PLCs and other systems

M

Thread Starter

mouming

Who can give me the advantages and disadvantages of the PLC system? If we compare it with other controllers like a microcontroller, what are their differences, and what are the advantages and disadvantages compared to microcontrollers? Which give you more storage and which is more powerful and efficient?

What I heard until now is all the advantages of PLC. Is there any disadvantage for it?
 
S

Steve Myres, PE

In general, PLCs are more of a complete finished industrial product. Programmable in ladder logic, function block and other popular industrial languages, hardened I/O, I/O available for voltage levels common in industry, etc.

Microcontrollers may be lower cost, and may program in languages a specific engineer is more comfortable with. They also tend to have a lot more serial ports relative to the I/O count and cost, which can be important in certain applications. Even the packaged systems are often supplied on a bare circuit board, which may or may not be viewed as a disadvantage for a specific project.
 
Top