Shawn discusses generations of Rockwell IP20 distributed / remote I/O in today’s Automation Tech Talk, Lunchtime Edition: Watch Automation Tech Talk on The Automation Blog:

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Shawn Tierney (Host): Hey, everybody. Welcome to Automation Tech Talk. I’m Shawn Tierney from Insights, and I’m about seven minutes late today. I just got off a, really excellent call with a major automation supplier, actually, automation manufacturer, who, was introducing me to his next generation IO. And, so I didn’t have a lot of time to prep, and I’m like, what am I gonna cover today?

And I’m like, let’s talk about distributed IO. So that’s what we’re gonna talk about. I love to hear in the chat where you what you guys are using for distributed IO if you’re using distributed IO. Now OEMs typically don’t need distributed IO. I mean, don’t get me wrong.

They will, oh, and I should also say if you guys can’t hear me or you can’t see me or something’s wrong, let me know. But in any case, typically, an OEM with a small machine, they don’t need the distributed IO. Now they will run a lot of times Ethernet through their different devices like VFDs and HMIs, but, they don’t need distributed IO. However, a facility with a large machine or a large system, it makes no sense to run all the wires back from all the sensors and switches and buttons all the way back to the main panel, and that’s where distributed IO really does extremely well. And, you know, PLCs and PACs more and more can handle even more and more higher quantities of distributed IO.

But before we get into that, I thought we would talk a little bit about the history of distributed IO or remote IO as Rockwell coined the phrase or patented the phrase back in the day, back in the late seventies. In any case, in the first distributor IO I saw out there, saw a lot of it out there, was seventeen seventy one. And seventeen seventy one IO was, big and bulky. This is an eight point module. I just grabbed what I had available, you know you know, with two minutes to go before the show started.

Let’s see if I set up the overhead cam correctly. So I do not have the terminal block on here, but this is an 8.1771, IO module that was donated to, somebody who then donated it to me. And, thank you to both of companies for the donation. And I have a ton of this stuff, and, it’s really super inexpensive online. But the, you know, the problem is the programming software is so expensive.

So, you know, a lot of people could use this, reuse this stuff for hobbies or whatnot. But, in any case, this would fit in a big, jack. You guys have seen the racks here before, the big seventy seventy one chassis, and we don’t call them racks. We call them chassis. And, you know, it worked.

Remote IO definitely worked. The the digital was so easy to set up. The analog, a lot of people had a hard time getting their mind around block transfers. I always felt that I could explain it to people easily, and that’s why I’m doing a PLC five course with seventeen seventy one IO. I don’t have that on here on the stage because it’s just so big.

I actually have it over there on the floor. But in any case, you know, of this you see this a lot. I remember going to one power plant and walking through and and, because they wanted to migrate all this seventeen seventy one IO and just taking pictures and pictures and pictures of MCC is full of distributed IO racks with remote IO and seventeen seventy one IO. And as I was going through there in the seventy eighth rack of IO, I’m like, this is not affordable. This stuff, first of all, it’s bulletproof.

Why replace it? Second of all, I mean, I don’t want my electric bill going up just so they could say, we have new stuff in the enclosure. So in any case, a lot of times no. I don’t know. I will I won’t go I’m not gonna go down that that route.

But in any case, so 1771 was the first distributed IO I ever I ever, came across. And then, of course, there’s there’s all the stuff, and I’m just covering Rockwell today. This vendor who I met with who has next purely I mean, really, next generation, distributor IO, I’ll be doing a video on. I have a box of this brand new stuff they sent me. They sponsored some coverage on it so I can make the video and keep the lights on at the same time, so I’m excited about that.

But in any case, the next one I ran into was block IO. So this is some of the original block IO, remote IO. Again, a lot of times these IOs were available on multiple different networks, like device that control net, remote IO. But in any case, let me see if I can go back, over to the overhead cam and maybe even zoom in a little bit here. Again, I’m doing this all ad hoc.

Here’s some original block IO. Check a look at that. And, man, this brings back memories, but these are actually fairly easy to use. And, you know, being all in just one little package, you know, pretty awesome. Pretty pretty awesome, distributed IO.

