Iono Uno

Description

An industrial PLC with an Arduino core

Iono Uno is a work-suit for Arduino, it turns it into a PLC that combines the ease of use of the Arduino platform and the vast amount of software available for it with robust input and output electronic interfaces.

Iono Uno can be employed both in industrial and residential environments, for professional applications where extreme reliability, ruggedness and compliance with technical and safety directives are required.

It is compliant with the low voltage and EMC CE directives, as well as the harmonised standards for electromagnetic compatibility, electrical safety, emission and the RoHS directive for hazardous substances.

Iono Uno can be used in several ways:

As an armored Arduino
You can do anything you are able to do with an Arduino, in the same exact way, programming it with the standard Arduino IDE. You just have a more robust hardware that will help you transition from your prototipe to your final industrial project.

As an Ethernet or WiFi I/O module
Combine Iono Uno with Arduino Ethernet, Arduino Yún or Arduino Uno WiFi to have a simple network I/O module. When combined with Arduino Yún, you get a Linux CPU core next to your microcontroller too!

As a Modbus module
Are you more at ease with Modbus devices? No problem, just upload the Modbus TCP or Modbus RTU sketches available from the libraries examples and your Iono turns into a standard Modbus module, configurable with a simple serial interface.

Of course, you can always modify the provided example sketches and add your custom logic!

Features

Mounting:

• 9 modules DIN rail case
• power supply, serial and I/O connections on pluggable terminal blocks

Power supply:

• 12÷24Vdc power supply, with surge and reverse polarity protection, and resettable fuse

Arduino compatibility:

• all 5.0V and 3.3V Arduino boards with 1.0 pinout (Uno, Uno WiFi Rev2, Ethernet, Zero, Leonardo, Leonardo Ethernet, Yún, Yún Rev2)

Inputs/Outputs:

• 6 x power relay outputs with bistable coils rated for 12A at 250V
• 4 x multi-mode inputs: digital or 0÷10V or 0÷20mA analog
• 2 x digital inputs or TTL level I/Os (1-Wire, I2C, Wiegand support)
• 1 x 0÷10V analog output

Communication:

• standard RS-485 interface to the Arduino serial pins, with electrostatic discharge protection
• Ethernet/WiFi/USB depending on installed Arduino board

Highlights

Power Supply

The power supply stage is a heavily protected and filtered circuit, using oversized electrolytic capacitors, diodes and inductors, and a high efficiency voltage regulator.
Iono accepts a wide power supply range, from 11 to 30 VDC, and is able to effectively handle substantial amounts of ripple, noise and supply voltage fluctuations, typical of automotive applications.

The Iono module, including the Arduino Uno board, has a typical current consumption of less than 35 mA at 12V, making it a great choice where energy consumption is important.

Inputs

Iono has 4 analog/digital inputs and 2 digital inputs.
These inputs are not directly routed to Arduino’s pins. We use a robust protection circuit with front-end operational amplifiers to safely feed these inputs with industry-standard 0÷10V voltage signals or 0÷20mA current loops. The same inputs can also be used as digital inputs.

The 2 dedicated digital inputs can be used for potential-free contacts, and are also protected with a current-limiting network and capacitive filtering.

When using the digital inputs, the voltage that can be applied ranges from 0 to 40Vdc.
For each input group, we have a common positive voltage (C+) to simplify the connections. The current flowing in the contacts is rated about 5mA at 24Vdc power supply, to guarantee the cleaning of the contact itself (very low current flowing in a mechanical contact causes oxidation problems and, in addition, reliable operation can be affected by humidity).

Each voltage input features a divider using a resistors network; each current input has a low impedance input converting the input current to a voltage. In both cases, the resulting signal is applied to an operational amplifier with unity gain; the input of each buffer is protected against over and under voltage by means of series resistors and a special dual Schottky diode. The output of the buffer is finally applied to the corresponding analog input of the Arduino board through additional series resistors that add extra protection before the Arduino board.

Relays

Iono has 6 power relay outputs rated for 12A at 250V, which can tolerate large peak currents (inrush current) up to 80A.
We use very large latching relays with rated load of 16A at 250V, up to 6,000 VAC dielectric strength between coil and contacts and 10 kV impulse withstand voltage. These relays have a minimum mechanical durability of 5,000,000 operations and an ambient operating temperature between -40º and 85ºC.

Being double-winding latching relays, the coils only draw current when the relay is switched, and no continuous current is required to keep the output closed. Latching relays are of course very expensive and the control logic is also complex, but they generate no heat and require no current when stable, dramatically improving the reliability and efficiency compared to output modules based on traditional relays.

Iono uses a dedicated PIC18 micro-controller to generate the control pulses for the relays, so you don’t have to worry of sending the correct control pulses from the Arduino programs. You simply set the corresponding output high or low and the PIC will translate that to the appropriate control pulses for each relay.

Analog Output

Iono has one analog output with a 0÷10V industry-standard range, controlled by a PWM output pin of the Arduino board.
The variable voltage level is generated using a dedicated TSX561 operational amplifier that offers state-of-the-art accuracy and performance and is specifically suited for industrial signal conditioning and harsh automotive applications.

The result is a clean, stable voltage output and improved reliability.

RS-485 Serial Port

The RS-485 port is protected from ESD and voltage surges, and supports half-duplex communication with automatic TX/RX switching from 1200 to 115200 bps.
Pull-up, pull-down and line termination resistors can be connected with internal jumpers.

A micro-controller, using a proprietary algorithm, automatically manages the data flow direction of the RS-485 serial port, taking into account the baud rate and the number of bits, without any special configuration or software command. Using the RS-485 is fully transparent from Arduino and its software sketch