#2 Inputs

It is necessary to know some essentials things:

You can do the course practices using an original Arduino board. In fact, our PLCs have an original Arduino board assembled inside, So, it is not necessary to do practices using our devices if you don’t want. You can use an Arduino Leonardo board, which is the board used in our 20I/Os PLCs (they are called: Ardbox) and you also can use an Arduino Mega which is used inside the Ethernet family of PLCs (called M-Duino).

Connection Alert

It is important to note that Arduino works at 5Vdc, then you can not connect industrial sensors directly on an Input on the Arduino board because industrial sensors usually work at 24Vdc. On the other hand, all Arduino based PLCs can be connected to an industrial sensor because all digital inputs can run from 5Vdc to 24Vdc.

(Remember: Industrial Shields PLCs are working as Original Arduino boards. Our PLCs have original Arduino boards assembled inside. Then, you can practice the course using an Original Arduino board)

If you need to connect analog sensors, remember that the analog inputs from the Arduino boards work from 0 to 5Vdc. And you can not connect higher voltages. On the other hand, in the industry, it is usual to use analog sensors which work at 4-20mA or 0-10Vdc. On our PLCs the analog inputs can run from 0-10Vdc. Then, convert the current signal to voltage is very easy if you use the Ohm formula: V=IxR, you can see an example of how to convert 4-20mA to 0-10Vdc at our blog. Otherwise, you can directly use a 4-20mA to 0-10Vdc converter for each input. 

Useful Links

• Arduino IDE
• Processing
• Industrial Shields library from GitHub​​​​​​

Material to do practices

Arduino Leonardo or Arduino Mega (You also can use an Arduino UNO if you get it).

(The devices used with the Arduino Mega and Arduino Leonardo assembled inside have been: From the Ethernet PLCs; the M-Duino 21. From the 20I/Os PLC; The Ardbox Relay).