Posted 12 May 2019 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 12 May 2019 4 hours ago, bornhandy said: 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. Hello BornHandy. I believe there is a trial version of GX Developer that is free for a fixed amount of time/ steps. You will have to browse the web for this as its not something ive ever had to do. Just a heads up- if you are using Q00J, Q00, Q01 or Q02 (not Q02H) CPUs...you will also need to buy the serial lead to communicate with the PLC. Otherwise a standard Printer Cable can be used in conjunction with the EasySocket driver. Regards Daniel Share this post Link to post Share on other sites