EtherCAT and Allen Bradley

[Chris Elston 79]

Does anyone think that Allen Bradley will ever support EtherCAT in their PLC controllers? Slave to Slave communication seems interesting, no master required. ref: http://www.ethercat.org/en/faq.html With all the Japan PLC makers such as Omron, Keyence and Mitsubishi along with Japan making EtherCAT a "National Standard" ref posting: http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?showtopic=15574 I wonder if AB would ever jump on that bandwagon. I have to believe NOT, with Ethernet I/P so strong and AB wanting to push their SERCOS III. EtherCAT is also lead by Beckoff I believe for a motion bus, so why would Allen Bradley ever switch from SERCOS to EtherCAT? Probably isn’t going to happen. Any other opinions. If you're a user anywhere but the USA, I am sure EtherCAT seems good.

[jstolaruk 9]

It leaves openings for third parties, AMCI for instance, to develop a board.

[hokie 0]

AB is not going to SERCOS III for motion over ethernet. They are going with Ethernet/ip with Cip Sync (distributed time clocks). They have showing this for years at trade shows and are now releasing it. From a performance stand point there is no comparison between ethernet/ip and ethercat. Most do not need that level of performance though.