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Wulfgar

Any word on Rockwell's Next Generation PAC?

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Has anybody heard anything on when Rockwell's next generation PAC will come out? I read an article last year on it but I've not heard anything since then and can't find the article now. I'm getting back to working on a Compact Logix project after finishing an Omron NJ project and Rockwell's current offering is starting to show it's age. The Logix series has always been slow and the software cumbersome but it's really prevalent now compared to the competition.

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I don't know anything about a next generation PAC. I was at the 2014 RSTechEd and in the "What's coming" session there was no mention of it. Rockwell does have to big changes planned with Studio 5000. Rev 24 (25?, I can't remember anymore it's going so fast) has a bunch of new features, including routine/program parameters, and a logical organiser, so you can arrange the program logically, instead of by task. They have some more stuff planned, so that Studio 5000 will be a total solution for all your Rockwell integration needs (Drives, new HMI solution maybe?). This is all based on the 1756-L7x series PLC, and it all rides on the same old RSLogix 5000, even though it isn't called that anymore. I doubt the Rockwell will get rid of the ControlLogix or Studio 5000 anytime soon.

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Hmm, it must still be a ways off or they went back to the drawing board. I'm pretty sure the article was either in a trade magazine or in Rockwell's journal newsletter, I've searched online but have been unable to find the article or any news. I remember it saying everything was going to be Ethernet/IP even the PAC backplane communication. We are using RsLogix 5000 v21 on this project due to v20 not supporting the Kinetix 5500 servo drive. All these versions and no bacwards compatiblity are becoming a real pain. I forgot how slow RsLogix is when doing cross references or searches, I can't imagine them being able to squeeze HMI integration in as well. As behind as the ControlLogix platform is their HMI offering is even more behind. I am surprised how little effort Rockwell has put into making their software more user friendly. They will have to do something as they will start losing out to the competition on the high end as the scan time is just too high on larger high speed machines with a ControlLogix PAC. "I doubt the Rockwell will get rid of the ControlLogix or Studio 5000 anytime soon." Oh I agree even after they come out with a new platform I'm sure they will continue supporting it for at least a decade.

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I was curious on who the high-end competition was for larger machines you are refering to? Just a thought on backward compatibility: So, for example, you think that RA should go back through all of the old versions of RSlogix and create support for the Kinetix 5500? Should we expect Microsoft to go back to Win286 and add support for Firewire? Or USB 3.0? They just dropped support for WinXP, should they have kept it up to date for the next 100 years? Not trying to start an arguement but no companies I know of do that. There is a valid reason why software companies, like Rockwell and especially Siemens with Step 7, don't change their user interface drastically. The people using them want, for the most part, a seamless change between versions so that they, and I mean me, don't want to spend precious time I could be spending on billable hours re-learning something new PLUS remembering how the previous versions work. Just my $0.02 Edited by jstolaruk
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I would guess you hear something public close to the end of this year. Or, maybe someone going to RSTechEd this year will hear an update? Rockwell's big show of the year is in November (AutomationFair), and they seem to announce or release new products around then. Sometimes they announce in June at the USA RSTechEd. If you haven't heard anything by now, then those two dates are the most likely.
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Thanks Arlen, I would expect them to announce something this year and that would make sense for them to show it off at the big show and give them time to work out the major bugs. @jstolaruk Who said anything about drastically changing the user interface? I'm talking about simple stuff to improve efficencies like adding wildcards to speed up searching and cross-referencing. I don't think that is too much to expect from any company. Even one with only one programmer would have added some user friendly features by now. That seems like arrogance (*corrected spelling) on Rockwell's part as it shows their lack of respect for their customers. Edited by Wulfgar

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"I do not know of any other company's software that you have to have multiple versions installed. Every other software program I use can at least open up older versions and convert them." RSLogix does that. But major releases have to do with hardware support, the firmware running in the CPU. Excel and AutoCAD do not and that is a huge difference. Have you ever been part of a team that has to support an embedded system and handle new product releases that are driven by changes in the hardware? You'd find that the method RA is using makes sense. Again, major releases have to do with new hardware offerings. If the hardware can't support the new software features, conversion doesn't work to be backward compatible. Re-read your original post, "I am surprised how little effort Rockwell has put into making their software more user friendly." Thats a user interface. Edited by jstolaruk

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