Motorjunkie
Member
Hello all, calling anyone with some experience in both AB and EPKS...
We have an Experion PKS DCS system that is running on all C200 hardware, well past its prime and starting to show its age. We have some spare processors but cannot get any more from Honeywell, so the clock is ticking to upgrade.
That being said, Honeywell only controls a single section of the process in a large plant. We are mostly AB elsewhere, and in fact, even in this Experion PKS system there is plenty of PLC-5 IO hanging around. And seeing as the C200 hardware is just badge engineered controllogix, all of the IO is terminated on rockwell IFMs with rockwell cables to rockwell swingarms so it would be really great to just replace everything with rockwell hardware. Only trouble is, we have a specialty batch program running on another Honeywell ACE controller (using VB scripts) and according to some local integrators, converting that program to AB Structured Text would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the HMI, FT licenses, etc. But we don't want to go with C300 either, because that would mean our current cabinets and layout would be worthless as I understand it because of the ridiculous footprint of the newer controllers and I/O.
Which brings me to my ultimate question: Could the Honeywell Controledge UOC controllers be the fix to my problem? Supports EPKS, and the documentation seems to suggest that it supports AB DLR rings and I/O, so we should ostensibly be able to use controllogix I/O and we get to keep the current controls and HMI. Any other insight on these UOC controllers would be greatly appreciated as well, like any drawbacks compared to the C200 and C300, or if I have the wrong idea about being able to use AB I/O.
Thanks in advance
We have an Experion PKS DCS system that is running on all C200 hardware, well past its prime and starting to show its age. We have some spare processors but cannot get any more from Honeywell, so the clock is ticking to upgrade.
That being said, Honeywell only controls a single section of the process in a large plant. We are mostly AB elsewhere, and in fact, even in this Experion PKS system there is plenty of PLC-5 IO hanging around. And seeing as the C200 hardware is just badge engineered controllogix, all of the IO is terminated on rockwell IFMs with rockwell cables to rockwell swingarms so it would be really great to just replace everything with rockwell hardware. Only trouble is, we have a specialty batch program running on another Honeywell ACE controller (using VB scripts) and according to some local integrators, converting that program to AB Structured Text would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the HMI, FT licenses, etc. But we don't want to go with C300 either, because that would mean our current cabinets and layout would be worthless as I understand it because of the ridiculous footprint of the newer controllers and I/O.
Which brings me to my ultimate question: Could the Honeywell Controledge UOC controllers be the fix to my problem? Supports EPKS, and the documentation seems to suggest that it supports AB DLR rings and I/O, so we should ostensibly be able to use controllogix I/O and we get to keep the current controls and HMI. Any other insight on these UOC controllers would be greatly appreciated as well, like any drawbacks compared to the C200 and C300, or if I have the wrong idea about being able to use AB I/O.
Thanks in advance