Activity Forums Questions & Troubleshooting Hardware CONTROLLINO for real projects Reply To: CONTROLLINO for real projects

  • asch

    Member
    May 13, 2019 at 2:35 pm

    To: Mr. Controllino

    I can understand the concerns of Ran because I am in the same boat. Let me clarify this:

    * I have programmed 8 bit AVR based products so I am confident in the chip itself that it can work fine if it is put into a good circuit.

    * I can handle the programming in C. No issue there.

    * Our concern is that we have to decide whether the product is really industrial quality or not.

    If I offer an integration solution to a factory with my company based on your hardware I have to be sure that the hardware itself will prove to be a good choice. For example if there is some weakness in the electrical properties that makes the hardware to fail after 2 years of operation and I have installed 100 pieces of the hardware to a production line then I will be in trouble. There will be constant downtime in the factory. And at the end it will be caused by my decision to use this specific hardware.

    If it happens with the PLC of a well known big name company then I can shrug and say: guys I have chosen the same PLC that everyone else uses. It is not my fault.

    But if it happens to a hardware that is not very well known then if it fails then everyone will blame me for my decision.

    For this reason it is very risky to apply a not very well known product in a real world application where high SLA is required but not that high that we build a redundant system. So a single HW failure can cause a few hours of downtime in a factory which costs a huge amount of money. (The replacing cost will be small compare to the downtime cost.)

    If Controllino already has references to industrial projects at big factories where it is used then at least we have some facts to support our decision. So it would help us to choose your product.

    If you are aiming to be used in the industry as a substitute of PLC based solutions then this question has to be targeted and a comforting answer has to be given. A few example projects where they use it and can be publicly referenced would be the best that I can imagine.

    It is not about being a milquetoast: as engineers we have to make the best possible decision when we design a project. Factoring the risks is part of the decision. And the unknown is always higher risk then something widely known.

    Disclaimer: I have also just ordered a Controllino that I will use the evaulate the product in a company internal demo application. And if our team likes it and we have a reassuring answer to the reference problem then we will put the same Controllino into an integration project for a factory.