Agree or not to Agree, how do you pleed?

[RussB]

Up front this looks rather "Cool". If the price is right would you try it?
Purchase an I/O block and 'program' it with your browser. No PLC needed. Do you Agree?

 

[jstolaruk]

Allen Bradley has similar; DeviceLogix in I/O blocks and others. Gotta have RSNetworx so not quite the same thing.

 

[OkiePC]

I like the concept. I am not a huge fan of browser based configuration, but I am a huge fan of free software. I would have to try it before I could ARGEE or DISARGEE.

 

[kolyur]

Our Turck rep was pitching this during his last visit and I'm planning to try it. He says it is available now; apparently it's just a firmware upgrade to the existing product line.

 

[RonJohn]

Any idea if Studio 5000 AOP is available for these or do they have to be configured as Generic I/O?

 

[sparkie]

There are little things called Modicon OTB's that do the same thing over rs485. They are pretty nifty little devices too and do the same kind of thing.

 

[Bullzi]

I like the concept. I am not a huge fan of browser based configuration, but I am a huge fan of free software. I would have to try it before I could ARGEE or DISARGEE.

I have been very leary of FREE Software of the years. With the exception of Crimson 3, I have found that just about every free Software Package I have tried has been worth what I paid for it.

I think that a lot of companies think that since the software is free they dont have to put much effort into making it a great package. Little do they know that for most of us if the software sucks we wont use the hardware. So the actually hurt their sales. Think CCW and the Micro line.

With that being said if Turck looks at the software as a way to sell their hardware they could be on to something. I would be interested in seeing how this moves forward.

 

[OkiePC]

I have been very leary of FREE Software of the years. With the exception of Crimson 3, I have found that just about every free Software Package I have tried has been worth what I paid for it.

I think that a lot of companies think that since the software is free they dont have to put much effort into making it a great package. Little do they know that for most of us if the software sucks we wont use the hardware. So the actually hurt their sales. Think CCW and the Micro line.

With that being said if Turck looks at the software as a way to sell their hardware they could be on to something. I would be interested in seeing how this moves forward.

I can make a short list of free automation software which is very good and Crimson is the best by far. Automation Direct has some free software which is also quite good. There are quite a few free programs I use that are not specific to automation which I like such as Paint.net and LibreOffice.

I have used quite a few browser based configuration tools that are very handy but also sometimes sluggish and feature poor. Some of these devices are so busy performing their intended task that hosting a webpage seems to be a lower priority.

We occasionally run into the need to add I/O to a maxed out Micrologix, for example, where it would also be handy to have them remote, especially 4 to 20mA analog inputs. If I could plug into an I/O block and extend the capacity of a ML1100 or ML1400 as well as simplify wiring and the device is reliable, has a long support life and reasonably quick to communicate, I would definitely give it consideration.

 

[Bullzi]

Yea you are right on with the Automation Direct. I really like the Productivity Suite and it is free.

 

[mk42]

That seems pretty cool. Decentralized intelligence isn't anything new, but I've never used anything web-programmable before.

To me, HTML5 programming is the future. Platform independent (windows/linux/mac/android/whatever), and you'll never lose the program, because it's all in the device. Presumably, they let you clone devices by you uploading the program so that you can download it to the next unit.

 

[Ken Roach]

Hmm.

My experience with browser-based industrial software has been poor. It always seems to rely on a technology with a relatively short lifetime, and you end up tied to a specific browser or browser version that can be obsoleted by forces in the consumer electronics market.

Sure, HTML5 sounds great now. Java and ActiveX and Silverlight were the modern technologies that superceded everything else and would never go away, too. What happens when iOS leaves the particular embedded HTML5 services the module relies on behind ?

And then there's the performance of the browser-based techologies. If you've ever suffered through an attempt to program a PanelView Component, you know what I'm talking about.

In Turck's environment, it looks like you're going to be able to choose from CoDeSys in the BL20/BL67 platform and this ARGEE technology in their field I/O blocks.

I'm not too enthusiastic about the Turck technology. The initialism supposedly stands for "A Really Great Engineering Environment", and the brochure predicts "the death of the PLC as we know it".

And they have two different levels of functionality; "ARGEE Flow" and "ARGEE Pro".

Anyone who intentionally rolls out two versions of a product that are distinguished by a single syllable should be sent back to Marketing 101.

I would like to see an actual example of the instruction set and the flowchart language.

 

[Steve Bailey]

The "death of the PLC as we know it" has been predicted almost since the first PLC was commissioned.

 

[padees]

Up front this looks rather "Cool". If the price is right would you try it?
Purchase an I/O block and 'program' it with your browser. No PLC needed. Do you Agree?

I would give it a try if you shot me a demo unit to play with.

 

[diat150]

I like it, especially for remote wireless applications where you need some intelligent logic to determine if comms is up, and if it isnt, do something.

but the big kicker will be the price.

 

[jeffsnyder]

Yea you are right on with the Automation Direct. I really like the Productivity Suite and it is free.

My experience with Productivity Suite is it's worth what you pay for it. I learned very quickly that Automation Direct does not test their software very thoroughly before they release updates. I was burned on at least two releases somewhere between v1.2 and v1.6.