Sub-$400 Ethernet PLCs (and more): Automation Tech Talk for August 12, 2025 (TT0812)

Let's talk about sub-$400 Ethernet PLCs (and more) in today's Automation Tech Talk, Lunchtime Edition: Watch Automation Tech Talk on The Automation Blog: Listen to Automation Tech Talk on The Automation Blog: Automation Tech Talk Show Notes: Below you'll find the links from this week's show: Automation Game LinkedIn Post The Automation School Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host):Hey, everybody. Welcome to Automation Tech Talk. Shawn Tierney here. You know, it's been a long time since I've used StreamYard, and they've actually added some really cool things. I can actually see if my mic is working. So please, leave a comment in the chat. I'm, we're going out live to LinkedIn and YouTube. Of course, this will be released over on the podcast and at the automation blog later, when I'm done lunch. But in any case, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about the, the thought process behind the show is, you know, I learn so much every day, and I just I can't I can't keep up with the courses. I can't add everything I learn into my courses or do, like, full blown productions on it. And so I'm like, you know what? Let me just meet up with all my followers on LinkedIn and YouTube and just share what I'm learning, and then I can just watch the chat and see if you guys have anything else to say about it. In that way, all this stuff I'm learning every day, I can get right back out to you guys, and you guys can share what you're learning with me in very informal, you know, type of show. So that is what automation tech talk lunchtime edition is all about. I'm doing this to my lunch because there's no there's you know, I'm not making money from this. But, in any case, I do wanna say say thank you to all my students at the automation school, and thank you to all my members at on YouTube and the automation blog. Thank you guys very much. Now I am you know, I wanted to bring the news, show back, but it's, like, three hours a day, and it makes zero money. So it's just like I can't invest the time to do that. And so that's why I'm doing the show, but I'm gonna reuse the new show podcast. So if you're listening to the podcast, you're like, hey. Showed to the new new show, and you're getting this instead. It's expensive and time consuming to spend the new podcast. So, I'm thinking from talking to some of the listeners out there, I'm thinking you guys would enjoy this, maybe not as much as the news, but maybe, as close to it as I can provide right now. With all that said, thank you again for tuning in. And today, what I wanted to talk to you is about, low cost Ethernet PLC. So as an instructor, I'm always looking for how people can can get, you know, learn PLCs. Right? Program controls, PACs, PLCs, whatever you wanna call them. They are, like, to me, the heart of an automation system. The IO comes into that. You know, devices talk to the IO. IO talks to controller. HMIs and SCADA talk to the controller. IoT connections, IoT connections. You know? So that's like the brain of the system, always has been. Right? And it's kinda like the motherboard in our computers. Right? And so, you know, I I think people will always wanna learn them as long as we're we have control systems. And, I know some people will say, well, you know, there's DCSs and this this that I understand that. I understand that. But in any case so, you know, I recently posted let me see if I can share it with you. I recently posted over on LinkedIn. Let's see if I can get this up here and bring it over to the right screen, and let's see if we can go to this. Again, I haven't used this in a while, so it's a little new for me. But in any case, this is not what I wanted to show you. Let's see if we can show something else here. Let me see. Bear with me a second. Share screen. Let's share the whole screen. I think that will be that. Okay. Great. So this is LinkedIn. I've tried to clean up all the red spots. Of course, I got more now. But this I was talking about the code, Sys, for a scan, and a lot of people totally misunderstood me even though they are trying to add helpful advice. And I appreciate everybody. I gotta shout out to some of the guys. I I don't wanna say the names, but several people in there were super awesome and helpful. But one of the things this post over on LinkedIn got me talking about was, you know, what happened to the sub $300 PLC, Ethernet PLC. Right? And so what I did is I'm like, you know, it's it's been a long time since I looked for a sub $300 PLC with Ethernet, and that's the key for me, Ethernet. Right? Because nobody wants to use a serial cable these days. USB is not bad, but Ethernet is better. Right? So I said, you know, my I used to really be a big fan of the micro eight twenty. I still am. I guess I should say I still am. But in any case, you could see here in proposal works, I