Are the new EB1/EB2 Brains really "plug-and-play"? You bet! Recently a valued customer posed the following challenge: "I'm running a Simple Ethernet Brain from an Ultimate I/O. Can I just swap the Simple Brain with an EB2?" When we said "yes", he asked us to prove it.
I do not blame the customer for challenging us. The term "plug-and-play" is used much too loosely, especially in our industry. He was justified in being skeptical. I always am when someone says anything (having to do with automation) is "easy". Many years in the biz selling automation for "the other guys" has made me that way. Too many hours were spent in the hot sun, peering into a panel, balancing my laptop on a milk crate while trying to talk to Tech Support on my cell phone from a remote location (after someone had told me it would be "easy").
So, Bill Steffens, the fearless leader of Opto's Product Support Group, helped me take the customer's challenge. He duplicated the customer's set up with a UIO (running ioControl) connected to a SNAP-ENET-S64 Brain, mounted on a SNAP PAC Learning Center. The rack had digital input & output modules, as well as analog. Each I/O Point and Analog value was tested. Then, Learning Center was powered down and the S64 brain was removed and replaced with an EB2. Upon powerup the EB2 came up immediately, and all I/O points were put to the exact same tests, with perfect results. The only "thing" that needed to be done was the UIO controller was stopped and restarted in ioControl. A total of two mouse clicks. That's it! I call that "plug-and-play", don't you?
In just one year at Opto 22, my skepticism about anything related to automation being "easy" is fading fast...
Please share your experiences as well. I'd like to hear about them.
Arun
Posted by asinha at April 16, 2007 3:14 PM
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