I certainly did not intend to start this kind of debate.
So let me clarify a few things.
I understand the difference between cost and price. I am not looking to be cheap.
First, the customer does not want AB. They don't have any other AB in their plant.
This is an 'out of budget' expense for them. This means that the money for this project is coming out of someones hide.
They are a VERY good customer. Easy 6 figures of billable time / year.
I will probably just give them the software effort. (If I spend more then 2 hours on it, I will buy everybody a beer)
The program will be strictly mapping inputs to outputs. Thats it.
It is quite feasible to rip it all out and just hard wire. ( I think that will be more expensive actually )
I will have my shop guy do most of the field wiring. ( I figured $500 in labor tops ... might even eat that too)
There is a pretty good chance that this whole thing will be mothballed / scrapped with in a year.
Believe me I have much more profitable things to do than try to pry nickles and pennies out of this machine.
Separately:
As to AB being expensive. I am caught in a bit of a viscous circle with them.
I don't use much AB because it is too expensive. It is too expensive because I don't use much of it.
For your basic blink the light / turn on the valve projects AB just can not compete with the little bricks out there ( CLICK )
For larger projects I have been very happy with Beckhoff.
I am sorry if my comments / replies may have come off as snotty or disrespectful. Certainly not my intention. I though I had asked a simple question. But in hind sight I had all of the above information. No-one else did.