And so that was block IO. So now we move forward. We really had, something called flex IO. Now all my flex IO I’m using this as a stand in. This is really just a, a, drone that adapter for the flex IO.

But, in any case, this would be the control that had all my Flex IO, my Ethernet Flex IO, it’s all at home. I’m building up new demo boards for the automation school. But in any case, Flex IO was very popular because it was, of course, modular unlike the, block IO and not and small unlike the seventeen seventy one IO. And you could do up to eight of IO modules on a single, adapter or network head, network, interface module. And, yeah, pretty cool.

The modules, again, I have it all at home. So but the modules are separate from the terminal blocks, so the module would come off. The terminal block would stay. A lot of people like that. And, very, very popular.

You could also one of the one of the few things of Rockwells that you could mount, vertically as well as horizontally. I see a lot of people mounting, new stuff vertically, like, CompactLogic stuff for you can’t do that. So you gotta check the book out. You don’t wanna get, in trouble with your customer. Now FlexiO, it had some issues definitely on, device stat.

Okay? There were some things where it kinda did a boot up the first time and read in the modules, and if you don’t have them all plugged in, you had to reset it and went through that whole thing in the nineties. But, in any case, very reliable. I like it on all platforms. And, the only one thing it had that was really, like, the, when it first came out.

Right? So, like, when it first came out, everybody was bending these little pins. Let’s see if we can do the overhead camera again. I don’t know if I can get them that close. These little pins that connect the, the units together, everybody would bend them when they try to put the units together.

And you may say, Shawn, how would they do that? Well, if your DIN rail wasn’t perfectly flat, right, was twisted a little bit, then your modules weren’t lined up perfectly, and the pins would get bent. Now you can unbend them if you’re careful. If you break them, throw it away. You know, you got, I don’t know, $500, a thousand bucks worth of junk.

But in any case, that was one of the things that, I didn’t like about this platform. You just gotta be very careful assembling them. Make sure they’re all very flat and lined up before you slide the slider over. Really, that was the only thing I really didn’t like about them. But, again, in the chat, please, please put your and I got a comment in here from Emmanuel.

Hey, Emmanuel. Good to see you again. It wasn’t inexpensive when it was yeah. True true that. True that.

So that is a flexile. And and something that came out that really, and I’m not covering the on machine aisle. Again, all my on machine is at home. I I do have one PC out, but it looks like, not worth showing. So, that would be the machine mount IO that’s like IP 67 or IP 69.

Another unit that came out was Point IO. Point IO is extremely popular, and let’s see if we can zoom in on this guy. And I really like this now. There are some caveats with this too. Don’t don’t try to flash your, module’s firmware.

Not that anybody does that. Right? Most people would never flash their modules firmware unless you found that the chain the, whole blast state isn’t working, and then you’re panicking because your exhaust vents aren’t exhausting poisonous gas. You’re like, I need a last state to work. And then you go to, blast of firmware.

I think they actually don’t let you do it anymore because you could brick it if you are browsing the backplane that this sits on with IrisLinks. The flash would actually break the unit. And so, I know I can’t stand in the middle here. I keep going back and forth, but in any case, you guys don’t need to see me. Right?

Yeah. That’s better. So in any case, very popular platform, never flash the firmware on the IO module so you could break it if you’re browsing the same rack with RS links, but I don’t have the terminal block on here. The other thing that, with point I o that was kind of a bummer, you can see there’s eight terminals here by default. So you had no place for your commons or your, your, your voltage plus.

Right? Your DC minus and plus. No. And a lot of IO cards, you had a place to land those. Right?

So if you had two wire, three wire sensors, you had a lot more terminal blocks, than you would with those, you know, classic. Like, you know, a lot of people would get the Flexi with the the t b threes with the three rows of terminal blocks or terminals, and, yeah, that was great. You had a you could land everything right on there. No interposing terminal blocks if you didn’t want them. Some people would still do it, which I thought was kinda like defeating the purpose of it, but, hey.

