Mitsubishi Electric reckons its QPC rack-mounted industrial PC module fills the gap between PLC and PC control by allowing users to cost effectively use an industrial PC unit as an integral part of their localised automation solution. Developed in partnership with the specialist Japanese embedded PC control manufacturer Contec, the product is one of the first in a new era in (Melsmart) open manufacturing philosophies. This 'product' side to the Melsmart concept has been made possible because Mitsubishi has opened up its technology platform.
This means that partners such as Contec, Hitachi and Balluff, to name a few, have been able to develop interfaces to their automation equipment or embed their products directly into the Qn platform.
At only 98 x 55 x 115mm, the compact size of the Q PC module belies its power and abundance of features.
Weighing a mere 470g and being able to operate at temperatures ranging from 0 to 55C, in ambient operating humidity of 5 to 95% (noncondensing), enables the new compact Q PC module to be housed in the smallest of areas and operate even in hostile environments.
In stand-alone configuration the QPC can directly control both I/O and intelligent function units with programming applications like soft PLC, VC++ or VB.
This opens the door for totally open control where users are free to develop their own control and visualisation on one platform.
Alternatively, the QPC can be used directly with Qn PLCs and Qn motion controllers to interact with them directly over the same shared backplane.
In effect using it as a dedicated, built-in network.
One of these new 400MHz (with 100MHz FSB) processor based QPC modules can reside on a single Qn series system backplane.
The unit's industrial design incorporates the major features of an industrial personal computer into a compact unit that fits in just two slots in the base unit (optional disk drive takes up another slot).
The central processor of the module has a very low power consumption, enabling the Intel Mobile Celeron CPU to process large amounts of data at very high speeds without needing a cooling fan (giving a high MTBF for the QPC module).
Windows 2000 professional, NT Workstation 4.0 and embedded 4.0 operating systems are all supported by the new CPU module, with an integral 128Mbyte of memory.
The user can supplement this by selecting optional data storage devices such as a 5Gbyte hard disk drive, or create a system with no moving parts by selecting a silicon disk drive (up to 1Gbyte capacity).
With the use of the silicon disk drive the QPC module is very resistant to vibration and shocks making it a truly industrialised PC, with all parts tested for durability to JIS C0040, 41 and IEC 61131-2, plus surge resistance up to 2500V.
As the QPC module is integrated onto the backplane it removes any potential bottlenecks of data processing which may occur if a standard network connection was used between PLC and PC.
The backplane allows full direct access to the PLC CPU or CPUs and to any module on the PLC system at high speed.
Connection is also possible to a host of optional extras, such as a CD ROM drive, floppy disk drive and extra hard disk drives.
Further interfaces built into the QPC as standard include an external IDE connector, UTP Ethernet connector suitable for LAN 10 Base T or 100 Base-TX.
There are also additional connections for RGB monitors, two RS232C serial ports, USB port, two PCMCIA compliant card slot interfaces (Type II x 2, and Type III x 1 compatible).