Thread: Subsititute for PLC

Hi all. I have a quick question for anyone who'd like to answer this.

I'm designing a circuit to solve a particular problem, and it's getting more and more complicated, so I'm thinking about going another route.

I don't know much about circuitry, and I have very little education in this. I know a little bit about ladder logic and PLCs and stuff like that. I know that I could use a PLC to do what I'm trying to do here, but the thing is that a typical PLC would be serious overkill; it would be too large (in physical size) and also be too expensive (I'm designing a circuit for a product I'm working on, and I need to keep the cost per product down).

I figured there must be something like a "mini PLC" out there. Something with a few inputs and outputs that is pretty small in size and doesn't need to accept high power inputs or output high power--something that could hopefully be run on battery power.

I'd imagine that what I'm looking for isn't called a PLC. Could anyone point me in the right direction here? Like give me the name of the device I'm looking for, maybe even a website where I might find something like this?

Thanks,
Gregg

Sounds like you are looking for a 'pic' device, these are small dil 18-40 pin selfcontained microcontrollers just google PIC MICRO to get statred.

Thanks for the reply to this a while back megabrain. Actually, right after I submitted this question I learned about "Basic Stamps". I ordered one and it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. You can interface with them using your PC and a USB or serial cable. You can program them using an editor on your PC, in a language very similar to the old BASIC of the DOS days. The one I got was only $30... I think they range in price from about $30 to $100.

But you're right, that I was looking for a micro controlled.

Thanks again for the reply.