You gotta do what you gotta do. Right? But in any case, really, really big fan of. Again again, we’re talking all legacy I, distributed. Io here.

And then I do have to throw out a shout out to, the fact that you can always use, like, slick 500 io, like the ’17 71 io, not when it first came out. Out. You could not use this as distributed IO. But as years went by, Rockwell made adapters for the ’17 46 chassis, and so you could use your Slick 500 IO as distributed IO. Also, although not very popular, well, the 1760 IO was very popular for the micro 1,500 and for CompactLogix.

We just finished doing a series on CompactLogix. But, yeah, putting using this as distributed IO, not as popular. Right? Very rare. We actually do have an Ethernet adapter at much cost.

We picked one up, used, and we will be showing that off, to our students. Maybe I’ll even do a lunch and learn on it or a lunch lunchtime episode of the automation tech talk show. But in any case, you can put this on distributed IO as well as seventeen fifty six. A matter of fact, when, ControlLogistix first came out, almost all the IO it used both locally, was seventeen fifty six IO. The cool thing with this was that you could just use your EMT card or your ENET card.

Well, only certain versions of the ENET card could be used, as an IO scanner, and it was very limited. So let’s say let’s just leave the ENET out of there. So the EMBT, you could use that as your scanner and as your adapter card in Rockwell’s parlance. And that was, that’s pretty cool, but very expensive. Kinda like using $17.71 for the extruded IO.

Kinda expensive. And so, we also had, other types of, IO come out. So this is, what they call butter stick IO. This is compact LDX. I think you can still use the device that version of this for, the micro 800.

That’s an upcoming lesson for that course. Let’s see if we can put these under the, under the camera here. Let’s see. Oh, yeah. That’s already zoomed in pretty good.

So these, I like, the next generation of the, Block IO. And I’ll tell you what, they call this butter stick. I can really like this form factor. Easy to wire, small, just a fan favorite. Right?

And, Yeah. So this came in a bunch of different versions, but most people remember it for the device that, capabilities and, the LDX as well. Right? So this was I you know, I never used much of this, but right now, last time I checked, it was the only, one distributed IO you could use with the with the OG, micro eight hundreds. So now you got some eversions out there, so they can do some other things on Ethernet IP.

But, my understanding is it’s it’s really cool the, the way that device that module works on the mic great 100. So that’s why I picked those up so I can actually show it to my students. And maybe we’ll do a lunch, a lunchtime episode on that. So let’s see. How am I doing?

Oh, Oh, and then, of course, and this is something else we’re gonna be showing too in our CompactLogix course, is the fifty sixty nine IO, which is really high end, high capacity IO is what you’re talking about was yesterday. So the IO is fast, high capacity, feature rich. It’s really more like the 56 IO in many ways. But in any case, you can actually put this on Ethernet. So you can do a compact CompactLogix, fifty three eighty with all the same 69 IO, fifty sixty nine IO locally and remote, which is really cool.

Not low cost, but really cool. And now I wanna go over to the computer because there’s some other options which I don’t have. You know, I I partner with vendors to cover their new products, and, you know, some vendors, are like to do include the hardware in that, and so some don’t. But I do still wanna cover these, and this isn’t gonna be the prettiest share I’ve done. But let me just go ahead and see if I can share my screen here.

So this is what they call a flex 5,000, and this is kind of the replacement for the, the, the flex aisle. Right? And, flex 5,000 is the adapter. I couldn’t you know, it’s funny. I could not find a selection guide for this guy or a brochure for this guy.

I thought it was really weird. But in any case, let me see if I can zoom out a little bit. Come on, picture. Okay. That’s better.

So this is I’m just saw it right on Rockwell’s website. And so I don’t have this, but it looks really cool. The design, it looks like they really fixed the connector. I don’t have a picture of that, but, really, the same design. Thank you for putting all vendors.

Thank you for putting QR codes on here. Really, really appreciate that. I know that saves them from having to put a manual in the box that we get thrown away. People just don’t keep paper manuals anymore. I mean, I have a bunch I wanna donate to the Automation Museum, but, but in any case, this week, we’re recording an episode on, the history of Wonderware, which I’m so excited to do because they were always like the big competitor when I was out there with RSView, and, I actually built some systems, some demos, I should say, with InTouch, and I just thought it was pretty cool.

