New Productivity P2000 AutomationDirect

[Bullzi]

Happy Saturday to everyone,
I was looking at the AutomationDirect website today and see that they have a new PLC called Productivity P2000. Anyone here using it?

I downloaded the programming software to have a look. It seems pretty straight forward. Similar to RSL 5K.

I have played around with the DirectLogix Software and was not very impressed with it. But the Productivity Suite seems to be a much more intuitive package.

Just wanted to see what people that have used the Productivity line thought of the hardware and software.

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[OkiePC]

Very interesting. Looks like the P3000 baby brother. I like the analog modules with values displayed right on them. I have not used either, but I have messed around with the free software for the P3000 and it is pretty darn good.

Only major piece I see missing is a 24vdc base power supply, but I would expect that is in the works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyvv66xYwS8

 

[John Soltesz]

I did one P3000 doing an R&D vacuum furnace a couple of years ago. It was my first tag based app. Once I got used to it the ability to create internal tags on the fly was nice. Also it stores everything in the PLC memory. We had one issue after I did a firmware upgrade. It was during the program development and it would fault without warning otherwise would work for days. I conferred with AD and there was a problem with backplanes around our vintage. Still had the issue with a replacement. After the next firmware upgrade things got fixed.
We had a non-linear vacuum transducer that I ended up with I think 3 custom scaling ranges that would transition as the signal changed. That worked really well.
The only thing is the hardware is ALL plastic. Slightly fragile but if you take your time and think when snapping in/out modules it works OK.
The feature of checking analog signals at each module is nice. The guy that troubleshoots the R&D dept equipment really likes it.

 

[JeremyM]

Just noticed this myself and downloaded the software. A Google search revealed this thread - tempted to get the ~$550 starter kit.

 

[Bullzi]

I was thinking the same thing. It looks like it might be a little flimsy and cheaply built but if it can do the job it might be the answer for the "cheap" customer.

 

[PLC GURU]

i have it. its nice. P3000s lil brother. I like the size and the price point. The software has a lot of built in functionality and....ITS FREE! cant go wrong. Most PLCs are all plastic these days so they aren't any different than any other PLC. Seems rugged and reliable. I am definitely interested in the 24vdc power supply. Thats very inportant.

 

[JeremyM]

Thanks, PLC GURU.

I'm having the starter kit delivered overnight so I can dive in this weekend - I'll post my impressions.

 

[FactoryTalktotheHand]

I like the DEBOUNCE instruction (I do this a lot with sensor inputs manually with timers so to have that function built in is nice) and non-linear scaling is pretty cool, too. Lots of seemingly useful instructions A-B doesn't have.

 

[rguimond]

If it's anything close to the P3000, it'll be great. I used one last year to replace a few old Delta Building Automation controllers. Super easy to use and set up.

I agree on the DEBOUNCE coil comment - I use it for almost EVERYTHING. It was especially useful to perform pump-down or to prevent short-cycling on compressors. You can use tags to set the "on-time" and "off-time" for every single coil, if you want. Very flexible.

 

[adisharr]

I just quoted one of these for a small dual stepper application. I've been using the Do-Mores since release and these look like a nice alternative. The wiring options are nice., I only wish they had a clamp version of the Ziplink modules and they were a little narrower. The software looks decent as well, similar to the other platforms.

For a $255 cpu, I'd like to see someone else do what it can do. One more reason to try and sway people away from Rockwell and their overpriced software.

 

[swilkes]

P2000

I have been using the P2000 series processors for 3 months now. They seem to be as reliable as the P3000 processors. I did have one destroyed by a lightning strike, which also took out a Modicon Compact that was connected to it. The spike destroyed the RS232 ports on both processors. Automation Direct sent me a replacement overnight under warranty.

The programming software is has a comprehensive library, but does not have an easy way of creating custom functions.

The major drawback to these PLC's is that they are not designed to allow for redundancy, but in most applications this is irrelevant.

Overall I am very satisfied with the PAC's from automation direct. I am replacing the entire automation system at my facility with them. I am using the P3000's where remote IO, or local expansion is necessary, and the P2000's where only a single rack is necessary

 

[diat150]

no 24v power supply is a deal killer for me.

 

[strantor]

I just ran across this new PLC and I am impressed (with the price, anyway). I would have liked to see AD come out with a PLC that supports Structured Text, but whatever. Thinking back on all the times I've used ST, it was to do complex floating point math, but this thing has the formula box so that's probably eliminated 90% of my need for ST. The longest ST FB I ever wrote was for multipoint non-linear scaling, so I was a little aroused to see that function built in. I think I will give this a shot for my next project. Good thing that's going to be a 120VAC project and not 24VDC (WTF? Why no 24VDC power supply? JEEZ!). Glad to see they improved the IDE for this one; that one for DirectLogic is hideous.

 

[icky812]

We are working on 24VDC, however it wasn't quite ready for prime time when everything else was. We will be able to offer it soon™.

 

[bob1371]

Just installed on of these this past weekend. Replaced 4 Cutler Hammer D100's
with the one P2000. Everything in panel was 120v so no issues there. I did add a small 24v power supply for C-More panel.

I did buy the ziplink wiring solution and thankful for that.
The software was easy enough to use.

I've got about 7 more of these lines with the D100 so hopefully will be replacing them all soon.