Has anyone used the Eaton ELC PLC controller? They look great on paper, but I wonder how they are in real life. I think that they are kind of new, after all. Does anyone have any background on them? Were they developed by Eaton? Bought?

 

They are a private labeled control from Delta of Taiwan. Not used them, so no opinions.

Delta website: http://www.delta.com.tw/product/em/control/plc/control_plc_main.asp

 

They look great in the paper and better in the field. They are pretty reliable and I have installed more than 50 units in different projects such as: PID Temperature control, motion control PC based control to measure distance with encoder the analog inputs and outputs are very accurate.

 

I have used them a few times. For the package there is a lot of punch. My only grievance is with the "high speed counter". My system was in use with VFDs, and something in the RF froze the counter, but the other hardware counter worked great, and was more than fast enough to suit my need.

 

Yes, from Delta in Taiwan. I found errors in the way the temperature module translated C to F (Eaton wasn't even aware of them), and the software seems VERY buggy. Eaton is completely at a loss to give you any help with their implementation of SFC, which is what led me to buy the product in the first place.

The editor maintains the program in ladder, mnemonic, and if used, SFC. But they're not simply three views of the same software, it's actually three separate copies, which can become unsynchronized and you have to keep manually resynchronizing them. Both the distributor and Eaton apologized to me for the quality of the software on the ELC.

A similar concept-wise but vastly superior (have only used each once) product are the XGB series PLC's from LG. MUCH more polished software and the hardware works. The manufacturer's website is www.lsis.biz, and the specific PLC family I'm talking about is at http://eng.lsis.biz/product/product/introduce/detail_info.asp?product_code=P00123

The only issue is they don't have much distribution in the US yet, and till recently had no PNP outputs, and the documentation didn't originate in English so can be slightly difficult to follow at times. But overall, an outstanding quality product. You can purchase them from ElectroMec (www.electmec.com) in the US or from Davis Controls in Canada. (www.DavisControls.com)

 

They work pretty fine. I am ELC expert since I have installed more than 50 units and like 7 graphic panel. The analog expansion work pretty well. I have developed three hi speed counter application to measure travel (inches) and are pretty reliable.

 

One neat thing about the ELC expansion modules is that they are (all?, or maybe just analogs) Modbus addressable, so in addition to being able to use them in a typical rack configuration, with no additional hardware, you can also use them remotely, either to an ELC or any other Modbus master.

(Didn't actually try this, so I wouldn't assume it works without testing)