What are others using for EthernetI/P i/o

[James Fillmore 0]

About a year ago I looked at all the options and it looks like Beckhoff has the most well rounded product. It looks like Turck has brand labeled their product and called it Piconet. They are small, pico ports, have a cost effective subnet and have a wide variety of modules (analog, rs232, etc). My managment has been "sold" by a salesguy so now it's a mandate. Problem is I see more of the worked pushed to my side to implement, investigate, document, troubleshoot and SERVICE compared to old school I/O. We don't build large conveyor lines. Just smaller 100 I/O stand alone machines. I'm definitely not anti technology. I already use Exlar Tritex Ethernet I/P servos, Gefran Ethernet to modbus power controllers, etc. Just in the Detroit area there are 2 problems; 1) lack of controls people and 2) the new "MORE WITH LESS" business philosophy. And we are severely understaffed (so if anyone in the Detroit area with decades of AB experience that can hit the ground running and are looking for a job, contact me). What are others using? FYI The sales guy who swayed management is pushing centralized Ethernet I/O on SMV valve pack (EX600). Looks cool but wouldn't solve all situations. Then he had Balluf which had a nice, LARGE block that you could connect sub blocks to but to take full advantage of the I/O you'd need splitters on each port. I could see THAT being a wiring/troubleshooting problem. Plus they were large. We build smallish machines. Edited 28 Sep 2012 by James Fillmore

[TConnolly 13]

I use a lot of the Beckhoff IO. Its almost plug and play with AB's ControlLogix - Beckhoff has a few software tools that help you set up the communication and data mapping and from there its a piece of cake. Beckhoff tech support has been really good in my experience and the stuff is reliable and inexpensive.

[Ken Roach 194]

I'm a big fan of a single toolset, so I can't accept an I/O subsystem configuration tool on top of my controller editor. We use A-B POINT I/O almost exclusively, especially now that we've gone to the 1769-L16ER and -L18ER for most of our small projects. We're also using large quantities of POINT and POINT Safety I/O with GuardLogix on larger machines.

[Bob A. 1]

Hi James, I'm starting up a greenfield project that has several unmanned production cells (due to hazardous materials) using an L75 processor with a few piles of both Flex and Point IO. We are also using an Intellicenter with EtherNet IP networking (PF40s, SMCs and PF700s and starters on DeviceNet using the EIC media converter). For Air control, there are Bosch Rexroth air manifolds with EIP control and for weigh scales, Hardy 4050s are used. The Flex IO is great in clusters especially for Isolated Analog Inputs and the Point has been a great way to do SSI for serial comm to BEI absolute encoders. The BEI H38 can be an absolute encoder that can be reset (incremental ??), all in a bullet proof package with SSI comm. I guess that the thing that I like the least is the backplane editing of the Point chassis. As far as I have learned, the stack is built up and does not really lend itself to much editing. And the really frustrating thing is that when online, you can have it check for modules, but it is still necessary to fuss with it to get them all into the project tree.

[James Fillmore 0]

Great info guys. Quick question. How do you address these in Compact or ControLogix? I mean what do you put on the prints for your guys? I would probably just have a 32pt input module (I:01/00-31) and a 32pt output module (O:02/.00-31) old school I/O in the control panel. Then 3 or 4 AENT's and associated digital I/O out on a simple 5 station conveyor line. One station has approx 46 part detection inputs along with (7) color sensors each requiring 5inputs and 1 output. So thats approx 90 inputs and and 10 outputs at one of the stations. The other stations only have a few I/O. Would I have to invent some tag based I/O numbering. Like Station 1 would be EI01_01/00-08 E=Ethernet I=Input 01_=Sta01 or AENT01 01/=Module01 00-08=the bit on the module. Thanks again! Jim Fillmore Edited 2 Oct 2012 by James Fillmore

[BobLfoot 302]

James we use Control Logix to talk to all our Ethernet I/P I/O. We're set up so the Ethernet card in slot 5 is addressed 10.10.5.1 and all hardware is numbered 10.10.5.x where x is 2 thru 254. Now if an AENT module is at address 10.10.5.11 the wires for the inputs on card slot 1 read EN05N011:1:I.PT0Data, EN05N011:1:I.PT1Data, EN05N011:1:I.PT2Data, and so on. For an output at slot 2 I'd use EN05N011:2:O.PT0Data, etc.

[OkiePC 14]

For wire labels, in the past, we have used a symbolic method similar to the older PLC address names, but modified slightly so that from the number you can determine the physical chassis number, slot number and point number. Using the line number from the electrical drawings may be just as good in some case, but it depends on how complex the whole machine is and how the affected personnel want things to be labeled. In any case, it is wise to put those wire label texts into tag names or descriptions so they can be cross referenced.