mflux_gamblej

I found the omron version of ethercat remote io it is called GX-ID1611 http://products.omron.us/item/compact-i-o/gx/gx-id1611 its $600. the old SRT2 stuff can be bought for $25ea at the time of this posting i guess if you're using ethercat then its good to have all the same bus? but its pretty sad that this remote terminal is larger than the compobus predecessor as it needs two address selector trim pots, two ethernet ports, and it also has a 24v terminal block to power the thing lmao this is not better tech.

thanks for some history regarding srt2, drt2. So on newer PLC's there pretty much isnt remote terminal hardware now?  if thats the case its too bad, the reason being that those old SRT2 remote terminals are compact so you can use them inside smaller mounted boxes around your project instead of running 32 wires of i/o you can just run 4, and then connect up the i/o locally.  saves a lot of wire (and saves a lot of expensive conduit and connectors).  For example I have two SRT2 units a 8 out and a 4 in unit mounted on top of a robot to do the end effector controls.  It would have been many long wires to get to the box, but instead its 4 wires and that controls 2 vac generators, 2 vac sensors, and 6 air solenoids. Id think there has to be some kind of modern equivalent to a remote terminal.  I would hope it is a small PCB maybe even with a honda style or similar connector on it where you can wire up like 32 wires or something, then there'd maybe be an ethernet port on it to talk ethercat or someting similar.  that'd be great and I imagine it could be very compact like the size of an arduino board.  but I dont see anything immediately in the omron catalog for example.

I'm new to PLC programming and am interested in using virtual I/O where I might read several actual hardware inputs, set an internal bit or other variable as a consequence / output, then use those variables to decide what to do with actual hardware outputs. Currently I'm using an SRM1, old PLC unit.  I have all the pdf manuals but I dont understand yet how to assign an address to in the symbols list to use virtual or internal i/o.  The hardware io is all compobus and has addresses such as 00.00 to 7.15 inputs, 10.00 to 17.15 for outputs.   I see in the manual a list of the data area allocation, Work bits IR008, IR009, IR018, IR019, and IR200 to IR239.  Are these the addresses that I can use say I'd call a virtual output 200.00 in the symbols list?  I just dont know the industry nomenclature yet. there are all the other areas too SR HR AR LR DM, TR, etc.  thanks in advance for helping a n00b

I have been using some older SRM1 PLC master units with several remote terminals of the SRT2 product line.  I think they're great as you only need 4 wires between devices to transmit a lot of I/O.  I'm interested in using a modern PLC and peripherals on a new project soon though. Mostly I'm interested in setting up an HMI and assume that I'll need some newer hardware for that. What is a modern equivalent currently produced remote terminal from Omron?  I found some remote terminals called DRT2 for sale online, but Its unclear if those are the newest. Has anyone managed to use old SRT2 products with new Omron PLCs?  The old ones use 'compobus' which seems to be RS485 but it is likely proprietary to that era of Omron hardware. I have a decent amount of compobus hardware here, as an alternate option, it might be nice to use the older remote terminals paired with a new PLC and HMI.