Arduino based Industrial PLC - Intro and Teardown

This is an introduction and tear down of a couple of Arduino based industrial PLCs that RS-Components provided for me to review and tryout in various projects
The brand is "Industrial Shield" and they are from a company in Barcelona, Spain called "Boot and Work S.L."
One of the really cool things about these PLCs is that they are based on Open Source Hardware in the form of an Arduino Leonardo or the Arduino MEGA2560... yes the real thing, no modifications aside from providing an industrial strength interfacing circuits around them, wrapped up in a nice industrial DIN rail mountable package including full 24V operation, 0-10V analog in and out as well as isolated relay outputs and OPTO isolated digital inputs and outputs
These modules come in a variety of sizes ranging from 19 I/O through to 58. and that is just within a single module.
ALL modules fully support I2C, SPI, MODBUS, RS485, RS232 etc. and as such can be expanded to the limit of those bus limits and of course the size of program space.
the ATMEGA based M-Duino modules also sport an Ethernet port further expanding on its capabilities including WEB interfacing, HMI interaction and Smart Device remote control
Basically these Industrial PLCs are limited in capability by your imagination and in follow-up videos I will be exploring some of these capabilities including interfacing to my CNC project, interpreting the G-Code into X, Y, Z motion instructions for the CNC with optional VFD control

[YellowsourceOrg]

This is an excellent video! Finally, an opportunity to fill a very much wanted niche, an open source PLC in the otherwise very much closed market with prop. drivers, prop IDE and lots of protection mechanism's. Sure, some hardware is cheaper, but the vendor lock-in would exponentially add up to the total cost of your project. Keep up the good work. Very much appreciated.

[walterp]

This is a good project . To build a plc is my dream but at the moment I just program commercial plc. Very good!

[MrRadioAct]

The 'CE' mark is not currently recognized in Canada or the United States as an approved regulatory marking for an industrial PLC system such as these. Unless there is a CSA/UL/RU/etc marking with the 'c' and/or 'us' designations you will run into trouble when trying to get a field certification on your installed PLC system. Don't ask me why 'CE' is not accepted in north america as the requirements are generally more stringent then a CSA/UL mark but I would bet it has a lot to do with someone in north america not getting their share of $$$.

[dLLund]

thank you for posting. things have changed a lot since i first programmed a modicon micro84, back in the day. the programmer was a stone tablet, w/ a small chisel :) .

[crocellian]

Fantastic amount of actual detail without all the typical bashing of foreign manufacturers we hear from the usual reviewers. Thank you.

[Industrial-Shields]

Great explanation Peter! Peter great explanation. A good exploration and description of the different parts. :)

[saintpine]

My two cents.
There is no way that wires can vibrate loose from a spring connector, in my experience it's more likely they could vibrate loose from a screw connector. in fact some plant maintenance tighten all the screws once every 2 of 3 years.

From about 1990 to 2005, Hartmann & Braun from Germany, a supplier of the DCS (large scale PLC's) System Contronic P used spring connectors for all the field I/O. I've worked for over 15 years with these systems used in power stations and factories, with over 2500 I/O and I've never had a problem of wires coming loose. the main issue is getting the wire out when you need it.

Hartmann & Braun has been taken over by ABB in 1999.

Today ABB sells many PLC and DCS products that can be purchased with the spring connectors instead of screw connectors.

All the high end PLC and DCS use optical isolation between field connections electronics and internal electronics, all HW can undergo dielectric strength tests of 500V for up to 48Vdc inputs and outputs and 1500V for 220V circuits.

[cesarnavas]

Thanks very much. This is very helpful, but where can I see the Software Video (part 2). I can`t seem to find it. Thanks in advanced.

[MC_AU]

Also take a look at www SL4P net - for a 3G SMS based programmable controller...

[JacekBorecki]

Hi, if you want to build an Open Source Hardware based CNC I would suggest You to check Smoothieboard - I'm planning to use it instead of my current solution that is LinuxCNC on PC. It is also easy to extend functionality of the board with SPI, I2C or GPIOs.

[nikfrost]

how difficult would it be to run 400v pumps with this? great video btw!

[imranshaha]

Great video but you should Show how to programme arduino plc.is their any way to programme arduino using ladder language?

[adisimanjuntak]

Peter, great video, buat what was in my mind that Is it reliable enough for industrial used? I mean protected from electromechanical induction that caused arduino get crash

[laurafaresin]

have you got the schematics?
I'm not able to reache D5 and D6 arduino pins

[phillipmaser]

To be +24 VDC it must go through something, in order to compliant, Most boards are 5 vdc in. Does it have PID control and RS485 technology. I need R Ladder because more than one person will be programming... it.

[hilarylatham]

I think that unless the language is IEC 61131-3 compatible, these are going to struggle against the established PLC architectures.

[phillipmaser]

Is there a way to hook this to the Raspberry PI 3 through the USB port for internet access. How does the Raspberry PI USB ports work? There must be a layer allowing it to be a host. Will this host identify non keyboard and mouse devices or is there a driver that would have to be added?

[jix]

Great review. Looking forward to the next part. Thanks.

[johnnycanuck]

You mention CE Mark, so this equipment could be used in Canada, However CE mark is not recognized in Canada. FYI

[jwiley]

Peter, great video and rundown. Am I missing something, or did you not post the follow-up programming video?