Arduino PLC 

thanks for the review, really honest and appreciated! we at Arduino are working hard to provide a smooth experience, as usual, also into the industrial world. some replies to the video's questions. - the IDE PLC will be available for the upcoming Arduino OPTA micro PLC, expect in Q1 2023 - thanks for all the suggestions regarding the IDE itself. - we will fix the broken links here and there (in the docs website) , there's a lot of effort behind the scenes. - Regarding the CLI integration and the CI builds, the IDE itself relies on the Arduino Command line interface, that is installed with the IDE tools , along with the core needed for programming the Arduino Portenta Machine control. we don't have a specific usecase for that but your suggestion is really interesting. thanks! Andrea

Since I did this video I discovered that there is some EXCELLENT documentation available if you go to "Help → Index". Also, under the "Use object oriented features" there is a setting for storing the project in multiple files "Multiple files project" (though ST-code is still stored using annoying XML-annotation). Again, this was just a first quick impression. There will be more videos about this IDE coming, so stay tuned!

This was fantastic and very thorough. I had gone through this process of commissioning the PMC for the first time a few days before I watched this video. And I hit all the same weird, quirky roadblocks you did! Every internal "wtf moment" you had, I was like "I know right?". Thank you for the quality work, and hope to see more Arduino PLC/IDE videos! *P.S. The first time I downloaded the "IDE Tools", it did not include all the proper libraries. After I redownloaded the "IDE Tools" the next day, it had everything I needed for the missing RS485 libraries. There was no revision change on the "IDE Tools"...

Love your breakdown...looking forward to getting much deeper into Arduino.

so impressed and waiting for you breaking it up in upcoming videos.

This gives me ideas for home automation at another level then the common "smart home" solutions. Control heating by taking data from weather forecasts as well as hourly costs for electricity being a major but also include expected sunshine, wind...

Love it! We just started to use 'Controllino's for a small project. Merry Christmas Jacob

Hammer! 1000 Dank für dieses Video!!! Sehr Interessant, schade hab ich dich nicht früher gefunden! Hab dich sofort Abonniert und bin gespannt, wie es weitergeht mit der Arduino PLC-IDE.

Thank you, fun to see content from the industrial world.

Thanks for your time to make this video, it's amazing 🤩!!

Ahh, how technology progresses. Decades ago, when PLC "programming" was done by plugging actual hardware modules into a physical programming board, I joined a tiny startup whose objective was to create a way to completely eliminate the hardware logic modules and programming board, to do it all entirely on an IBM PC AT, debug on the PC, RUN the code directly on the PC, the PC connecting directly to the factory machines. The user interface would LOOK like the programming board and the programmer would use drag-and-drop to place logic modules, just as if he were doing the normal PLC programming (since, heck, there were so many PLC people who were expert in that all-hardware approach, we'd have a ready-made market). I was the software engineer on the project, along with the "money guy" (who was also the fellow who came up with the entire concept) and a hardware guy (to develop the board that would plug into the PC and interface with the factory floor equipment). I spent a good part of a year designing the software, a graphical user interface (when graphical user interfaces were just in their infancy, few tools to help in the design) as well as doing test runs of the user's design to verify that it operating as expected (and according to the then-common way of doing PLC programming). I got a LOT of it working. We even took it to that year's NCC (National Computer Conference, remember those??) and showed it, privately, to several potential clients. Sadly, the money man never raised a penny for the venture (I had been working for [ eventual ] equity in the company, i.e. for free) and the hardware guy never got even the simplest interface board working. Eventually the entire effort fell apart. Not too many years later several PLC-specific programming languages along with related IDEs were developed and replaced the all-hardware approach. So even if our product had been fully developed and on the market, our market would have dried up fairly quickly. But, time marches on. Technology advance by leaps and bounds, ventures come and go or never get off the ground, and now even ARDUINO has gotten into the PLC market.

Extremely excited to see where the Opta goes. I could see it being competitive in the low end PLC market (currently occupied by things like the Automation Direct Click, for example).

I see them for now like the competence for small famous PLCs, a competence for logo, Micro800, FX, and Click Plus. Giving the full connection for Iot and Industry 4.0 needs. But no body knows how far are they going to go... 6 years ago I never thought I could see Arduino as a PLC.

Pretty nice video Jakob! Really interesting seeing Arduino moving to industrial automation, especially with the long lead times we are seeing these days from the big vendors. Looks a lot like Schneider Electric's ESME HVAC platform though, I mean like almost 1:1 - not a bad thing to be fair!

This is a great start. It’s not until you get into real Industrial process control that you will see the importance of the ability to edit the program whilst its running without out any halting of the process while you make your changes. I think the Modbus protocol is a great choice to start with. Modbus developed by Modicon were the real first PLC's to arrive back in the late 70's. It was always open source so everyone knows it and how to use it.

Under the "Use object oriented features" there is a setting for storing the project in multiple files "Multiple files project".

Thanks for the video. I think it is great for education purposes, to learn PLC development. Like the existing platform is a great start for learning embedded development.

