bornhandy

I was at a salvage yard not long ago, and I saw 16 robotic arms, 4 turn tables, and a truck load of PLC cabinets being scrapped.  I asked if I could buy one of the cabinets, and the answer was no, but they let me take what was inside of a small cabinet (they only wanted the metal).  I got my hands on a q series - complete with a base unit, power supply, CPU, and a few i/o's.  Here is where I need a little help. I want to play around with this setup, but there is no way I am buying the software for it.  Is it possible to use an open source PLC software to program and run this PLC?  I want to use it on an aquarium (of all things). Any advice is welcomed.

I was at a salvage yard not long ago, and I saw 16 robotic arms, 4 turn tables, and a truck load of PLC cabinets being scrapped.  I asked if I could buy one of the cabinets, and the answer was no, but they let me take what was inside of a small cabinet (they only wanted the metal).  I got my hands on a q series - complete with a base unit, power supply, CPU, and a few i/o's.  Here is where I need a little help. I want to play around with this setup, but there is no way I am buying the software for it.  Is it possible to use an open source PLC software to program and run this PLC?  I want to use it on an aquarium (of all things). Any advice is welcomed.