updated it recently, and it's showing it at $3.97. Now this model, used to be February or February. I'm thinking this is the February model. But in any case, you can see how much inflation we've had over the last ten years. Just a lot of inflation to bring that price up to $3.97. So what we used to say maybe is a $250 Ethernet POC, which is a great thing to learn on, it's now more like 400. I think, you know, back then, it was the price of a of a video game console. And I guess today, video game consoles have gone up in price because I think it's still the price of a video game console. But in any case, the the reason the reason I like having a physical POC to learn on is because a lot of times, this would be something that, you can actually use. You know, you could build your own trainer or maybe it's an OEM who wants to install it in a machine. Right? And so not all vendors have a program like ProposalWorks. It makes it very hard to find pricing on them. Now, some other POCs to consider, Ethan, the POCs that you can learn on, that are under, let's say, $400 or under. 1 would be the s seven twelve hundred. You guys know I teach a class on that as well as the micro 800 and Compact ControlLogix, MicroLogix, all that. The s seven twelve hundred, I think, you know, it's great in one way compared to the micro eight fifty no. A 20. Now the micro eight twenty is great that it has free software and free simulation built into that free software. The only downside or I shouldn't say the only downside, but the major downside with the micro eight twenty is the small Ethernet PLC is it doesn't program identically to its bigger siblings like the ControlLogix and CompactLogix. I think the low and I did not look one up in here. We can do this live if you want, but I think the smallest CompactLogix you can get is around a thousand dollars. You know what? Let let's try it. Let's try it live. Now I did update this last week. I think the lowest one is the, $53.71, the CompactLogist cell one. And let's just see if I can do it. Now these are all list prices. And from my and I don't know if they changed this over the ten years since I've been self employed, but, there used to be a bigger discount on CompactLogix than there were on micro eight hundreds. They want the list price of the micro 800 to be closer to the real price, versus a, the micro 800. They want the list price to be closer to, you know, the actual place where they give a bigger discount on the CompactLogix. I don't know if that's still the case. Right? You guys let me know if you know the if you know. So I'm gonna throw this in here. They always seem to throw an Ethernet cable in. I don't want an expensive Ethernet cable. I don't wanna spend $50 for an Ethernet cable. Thank you. Not to learn at home. Maybe if you're working in the field of $50, it it just doesn't seem that seems a little little expensive. Okay. So this little guy, this l sixteen e r, this guy used to be I I thought it was around $1,400. It's now $2,400. So this is the smallest CompactLogix you can get. And so when we're talking about small Ethernet PLC, if I go the the Microw eight fifty, I get the Allen Bradley I mean, the Microw eight twenty. Don't ask me why I keep saying the Microw eight fifty. I have no idea. If you go with the Micro eight twenty, you get an Allen Bradley for $400. You get an Ethernet PLC, but, it doesn't program like the rest of the those PLCs. And, yeah, I think $2,400 is just beyond what most people wanna invest in their personal training. Now having said that, another option if you like Siemens or if you use Siemens at work or if where you're gonna apply it is is Siemens or if you work in Europe, is the s seven twelve hundred. Now that product is probably in that $400 range for the small guy. $400 for an s seven twelve hundred is a great price, and the biggest advantage there is that that unit programs identical to the 1,500. Now the hardware is different. You know, I've had videos where I did the high speed counter on the 1,200 and the 1,500. You can see how they're different. Right? So, and there's different you know, there's more data types in the 1,500. But what I think is really good now the s seven twelve hundred, if you just run out and buy one, right, the software's not free. You can get a free twenty one day demo, but it's not free, like, on the eight fifty. So that's kind of a downside. But then if we look at the upside there, they have starter kits. And I couldn't find, the starter kit with just a controller. I know they have a $700 starter kit with the controller software and HMI, which is a good deal. But I was looking for the old one. I used to promote my courses in the 4 or $500 range, which were, just the controller and the software, lifetime copy of the software, perpetual license. And those were in the $4,500 range, and that is a much better deal if you wanna use Siemens because you get a lifetime copy of the software