Cheap PLC that can read Data from its SD card or USB Flash Drive?

[theColonel26]

Cheap PLC that can read Data from its SD card or USB Flash Drive?


I'm looking for something in the price range of a Productivity 1000 ($180 for CPU, $50 a piece of IO modules).



We only need about 8 DI and 8 DO


We are looking for a PLC that provides some way for users to set parameters on the PLC without using a separate HMI, without creating our own software, and without having them us the programming software.



The problem with the Productivity PLC is, it doesn't support reading from the SD card only writing to it. We would like to be able to read values from a .CSV file on the card.



Another option is a PLC that has the ability to let you create your own web pages (with an API to write data) or web-based HMI.


Does anything like this exist in this price range?

[theColonel26]

*bump*

[L D[AR2,P#0.0]]

How many parameters?

[kallileo]

The cheapset version of M241 has built-in 14 DI and 10 DO, it supports SD card read/write and has embedded web server.
I believe the cost should be around 300 USD.
I believe it's the web server is a much more user friendly solution.

[Rson]

I've used Unitronics to read / write from an SD card. It has a pretty straightforward utility.

I believe some of the micro 800 line will read / write from an SD card, but i haven't explored that avenue yet, personally.

[bkottaras]

Horner.
Their OCS units R/W to an SD.

[Ken Roach]

Have a look at Chapter 9 of the Allen-Bradley Micro 820 User Manual, for the various functions of the SD Card.

You can use the ConfigMeFirst.txt file to set up the firmware load, program path, and IP addressing options for the controller.

And you have a Recipe (RCP) instruction that allows your user program to both read and write tags from the SD card.

The basic 2080-LC20-20QWB unit has 12 DC Inputs (4 can be used as analog), 7 DC Outputs, and 1 Analog 0-10 volt output.

What you can buy those units for is going to depend on your discount schedule; I think street price is $250 - $280.

[theColonel26]

Originally Posted by L D[AR2,P#0.0]

How many parameters?

between 8 and 16

[theColonel26]

Originally Posted by kallileo

The cheapset version of M241 has built-in 14 DI and 10 DO, it supports SD card read/write and has embedded web server.
I believe the cost should be around 300 USD.
I believe it's the web server is a much more user friendly solution.

How is the SOMachine software? haven't I read people complaing on here about it being really buggy? (maybe I am thinking about something else) Sounds promising though.

Originally Posted by Rson

I've used Unitronics to read / write from an SD card. It has a pretty straightforward utility.

I believe some of the micro 800 line will read / write from an SD card, but i haven't explored that avenue yet, personally.

I have been banned by the other engineers from suggesting the Micro800 series they have had really bad experiences with them failing in the past. they say it is baaaaad juju



As for Unitronics we were looking at them for a different need and we couldn't even get their programming software to run. It kept freezing when launched.

Originally Posted by bkottaras

Horner.
Their OCS units R/W to an SD.

Hmmm I look at them. Do they have something in this budget range though?

Originally Posted by Ken Roach

Have a look at Chapter 9 of the Allen-Bradley Micro 820 User Manual, for the various functions of the SD Card.

You can use the ConfigMeFirst.txt file to set up the firmware load, program path, and IP addressing options for the controller.

And you have a Recipe (RCP) instruction that allows your user program to both read and write tags from the SD card.

The basic 2080-LC20-20QWB unit has 12 DC Inputs (4 can be used as analog), 7 DC Outputs, and 1 Analog 0-10 volt output.

What you can buy those units for is going to depend on your discount schedule; I think street price is $250 - $280.

See above




After I posted this we came accross IDEC Smart relays, they seem to offer what we need, I had no idea they had gotten so feature rich, they are more PLC than most microPLCs now.

[kallileo]

SoMachine is good and we haven't faced any problems. The question is whether you can get it for free or not.

Another thing is that if you have max 16 adjustable parameters then it seems to me that it's better to use the built-in web server, a cheap Ubiquity AP and a smartphone as HMI device to adjust the parameters or select recipes.

Siemens S7-1200 and Eaton smart relays have web servers as well.
You could get Unitronics Jazz series Plc which is really cheap and is equipped with a small 2x20 LCD display that can be used to adjust parameters.

[DwSoFt]

Not that I'm a big fan but Horner does have HMI/plc combo units with a tiny display and some embedded io and expandable. That or a web server I would do before the CSV files but I guess if you have 8 different "recipies" each with a dedicated card that's labelled and all they have to do is insert it and hit start that's not bad then. And you can adda new card without adding to the place like you would with selector switches and such