Small, inexpensive, reliable PLC

Vorian

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Join Date
Jul 2012
Location
Athens
Posts
12
The company I work for manufactures electrical equipment and our latest product is a voltage monitoring device that triggers alarms if the voltage surpasses a threshold. The product also includes HMI for local monitoring.

What I am interested in, is to reduce the volume and cost of the device and one way to start is with a smaller, cheaper PLC. Currently we use a PLC from Delta Electronics.

I did a little search here but most similar topics are about home projects, we need a product that is not only cheap but also won't break soon after it's delivered.

The PLC requirements are small, at most 4 analog inputs and four digital and a basic HMI.

Thank you in advance for your input.
 
The company I work for manufactures electrical equipment and our latest product is a voltage monitoring device that triggers alarms if the voltage surpasses a threshold. The product also includes HMI for local monitoring.

What I am interested in, is to reduce the volume and cost of the device and one way to start is with a smaller, cheaper PLC. Currently we use a PLC from Delta Electronics.

I did a little search here but most similar topics are about home projects, we need a product that is not only cheap but also won't break soon after it's delivered.

The PLC requirements are small, at most 4 analog inputs and four digital and a basic HMI.

Thank you in advance for your input.

You might consider the Graphite Series HMI by Redlion (go to Redlion.net).

Without additional information regarding the size of the HMI, I can't make additional suggestions, but the Graphite Series is an HMI with Analog and Digital I/O. It would all configure using the Crimson 3.0 software (Free) so you could download it and see what you think before even thinking about purchasing one.
 
You don't define your definition of cheap.
But I am a big fan of the Siemens S7-1200 family and the companion Basic Panels.
 
The company I work for manufactures electrical equipment and our latest product is a voltage monitoring device that triggers alarms if the voltage surpasses a threshold. The product also includes HMI for local monitoring.

What I am interested in, is to reduce the volume and cost of the device and one way to start is with a smaller, cheaper PLC. Currently we use a PLC from Delta Electronics.

I did a little search here but most similar topics are about home projects, we need a product that is not only cheap but also won't break soon after it's delivered.

The PLC requirements are small, at most 4 analog inputs and four digital and a basic HMI.

Thank you in advance for your input.

Have you had issues with the Delta PLC's? We are going to be picking up the line and am interested in any feedback you can give.

Thanks..
 
Your challenge is the number of analog inputs, most micro and "nano" class PLCs will have one, maybe two at best, then the add-on modules make it significantly more expensive. The exception I have seen is the very recently released Rockwell Micro 820, which does have 4 analog inputs included in the base model. The HMI is not included however.

Unitronics makes a PLC with a built-in HMI, and a version that comes with 6 AI, no idea if it qualifies as inexpensive though.
 
The Crouzet Millenium 3 CD12 (part no. 88970041) would suffice i think.

This is a 24VDC PLC, has four digitals, four analogs and a built-in screen.
Cost around €150,-
I think they have a 12VDC model as well.

The software is freely downloadable at the Crouzet website and quite easy to master. Has a very good simulator so you could try before buy.

My two cents.
 
Coming back on this, in the past i actually already have made a program on the Crouzet wich actually does trigger the output relais whenever the voltage come above a certain tresshold and switch off when they become below the tresshold. let me know if interested.

Was one of my first projects and quite simple to make. Via the built-in screen you can manually change the tresshold.

Marc.
 
Vorian,

We distribute Triangle Research. They have a unit that starts at $229.00 US with 8 digital I/O, 8 analog inputs and 2 analog outputs. It also includes serial and Ethernet communications.

http://www.eternity-sales.com/tri-plc/fmdseries.htm

They have a basic display that lists at $180.00 US

http://www.eternity-sales.com/tri-plc/peripherals.htm

What are you looking to do with your HMI? Is it a display only, or do you need to input / acknowledge results?

We also have small touch screens - http://www.eternity-sales.com/KEP/MMI8000.htm

If you have any additional questions, feel free to post, pm or you can email me through the link below.
 
Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

@adisharr

We did not experience any problems with Delta, just looking if we can lower the manufacturing cost of the final product to make it more competitive.

PS: About the HMI, the customer must be able to set the desired voltage thresholds as well as monitor the values.
 
two ways to solve this, look into arduino or atmega, or use products from [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Schleifenbauer, they make power strips with measurement.

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shooter beat me to it....
How many do you need? If you are looking for a few (100-200) a year then stick with something off the shelf. If you are looking for more than that you might consider something custom.
CHECK YOUR MATH!!!! Development cost will be big. But finished goods cost can be quite low.
Off the cuff.. I would clip you about $50K to design and source this. But I would expect a finished goods cost in the $50 range.
If an off the shelf controller was $250 you would need to go through about 250 units before you broke even.

Mind you, this path is not for the faint of heart!
 

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