iP-8000 Introduction

The iPAC-8000 is a new family of compact, modular, intelligent and rugged, distributed I/O (input/output) systems, designed for data acquisition and control in manufacturing, research and education.

This new exciting series offers a flexible, versatile, and economical solution to a wide range of applications. From Data-Acquisition, process control, test and measurement, to energy and building management.

The iPAC-8000 is a modular network based system with the capability of connecting I/O either through it's own local bus or alternatively through I/O expansion or network extension.

The unit comprises a main control unit with a range of standard communication interfaces, and an I/O bus permitting I/O expansion. The bus is hybrid in nature providing the facility to connect either serial or parallel I/O modules. The parallel bus is used for high speed data transfer.

The unit can communicate either using serial communications (RS232,RS485), Ethernet, or CANbus.

The Ethernet version of the product supports an integrated web server permitting Internet and Intranet applications.

The unit can communicate either using serial communications (RS232,RS485), Ethernet, or CANbus.The iPAC-8000 can be used as an intelligent distributed data acquisition front end connected to a Host machine running a standard SCADA package, or alternatively it can be user programmed as an autonomous controller running an embedded software application. Significant non volatile memory is available for data and program storage.

Main Features

Main Control Unit (MCU)

The MCU is the power house of the iPAC-8000. Each MCU comprises a central processor module (CPM), a power supply, a four(4) or eight(8) slot backplane for either 4 or 8 Parallel I/O modules. The CPM is powerful integrated processing engine comprising a CPU, RAM and ROM, and an option of communication interfaces including RS-485, Ethernet and CANbus.

Embedded OS

All iPAC-8000 is equipped MiniOS7 embedded OS. It is developed by ICP DAS Co., ltd and compatible to DOS. MiniOS7 has more features than regular DOS in embedded applications, such as shorter boot time, built-in hardware diagnostic function, directly support I-8000 and I-7000 modules without library, and directly support Micro SD and Flash disk.

I/O Modules

There are two types of I/O communication bus, parallel bus and serial bus. The parallel bus type I/O modules (high profile I-8K series) are high speed ones.

Remote I/O Expansion

The iPAC-8000 uses built-in RS-485 and Ethernet ports to connect RS-485/Ethernet remote I/O units (Ru-87Pn/ET-87Pn) or modules (I-7000/M-7000/ET-7000). In this configuration, iPAC-8000 expands the I/O very easily. Using CAN communication module, iPAC-8000 can connect CAN bus devices, remote I/O units for deterministic control system.

The controller is equipped with a DOS-like OS, called MiniOS7. Its software development toolkit is C language compilers that can build 16-bit executable file (*.exe) running on an 80188/80186 CPU, then download it to the controller.

The supported C/C++ compilers are TC++ 1.01、TC 2.01、BC++ 3.1 ~ 5.2x、MSC 6.0、MSVC++ (before version 1.5.2).

One free compileris offered by Borland, and we recommend that you install.

8000 Series C language based PAC (Programmable Automation controller)
Model CPU SRAM Flash EEPROM Storage Ethernet
Port
RS-232/RS-485 I/O
Slot
iP-8411  80186 or compatible,
16-bit and 80 MHz
512 KB 512 KB 16 KB 4 GB
microSD card
- 4 4
iP-8811  8
iP-8441  768 KB 2 4
iP-8841  8
 
8000 Series C language based Serial Embedded Controller
Model CPU SRAM Flash EEPROM Storage Ethernet
Port
RS-232/RS-485 I/O
Slot
I-8411  80188 or compatible,
8-bit and 40 MHz
512 KB 512 KB 2 KB - - 4 4
I-8811  8
I-8431  1 3 4
I-8831  8
I-8431-80  80186 or compatible,
16-bit and 80 MHz
4
I-8831-80  8

By using S256 (256 KB) or S512 (512 KB) battery backup SRAM, 8000 Series C language based Serial Embedded Controller provides data logger storage function.

S256 and S512 are optional accessories.

There are two types of I/O communication bus, parallel bus and serial bus. The parallel bus type I/O modules (high profile I-8K series) are high speed ones used only in the PACs including XPAC, WinPAC, iPAC, ViewPAC, etc. And the serial bus type I/O modules (high profile I-87K series) are low speed ones used in both PACs including XPAC, WinPAC, iPAC, ViewPAC, etc., and I/O expansion units including RU87Pn, ET-87Pn, USB-87Pn, etc.

The differences between the two series are listed as follows:

Model I-8K Series I-87K Series
Communication Interface Parallel Bus Serial Bus
Protocol - DCON
Communication Speed Fast Slow
DI with Latched Function - Yes
DI with Counter Input - Yes (100 Hz)
Power on Value Yes Yes
Safe Value Yes Yes
Programmable Slew-Rate for AO Module - Yes

For more information, please go to the following web page.

I-8K/I-87K Series I/O Modules

Remote I/O Selection