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July 2011
A-B Remote I/O Interfaces
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Low
cost interfaces
to Allen-Bradley Remote I/O |
Drive
A-B RIO as a Master
OR
Respond
to A-B RIO as a Slave
An internal interface for our Smart SoftPLC
and Smart Gateway products
is now available, providing the lowest cost connectivity to
Allen-Bradley Remote I/O (eg: 1771, 1747 (SLC-500), Flex, and other
compatible networks).
Example application
using the Master interface:
Upgrade existing A-B PLC systems without replacing or re-wiring the I/O
- with SoftPLC you can even re-use most (and many times all) of the existing
logic and program documentation!
Learn More about A-B
Upgrade Options
Example applications
using the Slave interface:
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Gateway between an A-B PLC and other industrial
networks such as ModbusTCP, Profibus, Modbus RTU/ASCII and many others
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Add SoftPLC's Tealware I/O to an existing A-B PLC
system
Contact us for
pricing or more information!
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Application Story: PLC-2 Upgrade
A packaging machine was still using a PLC-2/20
based system for its controls. The customer wanted to connect the
machine to a new plant-wide Ethernet. A number of options were
considered, including adding communication modules and using a Gateway
or HMI, or converting to a PLC-5 or ControlLogix. But the best option, and the one selected, was to convert the PLC-2/20 to a Smart SoftPLC, leaving the existing 2 racks of 1771 I/O in place.
The process entailed uploading the existing logic using TOPDOC PLC-2 (the customer had no PLC-2 programming software) and converting it using SoftPLC's automated utility. All rungs converted 100%.
On the hardware side, the PLC-2/20 processor was
replaced by a Smart SoftPLC with an A-B RIO interface. The 2
rack-based local I/O adapters (1771-AL)  were replaced with remote I/O adapters (1771-ASB purchased at very low cost through the surplus market). Then, standard Belden "blue hose" cable was used to connect the SoftPLC to the I/O racks.
The
PLC-2 I/O included a Gray Code Encoder module (1771-DKC) which
transitions too fast to work properly on A-B's slow RIO network.
So a SoftPLC Tealware TTL module was used for this I/O, mounted directly on the Smart SoftPLC using its local Backplane3 interface.
Cost? Under $1900!
(including the two 1771-ASB modules)
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