I am very excited for this

Nice video on this topic. I'm waiting for the next one. Thank you. :-)

Very informative presentation on the new Arduino Opta PLC software, in fact I bought one just to try out. I've sold several different automation manufacturers lines throughout my career and I absolutely agree with you on the free software - just get the hardware out into field, that's where the money is.

I really hope they make it reliable for warm downloads comparable to ABB, being able to change basically anything (software and hardware changes) without a noticable restart of the CPU, just a gap of a few cycles of executing code. Then I could see use for this in process controls. That's the big problem with Siemens 1500 in my field, which I would guess they use as comparison, it's really hard to download anything big without restarting the system, getting hundreds of alarms, trips etc.

Siemens released SIMATIC IOT2000 series back in 2017 which are edison/stm32 based PLC devices. You can program them with arduino IDE tools.

Nice.. Excellent and honest review.

Lo estoy traduciéndo. Muchas gracias muy buena información

Great content and video. I was looking or such video on Arduino PLC. Will you make a serries on Arduino PLC ? Also do know a book or resource to follow to learn Arduino PLC? Thank you

Loved the video, but the price of the PLC board you are using, as of this post, is about 335.00 USD. I spent 575.00 on a S7-1200 starter kit about 3 years ago. It's been great having that to work out some C# coding I do to interact with S7 PLCs. But I had the money to spare at the time. Sadly not now. The license for the Arduino PLC is very inexpensive though I agree.

i wanted to add smart home automation to house but I wanted better offline/ local control. I learned PLC in college & was considering using PLC for smart home. but now with Arduino getting involved Iam hoping this makes it easier.

There's also the P1AM-100 from Automation Direct! It's another Arduino PLC that has been around for a few years now.

I don't see support for PT1000. I think that is something they should have. Source in text would be nice for source control. But I don't now have to do that in FD, SFC and IL. And they need to support more protocols. But I would think that is comming.

Good work, thanks 👍!

Thank you for your video. This new tool is like other PLC systems : the hardware is not free. I would like better they sell the software and let us design the hardware as we want.

This is a great video, are you planning to do the same with keyence PLC?

What was that plc shown in the beginning of your video? I want know

could you put a link for your keycaps?

Liked video as soon as saw the video

Thanks for the video Jakob, this saved me time to test it myself! I am actually surprised in good. For sure it is not competing on software side with Codesys or TIA yet. But Arduino hardware knowledge, decent price and community should help. If it would be possible to integrate Arduino C code and libraries this would be great!

Does it support Profibus DP and/or Profinet DP? Or some other field bus DP?

Watching this for a small automated project at home. I'm curious if we work for the same company. I'm in the US but I work for WITRON based out of parkstein. We use Siemens and twin cat.

Very cool and exciting! Is it also possible to program the classic arduino boards with the PLC IDE?

Do you have links to the hardware? I can't find where to buy one.

Do you do home automation projects using PLCs? What kinds of tasks do you use a PLC for that someone else couldn't use a 'standard' hobbyist arduino/raspi for? Is it just limiting yourself PLCs to focus on sharpening your PLC skills?

Gracias por compartir. Que opina de Open plc para Arduino?

The L&F of the IDE sounds familiar to me. I think they develop this IDE using the netbeans platform.

Thanks!

how to connect 12 v DC sensor with 24 V DC PLC?

Great video.!

Very exciting

Looks like it could be Codesys based?

nice, waiting video with Siemens AX :-)

Unless they intend to license specialized runtime functions, what is the point of not baking the license into the hardware? Like if you paid for the hardware, unless you planned on casting it in plastic and using it as a paperweight, isn't it kinda a brick without the runtime functionality? or maybe i missed something.

Have you used other softPLC platforms? CodeSys by any chance? And if so, how does it compare?

I see this as something that was predicted years ago, since the price of the plc raised, and the IC for microcontrollers get more merchandised by their own manufacturers, in a nice strategy for mecatronic self made toys. I'm not software developer(just circuits designer, and electric engineer) , the only obstacle for many self made manufacturers of things now?, It's the C++ programs for the microcontrollers,after the bootloader have been uploaded!.

I'm exprimenting with arduino and its great

100% agree with you on this point 17:00

good, we have some progress after so many years :) This project could be great success and actually applicable in the industry as remote I/O (digital signals and coil actions) with modbus RTU interface, (as slave) and also as modbus RTU interface for sensors to perform data acquisition. The hardware is capable and there is nothing less than the expensive commercial interfaces in the market. Is just a matter of libraries and modbus mapping functionality.

Thanks for the video

18:15 : The version control is in Project>Options>Project Options => Versionning

It would be interesting to see similar video about Raspberry Pi + Codesys.

It would be nice to have the rp2040 (raspberry pi pico) added.

I guess you discovered your hardware already had a COM port (COM1) and the connected Arduino unit and IDE created the two other ports COM3 and COM5 (COM1 and COM3 in procedure).

