actually lots cheaper....look at automation direct....can get the Koyo PLC for $99, analog is cheap too. Hard to beat the asians at this UNLESS your going after a specific market such as HVAC where the techs do not want to deal with ladder logic. William Couture wrote: On 12/15/06, Bob Axtell wrote: > I'm consulting with a company who develops PLC-based switchgear products. > > Their main consideration is that the PLC (or whatever is used) can be > available to purchase as replacements. The > power companies that use the PLC must KNOW that the components will be > available for 10-15 years BEFORE > they buy the item in the first place. It makes it very hard for a > newcomer, or one without a large name (such as Siemens) > to break into that market. I could replace that PLC in 30 days with a > PIC16F877A and a few peripherals, but they > can't do it. The thought here is not that we would enter the PLC market, but that our controller board could be used in place of a PLC. Lots of places want "temperature" (humidity / etc) control, plus some "logic". So, they used a PLC with a canned PID to get both control and logic. But, specific controllers can do a better control job than a PLC. So, the thought is that if we can give them a multizone controller plus programmability, they can buy our board for less than the cost of a PLC with the analog package (seems to be in the $500 or so range). > and YES, the ladder language sucks. Yup, I know. I did a ladder editor / compiler / CPU kernel for work, and was allowed to make it GPL: www.desmet-c.com/tplc001a.zip Bill -- Psst... Hey, you... Buddy... Want a kitten? straycatblues.petfinder.org -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist