It implements all of the base IEC61131-3 stuff and provides library import/export support and pretty much anything to build or port your own with.
They've got FT Design Studio on the way, claiming to support "modern software design". When they mentioned that it uses FT Smart Objects to produce a controller file to push out (.ACD ?), I got skeptical.
Here's to hoping...
Yes.
There's a section under the Resources tab of the Resources pane where you can write the classic Arduino sketch and it has the ability to read/write data of the PLC runtime.
They've got more hardware on the way. I could see paid support. The environment is similar to Codesys. With more powerful options on this platform than Studio5K, there's definitely a steeper curve involved.
Some of my own AOIs were straightforward 1:1 ports but the added ability for interfaces and inheritance are already making me re-think the approaches Studio5K forced me into. The scaling AOI I use is now just a simple function in ArduinoPLC as well. No need to instantiate the thing.
The target hardware is about the best starting point from a performance point of view, using the Cortex M7 + M4 MCU model. I am interested in if/when the IDE task model can be set up to target specific CPUs. Asynchronous comms/IO on the M4 and application code on the M7 would be sweeeeet. ModbusRTU and ModbusTCP client/server are already baked in. If I find an SDK/documentation, implementing an Ethernet/IP scanner/adapter will be my new project. The upcoming Opta (Finder internals) and existing Portenta MC have their place and in my opinion the sky is the limit if these operate as networked controllers.
As with anything built anywhere: test, test, test, and test some more.
I wonder if this will be the start of Arduino getting in the Industrial PLC market? That would be cool. Competition is always a good thing.