I still like RSV better, but because I was beta tested for it, but, still, InTouch is pretty cool stuff. Anyways, I got a question come in. What’s your most preferred digital IO to use? That’s a great question. Let’s hold hold on to that question.

I would like to know what you guys prefer. So everybody who’s watching, I can see the count right there. What are your preferred, distributed IO options if you use it, if you’re not an OEM? But in any case so Flex 5,000, I haven’t used it, but it looks like they’ve fixed a lot of the problems with the original Flex IO, which again was still very, very popular. Look at the three terminals there.

Three rows of terminals. I just think that’s great, you know, wiring your three wire devices right into it. But when I was talking to somebody about next generation IO, this vendor who sent me all the hardware that I’m gonna cover, they mentioned how, there was another product out from Rockwell. Now I hadn’t I don’t you know, guys know. I have nose to the grindstone.

I don’t get to do the news show anymore. It just wasn’t profitable. It was actually, it was a big drain on the company’s finances, time wise, anyways. But, they told me about this new product from Rockwell. I’d never heard of it before.

It’s called PointMax IO, and I’m like, okay. I thought they would have called it point 5,000, like flex flex 5,000, point 5,000. And, so I’m like, that’s interesting. PointMax. So I figured, well, let’s take a look at this.

So good. ANTR. I’m glad they kept that. Looks like we have safety in there, guys. Ain’t that cool?

You can see the indicators on the IO. Very I I like the I like the look. I gotta say that. I like the look, and I like that it’s not painted black like, the the many of the other products that went from, the light gray to black like we talked about, I think, yesterday. I, I like the push in, terminals.

I like how they’re labeled. I think you guys could see the labeling there. Whoops. Okay. And, I I don’t see test points, which is definitely it keeps it out of that next gen, option.

But, I mean, I see these tiny little holes, but you’re not gonna get a probe in there unless you’re have, like, a I don’t know. But in any case, you know, the black really well, I’m a big fan of the, you know, the light gray. The black really and you’ll see it on the ControlLogix too. The black background really makes the LEDs really, light up. So I like that.

But I like how they kept the light gray on everything else. And, yeah, very cool there. You see the again, a QR code. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I don’t see and, again, I this looks like there’s a little cover here. Maybe it’s under this cover, but I’m not seeing the dial for the IP address. So that’s one of my favorite products about when Rockwell has distributed IO where you can actually dial in the IP address. I like that.

But in any case, I think this is interesting. I’m hearing and, again, I did not do any research on this, but I’m hearing that this kinda misses the next gen mark, because it doesn’t have an OPC server built in, and it doesn’t have that security, built in between the modules and the, and the adapter, which kinda keeps it out of that next gen realm. But still, if you’re a fan of the the current point I o, this is saying that it’s going to be available quarter three twenty twenty five, so you probably see it at automation fair. They have the system specs, system installation, selection configuration tools. So, I mean, it looks like a decent product.

It’s just, you know, I haven’t read up much about it. Again, I I always extend I just sent the list out to Rockwell a couple weeks ago of all these great things. I’d love them to come on the show and talk about. I know they’re very busy. They got a lot going on.

But, in any case I don’t know. I thought this was cool, so I thought we’d talk about it. You know, I I I wonder if it has the same thing with the fifty sixty nine IO. It’s like they changed the IO addressing so that, you know, it’s the bits on part of an array anymore. The bits are all standalone bullions.

The actual inputs and outputs are standalone bullions. I would imagine they probably did that for some reason, which I never found described anywhere for them doing that, but that does make converting programs a a pain because the the the software doesn’t know what to do with it. But in any case, very interesting stuff. I would, again, love to get Raquel on to talk about this more. You know, we’ve had him on ten, eleven, 12 times.

So I’d love to get him on to talk about this and so many other things. But in any case, I wanted to share that with you. I just became aware of it, but, this is probably there. I’m gonna guess it’s the new value line because it’s missing some of those neck next gen features. So, and who knows?

