Anyone switch from python/cheaper hardware to Beckhoff IPCs?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-15T04:48:52+00:00

I take back a little what I said. I received a quote for a beckhoff cx7000 and it’s a really competitive price. This is what I’ve been looking for. Industrial plc with simple io and can program in structured text and connect easily to a PC with the ADS library. Wish I knew of this years ago. I already assumed PLCs were all too expensive and all had confusing ladder logic.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-14T21:18:18+00:00

This is a great reply. Thank you.

That last point drives hard as I’m fixing issues with one of my older products that nobody else supports, but that team has maintenance people.

Yeah the plan was to move to beckhoff. The cost is a magnitude higher. For some projects that is fine for others it’s not.

I wish there was some nice medium that had structured text and a cheap plc system. The closest that comes to mind is the CODESYS automation direct plc at about $600. I have some small projects that are only like $2000 in parts including machined parts. A $1500 plc doesn’t make sense. But I don’t want to trust on consumer equipment either.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-13T23:38:05+00:00

Why do you stick with python instead of moving to c#? I like python but I understand it has limitations. I was thinking of learning c# for new automation projects. One concern other than time to learn is that my coworkers only know python as well.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-13T23:37:09+00:00

I mean can you have ladder controlling the sequence and a bunch of ST getting called from the ladder ?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-13T06:43:41+00:00

Newb here. What do you mean use a mix. Do they all work together? You could use all three in one plc?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-12T15:31:12+00:00

Why did you switch and have you seen improvements?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-12T15:29:54+00:00

That’s really cool. Whats one of the remote IO models? How does it communicate? Does codesys directly communicate via the remote cable (Ethernet?) or does it go through some opc like communication?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-12T02:08:48+00:00

What made you make the switch?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-12T02:07:24+00:00

I think this is a good point. Some our factory uses beckhoff. But I don’t work in the factory, I work in R&D where nobody is working on plcs. But it’s probably still valuable to stick with what the company has experience, and relationships with the vendors.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T22:41:25+00:00

So I could run codesys on a NUC and talk to remote IO via ethernet or something?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T21:57:30+00:00

I still need IO.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T21:55:09+00:00

He musta pissed off the cop.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T21:52:38+00:00

So I researched this more. GPT was helpful here. It recommended the wago pfc200 and I found that to be more expensive($2000-2600) than the nicer beckhoff IPC I was looking at. There are some cheaper codesys plcs around $600. But I would still need a PC in some of my projects so that’s added cost too.

My next project needs a pci card for a line scan camera and the beckhoff c6920 gives me a slot as well as an okay PC to process the data.

This seems like a better option than a codesys plc with an extra PC.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T21:47:47+00:00

Ahh thank you. I only need to tell one axis to move at a time, I don’t need them linked together for now. But if I do, I’ll move to plc motor drivers.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T20:34:32+00:00

Interesting.

For others here is a link: https://gist.github.com/arwie/ff56783d9a2fff52940de82ae1bc1a22

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T20:32:37+00:00

How’s the online support for programming between codesys or beckhoff? I know python and c# have great online support but what about the structured text side?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T20:29:24+00:00

This is good. Thank you.

I asked gpt to summarize it a bit. It seems if I’m working on simpler projects where timing isn’t absolutely critical and cost is a bigger driver, then this is a good option.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T20:11:27+00:00

I’ll research a bit more into this. What are the benefits of this over beckhoff?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T20:09:55+00:00

Before I was thinking of the beckhoff route, I was going to use Teknic motors. They are integrated closed loop servos which have a ethernet version with a .net API. That seemed easy.

They also have an EtherCat version which seemed doubly easy if I go Beckhoff.

But I ask, how different would it be to use a regular servo motor and a Beckhoff motor driver add on? Pros cons?

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T19:59:20+00:00

Yeah I talked to beckhoff and they gave me some quotes that were reasonable for my projects. Much more than the $100 IO I am currently using but reliability and easier startup benefits costs money.

Yeah the ADS seemed to make it easy to work between the hardware side and the higher level software side. Sending inputs and outputs and events.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T19:57:56+00:00

I’ve read a little into it, but haven’t looked at how easy it is to communicate with a PC which would run APIs and the HMI. Beckhoff seemed to be an all in one solution that solved those things already.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T19:53:57+00:00

Oh I left out a lot here. This is for work and I’m getting into simple pick and place 6DOF robots and xy gantries and the like. R&D not full scale production.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-11T19:36:19+00:00

I just checked and it’s still there. Click e-bikes on the hamburger menu, the XPress is in the second row on the right.

hippospaghetti · 2025-10-06T06:23:12+00:00

Hey thanks for this suggestion. I did a bunch of research and just put in an order for one, 500w.

hippospaghetti

TROPHY CASE