Machine design: Modular, embedded controllers

By Control Engineering Staff March 20, 2007
EMC 40 Series controllers from Athena Controls, said to provide a wide range of communications options for demanding temperature and process control applications, debuted in the March print issue of Control Engineering magazine.

Plymouth Meeting, PA and Oak Brook, IL —EMC 40 Series controllers from Athena Controls offer the capabilities of a multi-zone PLC with analog functions on a small (4.5 x 7-in.), inexpensive control board for maximum flexibility in machine design applications. The new boards, said to give design engineers the wide range of expanded communications options required by today’s demanding temperature and process control applications, was introduced last week in the March issue of Control Engineering magazine.

Basic board has four 24 V dc isolated digital inputs and six 24 V dc isolated digital sourcing outputs that share 750 mA of current. Its 14 MIPS processor handles four PID control zones and two encoder/counter inputs. The four 16-bit analog inputs can be standard process types (4-20 mA or 0-10 V dc), or low-level sensors such as T/C, RTD, thermistor, or smart sensors that require excitation voltages of 5, 10, or 15 V dc. Large (256K) flash code and 8K RAM memory allow room for adding software capabilities required by complex, custom state machines.

Optional plug-in boards allow expanded communication and I/O functions. Display board choices include ten 7-segment digits (80 LEDs), ten keypad switches, or an intelligent touch panel display. Digital I/O choices include up to two isolated 12-bit analog output cards (4-20 mA or 0-10 V dc) or additional 24 V dc I/O cards. Communications options include Modbus over Ethernet or RS-485, and configuration and parameter uploads that can use RS-232 or USB.

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—Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Edited by Jeanine Katzel , senior editor


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