cRio vs. PLC

[jarcTek]

Hello all,

I am planning an application where I would normally use a PLC to do basic logic control and some other kind of system for the data acquisition. However, I have been using compactRIOs for a while now and I cannot find a TECHNICAL reason why not to use a compactRio for both the logic control and the data acquisition. Regarding costs, I don't see a considerable difference. Regarding performance, I find the cRio to provide faster sampling rates and outstanding reliability, which is a very important issue as my application is very critical in nature.

I would appreciate any comments and experiences on a related application.

Regards,

J. R. (CLAD)

[lfelias]

Hello jarcTec,

First of all, as you said, the cRIO has a FPGA integrated board, which makes the cRIO extremely reliable, because the response is not software based. 

Another important point is that the IO of the cRIO is configurable, meaning, that you don´t need to get a new cRIO to improve your measurements or do something else, you can just get another module.

Also, here are two tutorials that talk about it a little bit more deeply, take a look of them!!

What is cRIO: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/11391

PACs for Industrial Control: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3755

Regards,

[Wayne.C]

I combine control, data acquisition and data logging in cRIO's all the time.  They are very reliable and the faster acquisition is a plus.  They can even be set up to send SMTP messages when an event or error occurs.