As an online supplier, we take our customers’ feedback to heart and try our hardest to accommodate all wants and needs. But besides the valuable suggestions and requests our customers provide, we also pay close attention to industry trends, research studies, and surveys. Recently, there was one trend that stood out from the pack. One that had a lot of potential for our industry and was fast becoming the preferred method of up-and-comers. That trend was open-source control using single-board microcontrollers. Although originally intended for hobbyist and students, this method of automation easily crossed over into the industrial realm when industry professionals became aware of its capabilities and extremely low cost. But what do these single-board controllers offer? Are they better or worse than the industry standard PLC? Are they potentially dangerous? Do our customers want or need them? To answer these questions, we delved deeper into the world of open-source control and this content collection contains the articles, blog posts and videos that were created along the way.
In this collection you will read all about the pros and cons of open-source control with real-world controller comparisons. There are also discussions on what you need to know when coming from the PLC world, available open-source communities, and how our industrialized open-source controller, the ProductivityOpen, reliably takes open-source control into the industrial realm.