We’d like we talked about, yesterday. Who knows what the future is? We only know when they tell us. Right? So let me go back full screen here, and let’s see what came in on the, comments here.

Well, point.io, a lot of people are big fans of point.io. You get the exact number of IO you want. It’s affordable. You know, if you’re not doing high density IO, you know, like, I and I’ve shown like, I think I showed it in the presentation yesterday. You know, I’ve been at sites where they had racks that were almost maxed out 60 some odd modules.

But in any case, the points per slot, though, is low. And if you have an eight point module, then, you definitely have to have to, you know, use the terminal block to do your, you know, if you have a two wire sensor or three wire sensor. You only get one point on the o IO modules, so that is kind of a downside. You know, as far as other vendors, I think all the vendors do a good job with this. Again, we’ll show you the next gen stuff that I’m gonna be covering here in the coming weeks.

But I was putting together, and I will be showing you guys this, some of the e t 200 e t 200 SP IO distributed from Siemens. And I really liked it, especially wiring it. The push in terminals were great, and, it was just so simple to use. Commissioning it, I I still haven’t found the book that tells you how to commission it. I had to kinda do it the old fashioned way and kinda figure it out myself.

But, in any case, if anybody knows, if you use an e t two hundred s p I o, and you didn’t find the book to commission it, when I say commission it, give it its IP address. Right? So, you know, with the Rocco, you just dial it in. If you don’t dial it in, if you need a different IP address, you boot p it. Right?

So, that’s all documented very well. And then the wiring diagrams. Now I know a lot of these IO devices have the wiring guide right on the front of it, but, you know, it’s always nice, and and I think this is one thing. If you’re a Rockwell user, you probably agree with me that they have their installation instructions. Most of their installation instructions have great wiring diagrams, and so I was struggling with that last night.

Of course, it was late, so it could have been that too. But, in any case, I don’t have anybody else posting what their favorite IO is. So Capone IO wins in the chat, and I, I’m at twenty two minutes. So, again, sorry I was a little bit late. You know, meeting with vendors like that has to take precedence because that’s that’s a potential income to keep the lights on.

Also, don’t forget, if you have anybody I know most of you here are don’t need training because you’re experts. Right? But if you have people working for you who need training, that is a big part of my business, the automationschool.com. You know, I just tried to add a chat box to it today, and then as I started this live stream, I could see somebody trying to chat with me. It’s like, oops.

But in any case, the automationschool.com, I got courses on ControlLogix, CompactLogix, MicroLogix, Micro 800, and soon, click 500 PLC five and, of course, Siemens. That’s gonna expand it. I have HMI courses and SCADA courses. I think I I would have to say it’s probably the best Fact Talk View course online because a lot of people don’t, won’t spend the money to buy a license Effect Talk View course. I did because because being an RS View beta user, Fact Talk View is the next generation of that, of course.

So in any case and I got some exciting stuff coming over there. So if you wanna get a, 20% off coupon for an online course from anybody you know, anybody who works for you, you know, wants to get into this crazy business, just get in contact with me. All I need is the email address of the person the coupon’s for, and, they’ll get 20% off. I’m doing this just for viewers of the automation, Tech Talk, show. And then, of course, we can do custom training here.

You wanna either get up to speed on Siemens. Maybe you’re an Allen Bradley user, and you’re like, yeah. I wanna learn Siemens. Or maybe it’s vice versa. You’re a Siemens user.

You’re like, yeah. I wanna learn Allen Bradley, or, anything like that. Just get in contact with me. All the contact links over there at theautomationschool.com. And with that, I agree.

Rockwell has great documentation. I do agree with that. And with that, I’m gonna go eat my lunch. So I wanna wish you all good health and happiness. Have a great day, and until next time, my friends.

Peace.

If you have any questions about Shawn’s in-person or online courses, please don’t hesitate to setup a time to meet with Shawn via MSTeams, or drop him an email using his contact form here: https://theautomationschool.com/question/

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Eliminate commercials and gain access to my weekly full length hands-on, news, and Q&A sessions by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.