Industrial Personal Computer (IPC), also known as Industrial Control Computer, is a tool that uses a bus structure to detect and control production processes, mechanical and electrical equipment, and process equipment. Industrial control computers have important computer attributes and features, such as having a computer motherboard CPU, Hard drive, memory, peripherals and interfaces, as well as operating system, control network and protocols, computing power, and user-friendly human-machine interface. The products and technologies in the industrial control industry are very special and belong to intermediate products. They provide stable, reliable, embedded, and intelligent industrial computers for other industries.
The main categories of industrial control computers are: IPC (PC bus industrial computer), PLC (programmable control system), DCS (distributed control system), FCS (fieldbus system), and CNC (numerical control system)
Internal structure
Hard drive rack, optical drive rack: Hard drive racks are generally divided into two types, one is detachable and the other is press fit. High quality chassis usually come with metal spring shock absorption function; The number of hard drives installed generally ranges from 4-15;
Bottom plate: There are various specifications for bottom plates; Mainly divided by the specifications of the motherboard. Ordinary motherboards can generally be installed; A chassis with a length of less than 520mm cannot be installed with a 12 * 13 dual Xeon motherboard, and a chassis with a length of 520mm is required for installation.
Compression strip: mainly used for fixing. When installing video long cards with security monitoring or industrial CPU long cards, it is necessary to fix the long cards to avoid shaking, instability, and other phenomena during use.
Expansion of the rear slot: There are two types: 7 slots or 14 slots; The main purpose of a 14 slot backplane is to install multi-channel video cards. For example, some large monitoring systems require 64 or 128 channels, which must be replaced with a 14 slot backplane;
Advantages and disadvantages
In layman's terms, an industrial computer is a computer specifically designed for industrial sites, which generally have strong vibrations, high levels of dust, and high electromagnetic field interference. Moreover, most factories operate continuously without rest throughout the year. Therefore, compared with ordinary computers, industrial control computers must have the following characteristics:
1. The chassis is made of steel structure, which has high anti magnetic, dustproof, and anti impact capabilities.
2. There is a dedicated motherboard inside the chassis, which has PCI and ISA slots.
3. There is a dedicated power supply inside the chassis, which has strong anti-interference ability.
4. Require the ability to work continuously for long periods of time.
5. Generally, standard chassis that are easy to install are used (4U standard chassis is more common)
Note: Except for the above characteristics, the rest are basically the same. In addition, due to the professional characteristics mentioned above, industrial control computers of the same level are generally more expensive than ordinary computers in terms of price, but the difference is generally not too much.
Although industrial computers have unique advantages compared to ordinary commercial computers, their disadvantages are also very obvious - poor data processing capabilities, as follows:
1. Configuring a small hard drive capacity;
2. Low data security;
3. Small storage selectivity;
4. The price is relatively high.
Difference from regular computers
Industrial control computer: Mainly for stability, so the heat dissipation of industrial control computer is very good, with dedicated air ducts and 4-6 cooling fans. Even if one of the fans malfunctions, it will not have an impact on the temperature in the short term. The continuity of industrial production is very strong, and computers may require constant startup without crashing. So, only by ensuring a reliable temperature can it operate normally.
Home computer: speed is important, it is a very external device. Ordinary home computers, wireless receivers, Bluetooth modules, 7.1 speakers, and external projectors are now very common. Their development direction is to have rich functions and fast running speed.
Industrial control computer: The power supply requires stability and reliability. Although the power supply of the industrial control computer may not be large, each resistor and capacitor on the circuit board in the power supply is of industrial grade, and even military grade. It requires no changes in resistance and capacitance values over the years.
Home computers: Power supplies are generally high-power nowadays, with 500W power supplies being very common. They need to power the large graphics cards in the computer. However, in order to reduce costs, power manufacturers need to further improve stability despite the high power output. After all, for every level of improvement in electronic components, the price may increase exponentially.
Difference from upper computer
Industrial control computer is an industrial control computer
The upper computer refers to a device that is under upper level control and does not directly operate the machine mechanism
The upper computer is not equal to the industrial control computer, but the industrial control computer is often used as the upper computer
485 communication can be used within 200 meters, and fiber optic communication is also possible, but I haven't used it before. Additionally, communication can also be done through a network port
The difference between touch screen and touch screen
Industrial Personal Computer (IPC) is a reinforced and enhanced personal computer that can operate reliably as an industrial controller in industrial environments. The touch screen can be used as an input and display unit for industrial control computers, and industrial control computer touch screens can also be integrated into one, which is a touch screen with the functions of an industrial control computer.
HMI stands for Human Machine Interface, also known as touch screen or "human-machine interface". Human computer interface (also known as user interface or user interface) is a medium for interaction and information exchange between systems and users, which enables the conversion between the internal form of information and the form that humans can accept. There exists a human-machine interface in all fields involved in human-machine information exchange.
Generally, HMI is connected to PLC or fieldbus. The touch screen directly connected to the industrial computer on the interface has a bad odor.