PLC Laptop

What is the best LAPTOP to have to work with PLC's?

We have older XFR Toughbook's with SSD's that are getting older and slower.

Thanks,
WebbyNY

You're going to get lots of personal opinions. Here's one that I know: If you're using Siemens Step 7 / Starter, get as much ram as you can. The more memory the better for these hogs.

Whatever you get, put your PLC software in a VM

I didn't get many responses, but I was hoping for some suggestions of what others use to work (troubleshoot, load/download, monitor, etc...) with PLCs like OMRON, Mitsubishi, Siemens, B&R, etc...

janner_10 said:

Whatever you get, put your PLC software in a VM

Click to expand...

This is most likely the most important tip...

If it dies, and as long as your VM is backed up, it's a matter of copying it over to the new computer and off you go.

Step7 and TIA Portal in general don't complain about it... but I'm not too sure on the Rockwell stuff when moved between computers.

Basically today the difference between a Dell, a HP, a Lenovo etc in terms of hardware is very little. The only difference will be build quality and that varies between the different lines from each manufacturer.

Basically what you are looking for is more of everything!
I run everything inside VMs because that makes running competing software's etc much easier. Doing this you need lots of ram and lots of CPU cores. Also an SSD today is a must. Considering how much storage each VM uses its a case of the more the better. The other thing to me that is hugely important is not screen size but screen resolution. To work on HMI projects a 1080p or higher display is a must in my opinion.

Below I have spec'd out 2 laptops, one "money is no object" laptop and another which is more reasonable:

"Money is no object"
Processor: Intel Core i7 7920HQ (4 Core 3.10GHz base 4.20Ghz Boost 8 threads)
Memory: 64GB DDR4 2400Mhz
Boot Drive: 1TB M.2 SSD
Storage Drive: 1TB SSD
Display: 15"+ 4k Display
Graphics: NVidia GeForce GTX 1080 (You don't need this for PLC and HMI work, but this is the money is no object laptop)

"Reasonable Specs"
Processor: Intel Core i7 6th or 7th generation 4 Core
Memory: 32GB DDR3 or DDR4
Boot Drive: 512TB SSD
Storage Drive: 1TB HDD
Display: 14"+ 1080p Display
Graphics: Not necessary.

As I said, the actual make is pretty much irrelevant these days every brand has low quality and high quality models.

Regards
Ian

Just to jump in figure out what is the worst environment you might have to be in. I'm inside 99.9% of the time, and then someone came up with an idea to put equipment outside... in a very very wet area that isn't network capable atm.

For myself I would definitely go with at least i7, 8gb ram and 15" screen.

I use a Dell Precision M7510, with i7-6810HQ 2.7GHz, 16GB ram, I have a 256GB primary ssd and a secondary 1TB HDD for file backup.

Most of the time I am in office environment and don't need anything rugged so this works great for me.

Any laptop that comes with or can have Windows 7...

Windows 10 ==

Probably won't get many replies as we recently had this discussion in another thread. I am sure you will find it if you search for lenovo dell etc

Epy said:

Any laptop that comes with or can have Windows 7...

Windows 10 ==

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Unfortunately Microsoft is forcing the issue by not allowing Windows 7 to support new hardware. Get your computer now before Skylake is gone.

I've always had good luck with the Dell Precision series. Currently using a 3520. I would consider an XPS as well. Running Windows 10 w/issue so far. VMs for PLC software as needed.

I use a work-provided HP EliteBook 8570p, a MacBook Pro (my preference with VMWare Fusion), and my desktop PC at home.

Any interaction I currently do with AB systems is with software running on Windows 10. FWIW, I've had fewer issues running AB software on Win10 than any earlier OS. That's not to say I don't take issue with specific aspects of Win10, though.

Getting off the subject here.... what is VM ware you are talking about?

I logged in to basically ask this question. My Laptop got dropped about 60 feet off a rig into the gulf yesterday, I am having trouble finding a new one that has a serial port. Does anyone have any suggestions for laptops that have serial ports? I cant really seem to find one. Before you say just use a serial converter, I have NOT had good luck with those at all.

I work with Allen Bradly, SquareD, Onron, Texas Instruments, Omni, GE Fanuc, Siemens, Schneider, SCADA Pack, Murphy, Altronics, ABB, Micro Data, Digital Controls, Woodward Governors, DSE generators, ProFace, GE QuickPanels, and others.

Some of the older PLC's like the SquareD Sy/Max and TI 505's that require XP and some of the older ProFace and GE HMI's use QuickDesigner programs that run in Win2000.

I have not had luck at all getting some of the older software to communicate over USB converters especially running in VM's. I have had better luck using a PCI 232 port.

What is the recommendation for a laptop for this situation?

HersheysMM said:

Getting off the subject here.... what is VM ware you are talking about?

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VM is a Virtual Machine software that creates a virtual computers on your machine, you can create as many virtual machines as you wish