@Jakob Sagatowski Did they really start from scratch with a brand-new IDE or did they just license existing software. I swear I heard some where that they just license existing software. I can't find the source where I read that from though. Regardless I am not a fan of adding another IDE system. I would have preferred they used Codesys or OpenPLC. We need to consilidate the ecosystem not fragment it more.

im waiting for several videos for opta

Is this similar to openPLC?

I have been using the ABB IDE for PLCs and it's not storing in individual files either. It's possible that the IDE and core of the PLC is not created by Arduino and that's why there's a licensing scheme around it and that everything is stored in the same file.

Hello @Jakob, Where have you read that the Instruction List Language (IL) is going to disappear in the next version of the IEC standard?...

GUI of the IDE is a copy of Ecostruxure machine expert IDE from Schneider Electric

For me arduino + node-red is great solution. If hardware and software doesnt have any issues the arduinos can run for years withoit a hiccup. I have about 20 arduinos running in the company and they mostly work flawlessly.

Hello Arduino PLC IDE is just a version of LogicLab from Axel axelsoftware

can you use the fdb language or whatever its called where you have the graphical blocks instead of writing code

I quickly try arduino IDE PLC, and I think they did not develop IDE from scratch, they probably buy/license something existing, and it is probably reason why they can not open source it :-( until they open source it and make it available for 3rd party boards I will keep using controllino and platformio for writing code.

I like the idea of it but for the cost you could buy a schneider zelio plc which has free plc programing software

Thanks for showing , not come across this IDE before. Arduino hacked profibus on some pneumatic valves recently and looked at and away from PLC very quickly. Maybe worth another look.

OMG What a surprise to see Arduino in Industrial Automation market. The licence price is really low cost according to other players’ licence prices. But I expect from arduino free licence as an open source community. The main question is Arduino PLC really robust, stable and reliable for industrial applications? I think it iş not suitable for heavy and complex industrial process Automation. It is mostly suitable for machinery automation, at least for now(I mean OEMs)…. What do you think about that??

Schneider-Electric PLC IDE also use XML!!

You can always use Open PLC for arduino or an ESP32

Can the Arduino do OPC UA?

I tried for multiple hours to connect my PMC board but could not. I bought the license but no luck. I connected the device with Arduino IDE and it worked which means the hardware is functioning. But the PLC idea does not connect with the PMC!! Which is super annoying. There is no proper resources for the PLC idea. I am supper pissed off at it at this point. Any one here having any luck?

I work as a control systems developer and I don’t see clients switching from Siemens or Rockwells Controllogix for a long time.

Dose it do ladder logic for programming?

If it has Function Blocks programming capabilities, I'm considering buying something like this. Otherwise, ladder logic is outdated and structured text programming it's pretty time consuming to learn. Thanks for sharing this one!

Better GUI than TIAPortal XD But Siemens sucks hard on that front.

This new Arduino PLC IDE is almost identical to "LogicLab". It even has same program extension "*.plcprj" As earlier commented, there is definitely a need to make 'on the fly' program changes. Industrial environments doesn't like to stop machine for a small (minor) modification.

can we send data to the cloud using this..?

To add more protocols will raise the cost of the license IMO.

Arduino PLC hardware is almost more expensive than other industrial PLCs, why Arduino PLC then? While Siemens Logo PLC 60-100 euro.

Took 1 look not even downloaded the ide but im 99% sure if u go into about u see codesys

So you need an Arduino Portenta for it, right?

Silly they still use serial port for communication/uploading/testing to the PLC. Ethernet should be a better choice. Same as for the normal arduino

Wow, it looks quite promising. Definitely a yuck factor with the source in xml. That's a deal breaker for any serious project imho. And yeah, I really dislike IDEs, I just want text files and CLIs. If there were a way to do that it would be so cool. 16 bucks for a licence seems cheap compared to Beckhoff lol.

looks like mitsubshi FX

Arduino portenta need to have many built in functions (PID, Cut to length, absolute drum, etc...) to justify it's price almost superior to others low cost plc like delta, click or the very cheap Chinese Lollette PLC endorsed by many users globally. Although the plc world is dominated by Siemens,Allen Bradley, mitsubishi , Schneider, ABB many low cost and reliable plc are also available where the integration of the PLC/software is as smooth as a high end PLC on the market. However the education world where Arduino domination is tangible will welcome the Arduino PLC.

yep PLC IEC coding standard is weird :D

What is PLC ?

Speaking for myself, I'm happy that OOP is not the default.

Why not just use an ordinary arduino, a multiplexer and some beefy relays with optical switches in Industry?

Why not just use C?

The main issue I see with this is that the software is only available for Windows. I suspect they licensed some proprietary software to build their editor, that is only designed for Windows, explaining the missing sources... the fact that it can't seem to run in a VM makes the whole thing useless...

Open PLC is a great free alternative.

All of this, and they didn't even bother to make a RAD system with graphical components (like Logo!) .. Might as well stick to a standard arduino with enough pins/shields for the application

4k??? OMG