The soon to be released Micro820 on display at Automation Fair 2013:

Micro820 at Automation Fair 2013The Micro820 is the newest entry in Rockwell’s Micro800 family. The unit is outfitted with two communication ports. The first is Serial communications accessible via a terminal block connection. The second is a standard Ethernet port. Unlike the Micro830 and Micro850, this unit does not have a built-in USB port.

Note: You can listen to our companion podcast about the Micro820 HERE.

The 820 also has a built-in real time clock (RTC) and accepts Micro-SD cards for program back-up and datalogging. But, because of the Micro-SD card support we are told this unit does not support the plug memory module used on the 830 and 850. Also unlike the Micro830 and 850, this unit does not support Micro Motion control. Specifically, we were told it does not support PWM outputs, and only supports low speed PTO outputs.

In the below picture to the right of the Micro820 you’ll see a new four line text display being release for use with the 820. This unit connects to the Micro via serial, and displays four lines of text. This unit is more “Text display” than HMI as the text is transmitted to the display via ASCII commands. The unit also sports a handful of function keys, a four color backlight, and a USB port for programming the Micro820.

Micro820 Closeup at Automation Fair 2013Coming out with the Micro820 is the latest version of Connected Components Workbench, CCW 6.0. This new version includes support for the new Micro as well as two new features that have been highly requested.

First, CCW 6.0 will have the ability to change the processor type of a Micro program. In the past, if you had written a program for a Micro830 and wanted to use it in a Micro850, your only option was to copy and paste the code from one project to another. But with CCW 6.0 we were told this is now a simple selection in the software.

The second highly requested feature is the ability to upload and download to the PanelView Component from CCW. Previously, the PVc project would have to be exported from CCW and then transferred using the PVc’s dashboard. However, we were told CCW 6.0 now includes an upload / download utility to automate this process.

Well, that’s all the information I was able to get about the new Micro820. At the time of Automation Fair Rockwell hadn’t yet released prices on these items, but we should see them announced before they end of the year.

If you have any comments or questions about this post please feel free to use the below “post a comment or question” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

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Shawn Tierney

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