Hi there, I'm new here, and my team are looking into moving to the ctrlX family of PLC and control from our current development base (Controllino, Portenta etc). We have a functional robotic machine driven by hydraulics that we'd like to move to being ctrlX based, and one of the key parts is being able to drive the hydraulics with the same amount of control we currently have. Right now, we directly drive many Rexroth proportional valves with 24v coils with the many PWM outputs available on our current hardware. Current consumption is around 800mA per coil and there's 19 coils being proportionally controlled. There's of course more valves that are really just used digitally opening and closing (another 10 or so). I'm struggling to see how we can make this move with the current ctrlX family of IO however as there doesn't appear to be 24v analog/PWM output modules, or digital coils that we could integrate with the system (there are Rexroth CANBus valves, but there isn't a canbus module for ctrlX). Of course we could change coils for 0-10v coils and use the analog IO module, but it appears as though the outlets are rated for only low current capacity? It could be that I'm just missing a product in the Rexroth portfolio like an etherCAT valve system that would allow etherCAT control over the valves instead of directly driving coils? Am I missing something or does it look like this move is going to be difficult hardware-wise? Apologies if I'm misinterpreting or missing the right documentation - this is our first week looking into this.
... View more
