a different module in mind?

Mickey - Our standard transducer has a response of <= 1ms. Haven't looked for anything faster.

I did a project a few years ago that monitored hydraulic pressure and had to react to an extremely fast rise in pressure. The system started out with a Micrologix controller, but I quickly discovered that none of the analog inputs could react fast enough. The system was switched out to a Beckhoff controller with EtherCAT modules which was setup to operate at an update rate of 0.1ms

You have to consider all factors when getting into sub-millisecond range. The transducer, the input module, the program scan rate, and even cabling if it is long.

National instruments is your best bet.

Delta Motion Controllers Can Sample Much Faster Now

The NI solution will be cheaper if you don't need motion. The RMC200 samples analog every few micro seconds and filters it in the FPGA so it effectively provides 18 bits of resolution. The RMC200 with analog input cards may be an option. The NI hardware will probably be cheaper but they charge a lot for their software. A RMC200 hardware will probably be more expensive but RMCTools and upgrades are free. So is RMCLink. We can get a lot of I/O in a RMC200. Since the sampling is always done using a FPGA the reading will always be a deterministic intervals.

A lot depends on what you are trying to do.
You can contact Jacob or me.

It all depends

RET said:

National instruments is your best bet.

Click to expand...

It depends on what agarb wants to do. If all agarb wants to do is collect analog data the NI is probably his best choice.

Often Delta and NI compete against MTS and win because the Delta/NI solution is cheaper. We have a NI certified VI that allows easy access to our controller from Labview. Sometime Delta and NI compete. Our motion controllers are more specialized that just another analog card. The advantage we have is algorithms.

project is simple...

There is no control involved. Just need to monitor several transducers and alert if a spike is observed. Ideally, I would be able to provide some historical trending after a spike so the duration and magnitude can be visually observed. This may be the tricky part... how to get the real-time data into graphical format.