According to Control Design’s e-newsletter of 1/5/18, the most-read article published in their magazine in 2017 was “Arduino vs. PLC for Industrial Control”. This August 2017 cover story pitted an Arduino microcontroller against an AutomationDirect Do-more BRX PLC and asked the question, “Can a $20 micro-controller equal a PLC for a real-world industrial control application?”. Users looked at how the design of the PLC affected usage.
Article Overview
The author of the article built a flow control loop test setup, applied both the microcontroller and BRX PLC to automate the loop, then presented the results in the Cover Story.
A rewrite of this article was also popular as the Cover Story in Issue 38 of our Automation Notebook.
Both Cover Stories explained how hard it was to connect and program the Arduino microcontroller, as compared to an AutomationDirect BRX PLC, for control of a simple flow loop. While you may think the Arduino is perfectly capable of controlling this basic process, it required component level-hardware design, and quite a bit of custom coding. With the BRX, the process was easy to control, no surprise as it’s specifically designed for industrial automation applications. By contrast, the Arduino and other micro controllers are general-purpose devices, making it difficult to apply them to industrial automation tasks.
AutomationDirect is excited to be closely involved with the top article of 2017 in Control Design, the leading magazine in the machine builder automation market. Coming out on top in competition with over 150 cover stories, feature articles, case studies and columns posted on controldesign.com was quite a feat!
Check out the Control Design and Automation Notebook Cover Stories for more information. You also may want to try one of our PLCs for your next automation project. These controllers are cost- effective, capable and easy to use, and include our award-winning free technical support.
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