Posted to News on 9th Oct 2014, 17:21
All-in-one palm-size PLC with 4.3inch touchscreen HMI and I/O
Unitronics is launching a new size of Samba all-in-one, palm-size PLC with touchscreen HMI and onboard I/O, which the company says fills a growing niche where machine builders, system integrators and OEMs on a tight budget need compact controllers for simple machine control - but they still want the competitive advantage of an elegant, colour-touch HMI panel.
The first model of Samba was released in spring 2014 and now, only few months later, Unitronics is expanding the series with model with a 4.3inch HMI panel. The elegant Samba HMI with 3.5inch or 4.3inch QVGA 16-bit touchscreen enables data entry and display of variable data, including colour trend graphs and alarm screens. Samba supports 24 user-designed screens and up to 40 images per application. The integrated PLC offers a broad range of features including two auto-tuned PID loops, time-based RTC control, data logging and recipes.
Samba's internal memory holds 0.5MB of application logic, plus there is 512kB of memory for fonts and 0.5MB for images. Onboard I/O offer the capability of digital, analogue and high-speed functionality.
Communications options and free programming software
The flat fascia and IP66/IP65/NEMA4X rating makes Samba an excellent fit for the food and pharmaceutical industries, or wherever spray or wipe-down requirements apply. Both Samba units are supplied with a programming port (USB for the 4.3inch version, RS232 for the 3.5inch version). Additional ports can be added: RS485 or Ethernet, and CANbus. Samba supports GPRS/GSM, email and SMS, as well as industrial TCP/IP protocols, MODBUS, DF1 slave, CANopen, and J1939; it can also be adapted to any third-party protocol.
Samba uses Unitronics' free VisiLogic software. Visilogic provides a single, simple environment for hardware and communications configuration, ladder application development and HMI design, and it includes a free library of industrial images. Free utilities include remote PC access and data export. Unitronics also offers free technical support for all of its products and supports an active user forum.
Samba offers all the functionality system integrators need for small applications, reduces space and wiring requirements, and eliminates the need to set up communications between a PLC and HMI, resulting in an excellent price-performance ratio.
Follow the link for more information about the Samba PLC with touchscreen display and I/O. There is also a short video on YouTube.
