Quick question about what device selection to make for setting up communication on the ethernet port of a Micro820?
I would assume "Allen-Bradley Micrologix: but the Micro820 is a little different animal.
Thanks for the help.
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It’s not currently supported, but I’ve got something in the works.
I think the 820 supports modbus tcp, you could use the modbus driver.
When will the “something in the works” be working?
I will try the modbus-TCP option but we shouldn’t need to.
Any update on the Micro820?
The only thing I can read from the Micro850 I’m testing with are simple atomic scalars from the global area.
I can’t read: arrays or array elements, structures or structure members, or any tag belonging to a program.
And seemingly neither can Kepware… so I’m either doing something seriously wrong in my simple test CCW program or the controller doesn’t support getting anything useful out of it…
I am testing out the 820 on a small project. Although I would never use it for an application that would be better suited to a Logix platform, I think it could be popular in small OEM applications where the overall cost is a major consideration.
Allen Bradley (or more likely the Rockwell Software group - inept programmers that they are) are trying a whole new approach to programming which is rather buggy. However, if they get it right we could see a lot of these units showing up in OEM platforms. The real question for you is whether it is worth working on it since I would guess that few OEMs would be using Ignition on small platforms. However… when one of those platforms come into my customer’s plant, I will want to be able to connect that device to our Ignition SCADA system.
As was stated before, the 820 supports Modbus TCP, so it’s still possible to use Ignition.
I’ve have a love-hate relationship with Micros. Mostly hate. Really, the same with MicroLogix.
Seriously, though it seems that Rockwell put no thought into the scalability of these systems into a larger infrastructure. The money you save in hardware will get eaten up by programming and integration time.
Reviving an old thread. Has there been any progress made in making the Micro820 available for Ignition not using modbus?
Nothing has changed, as there’s no functionality to be gained by not using Modbus.
I understand configuring Modbus on the 820/850 is a little more difficult, so I’ve stayed peripherally aware of the Micro series, but it’s not on roadmap right now.
Thank you! I will proceed with mapping the registers.
Nothing has changed, as there's no functionality to be gained by not using Modbus.
I understand configuring Modbus on the 820/850 is a little more difficult, so I've stayed peripherally aware of the Micro series, but it's not on roadmap right now.[/quote]
I'll add a bump for EthernetIP on the micro800 series as Modbus is quite limited on the micro820:
- Modbus address mapping is limited to 200 variables.
- Only simple variables are supported (arrays and structures can't be mapped to.)
Both are troublesome and cause a lot of headaches. 
... pretty please on the Micro800...
Kepware has had a Micro 820 driver out for about 2 years now. You can not read arrays from it, but you can get the data out of it without needing to map modbus points. Any update on getting Ignition to develop a driver for the Micro Line?
Maybe after 8.0.
AFAIK, there’s still nothing you can do with a “native” driver that you can’t with the Modbus mappings, so there’s little incentive to do that work.
Last time I looked, you still could only access scalar atomic values in the global area… no arrays, no structures/members, no browsing…
Really… Micro 820 is a very basic PLC. No Ethernet /IP implicit. Very bad software…
The best advice is to not use it. A cheap CompactLogix is way better.
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Reviving an old thread again (Mainly because we have a bunch of these in use)
Just an old side-bar:
A Micro 820 is under $200, and the cheapest I/O-included equivalent Compact is $1,000. Footprint is smaller, and CCW (though admittedly buggy) isn’t the worst software I’ve seen for a budget PLC.
Sometimes you don’t need that much computing power to connect to a small process.
At a cost difference of more than 5 to 1, and for repeated OEM-like builds, you can’t convince me that CCW is THAT bad to justify the extra expense.
I’ll use the Modbus TCP register mapping, but these units are quite capable for super-simple, high volume/low programming needs. Not adding the appropriate EIP driver to the Ignition tool-box seems like Ignition only cares about the “big fish” instead of helping to scale the “small fish” that make up a growing percentage of the pond.
I don’t expect these to do heavy lifting, but maybe we consider not every PLC needs to be a heavy-hitter.
+1 for the request to add the proper EIP driver for the 820/850 Micros please.
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Meh. I’ve found the AutomationDirect Productivity series to be far superior to these castrated Micros. Especially since they support Ethernet/IP I/O as both scanner and slave. Still a fan of Compact- and ControlLogix for serious projects.
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I’ve softened a bit to the Micros. Not a lot, but a bit. Software has gotten better, and work okay for integrating processes that otherwise have no way to hang off the network. Old molding presses, and such…
I had previously used the EZAutomation units for this, but at the time, they had modbus comms issues. So far the Micros have been pretty solid in that regard.
I completely agree with Jsandvick’s assessment. Allen-Bradley is number one in North America and we need all the compatibility solutions IGNITION can give us. I am going to put a Micro 820 out there for very simple process monitoring on a cost-sensitive upgrade. I will use the Modbus TCP register mapping and report back on our experience.
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+1 for the request to add the proper EIP driver for the 820/850 Micros please.
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