August 27, 2025 • 23 mins
Shawn discusses generations of Rockwell IP20 distributed / remote I/O in today's Automation Tech Talk, Lunchtime Edition:
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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?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Automation Tech Talk. I'm
Sean 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.
(00:20):
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
(00:41):
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,
(01:01):
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.
(01:22):
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
(01:43):
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
(02:04):
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,
(02:26):
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
(02:46):
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
(03:07):
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.
(03:29):
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,
(03:49):
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,
(04:09):
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.
(04:30):
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.
(04:51):
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
(05:13):
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
(05:35):
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,
(05:55):
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
(06:17):
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
(06:38):
together,
everybody would bend them when they try to
put the units together. And you may say,
Sean, 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
(06:59):
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,
(07:21):
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.
(07:41):
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.
(08:03):
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,
(08:24):
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
(08:45):
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.
(09:05):
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
(09:26):
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.
(09:47):
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
(10:07):
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
(10:29):
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
(10:51):
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
(11:11):
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.
(11:32):
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,
(11:53):
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
(12:14):
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
(12:35):
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
(12:55):
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
(13:17):
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
(13:38):
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
(13:59):
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
(14:20):
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
(14:41):
to do because they were always like the
big competitor when I was out there with
RSVUE, 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
(15:02):
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
(15:23):
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,
(15:45):
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,
(16:05):
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.
(16:26):
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.
(16:49):
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
(17:11):
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
(17:33):
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
(17:54):
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
(18:16):
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
(18:36):
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
(18:58):
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
(19:18):
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
(19:39):
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.
(19:59):
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,
(20:21):
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
(20:42):
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,
(21:04):
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
(21:26):
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
(21:47):
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
(22:07):
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
(22:28):
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 Vue course
online because a lot of people don't, won't
spend the money to buy a license Effect
Talk Vue course. I did because
because being an RS Vue beta user, Fact
Talk Vue is the next generation of that,
of course. So in any case and I
(22:49):
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,
(23:09):
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,
(23:30):
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.
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Automation Tech Talk. I'm
Sean 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.
(00:20):
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
(00:41):
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,
(01:01):
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.
(01:22):
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
(01:43):
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
(02:04):
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,
(02:26):
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
(02:46):
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
(03:07):
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.
(03:29):
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,
(03:49):
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,
(04:09):
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.
(04:30):
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.
(04:51):
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
(05:13):
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
(05:35):
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,
(05:55):
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
(06:17):
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
(06:38):
together,
everybody would bend them when they try to
put the units together. And you may say,
Sean, 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
(06:59):
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,
(07:21):
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.
(07:41):
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.
(08:03):
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,
(08:24):
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
(08:45):
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.
(09:05):
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
(09:26):
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.
(09:47):
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
(10:07):
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
(10:29):
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
(10:51):
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
(11:11):
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.
(11:32):
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,
(11:53):
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
(12:14):
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
(12:35):
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
(12:55):
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
(13:17):
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
(13:38):
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
(13:59):
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
(14:20):
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
(14:41):
to do because they were always like the
big competitor when I was out there with
RSVUE, 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
(15:02):
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
(15:23):
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,
(15:45):
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,
(16:05):
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.
(16:26):
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.
(16:49):
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
(17:11):
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
(17:33):
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
(17:54):
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
(18:16):
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
(18:36):
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
(18:58):
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
(19:18):
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
(19:39):
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.
(19:59):
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,
(20:21):
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
(20:42):
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,
(21:04):
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
(21:26):
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
(21:47):
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
(22:07):
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
(22:28):
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 Vue course
online because a lot of people don't, won't
spend the money to buy a license Effect
Talk Vue course. I did because
because being an RS Vue beta user, Fact
Talk Vue is the next generation of that,
of course. So in any case and I
(22:49):
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,
(23:09):
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,
(23:30):
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.
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