Beckhoff and Wago IPC's

[thierry2003]

I've gone through a lot of documentation found on the net regarding the plc's from Beckhoff and Wago. Both seem to use the same programming environment (Codesys from Smart Software Solutions).
It looks nice and from an old pricelist I found the price for the fieldbus controllers and I/O's doesn't seem to steep. (250 € for a controller, only a fieldbus slave, NOT master). However, I found almost nothing about the CX1000 controller or the new Wago 758 IPC. Both are an IPC in a small form factor and seem to be really fantastic units, the software looks also good.
Has anyone used them, what is the pricing?
My main interest is that it seems that this is the way to go. A full size softPLC still has its problems but an embedded version like this one is the best of both world if I may believe the advertising.

What do you guys think?

 

[shooter]

the 1000 is originally beckhoff and they do have a lot of experience with them.
look at www.ial.nl they do have them.
wago is only making the plastic and tries to sell them and yes the 758 is very good for complex processes. communication is very good, as wago is not electronics special they do have the problem to have it sold.
i have asked them to make a lloyds version of it.

 

[thierry2003]

Yes, it looks like they have problems to get it sold.
Since you are the only one who replied to this message I think almost no-one uses this product. To bad, but I am still thinking to try it out if the price isn't to steep and if I can used it with a HMI touchscreen. I guess a standard HMI panel will work through a Modbus driver. Well, I am still hoping that users of those will reply...
Does anyone has pricing on those products?

 

[Fritz_frederix]

Hi Thierry,

I've used a beckhoff with the twincat software ones with profibus
and I must say it was much cheaper then lets say an extention on our
delta_v system or an extention on our Siemens system.
It looked nice BUT :

Twincat runs on your PC next to your OS of microsoft in other words
it doesn't use the OS and that's were the problem is. The system
hangs itself ones in a while.

It's been several years ago so perhaps they have solved this problem.

The company who represents Beckhoff is MULTIPROX and the guy with
the most experience is Patrick Gielis.

Wish you all the luck you need.

Rudi

 

[arj3090]

beckhoff

I have used Beckhoff for many years and it has proven to be a very powerful and reliable product. I recently completed my first project with a CX1000 with TwincCAT for control and used visual basic for the HMI. The customers were throughly impressed with the capabilities for such a low price. I even went to the extent of adding pictures with alarms.
The main thing to keep in mind is the CX is only a 266MHz processor, so anything that uses extensive system resources will be very slow.

 

[nodoubt]

wago vs beckhoff

I think WAGO is far superior than the other.
I've been using it for years, and developed a pretty deep
knowledge of it.
I used mostly LON and ETHERNET couplers, even had the two
different fieldbus to communicate each other.
I developed BIG applications and on 'em.

Lately I upgraded to 841, and after coupla week of
"getting in touch" I discovered a lot of secrets (TIP:
don't do BOOTP via ethernet. it's a loss of time....)
and I've already installed some systems.

The 842 was deadly reliable, my only complain was that
128kb code memory and 8kb retain wasn't enough for me, even
if I admit I did miracles with it.

The 841 is the bomb. 24kb retain memory (3 times the former)
512 kb code, 128kb data, 10/100Mbits/s. Supports HTTP & FTP
very well (tip: put it in STOP before doing FTP operations),
you can place html pages inside of it, files like images as well,
and they easily interact with couple's memory (you can handle & read/write coupler memory from the browser).

The 841 is a 32 bits processor (tip: take care of the DWORD
memory alignment!!!!!....)

The NEW Beckhoff BX9000, concerning what Beckhoff says (http://www.beckhoff.com), isn't such a great thing.
They mention not about HTTP, FTP and things like that.
Declared retain memory is 2Kb.
512kb for code & data.
It's a 16bit machine.

Luca

 

[thierry2003]

Luca, I have to agree that the 842 looks really promising.
Can you tell me what the price is approx.?
I really wanna buy one to play with if the price isn't to steep.

 

[Fritz_frederix]

Hello Thierry,

The supplier for Belgium is Multiprox nv (tel 0032(0)53/766566).
The contactperson for Beckhoff and Twincat is Dhr. Patrick Gielis.

Rudi

 

[thierry2003]

Thanks Rudi, but the 841 is a Wago PLC, not Beckhoff...
Still I do not wanna call a supplier before I know the price, I don't like to bother those people if I cannot afford the plc. And I don't like it that they bother me either with phonecalls.