<b>moderator's note: this topic is now closed as GE Fanuc is no longer. They are now GE Intelligent Platforms.</b>

As far as I have searched this site (which I beleive is a really good one) I have noticed that everybody talks mainly about Allen Bradley, Siemens and Modicon. Is there something wrong with GE Fanuc? I really beleive is a good technical option, compared to AB PLC5 and Siemens S7. Am I THAT wrong?

Is GE Fanuc that BAD?

I would Appreciate any comment.

 

There is nothing really wrong with it. The 90 series (90/30 and 90/70, etc.) are quite capable of controlling anything an AB can.

AB may get more press here because they are the US market leader.

Bob Peterson

 

Matzumura,

It is more likely that Siemens, Schneider and Rockwell have better sales coverage and 'foot in the door' options than GE. Along with connections to some OEM's often makes the choice for which brand you use. I can honestly say that I have not had a Fanuc dealer knock on the door to sell or show us the product in the 20 years I have been using controllers.

Regards, Trevor Ousey
Kalangadoo, South Australia

 

Well in my area there is no GE Fanuc Rep and AB has a local rep that offers good support and the deals they provide are very competitive and so get all of our business, Also this has led to good knowledge of product and capabilities therefore "time to market" is relativley short.

No sales rep therfore knowledge of product limited therefore don't buy.

 

Well we are using this PLC GE-Fanuc 90-70 series as well as 90-30. And beleive me there is nothing bad with it. In fact i find it very simple to analyse, simulate or program whatever i desire. We are also having Allan bradley PLC ,but recently i'm finding it a bit difficult as compared to Fanuc with respect to programming. I would once again like to assure you that there is nothing wrong with GE-Fanuc PLC. It really amongst the best ones.

 

No, everybody talks about the systems with large market share, because that the stuff we constantly deal with. I have some small customers with tiny budgets who use cheaper tiny market share systems, and it meets their needs fine. But since they're not always doing new projects, there's little need to talk about them.

MB

 

This is a great forum here. Different forums just seem to migrate towards a given product line depending on what the most forum users have in their facility. There are other forums that specialize in GE Fanuc such as this one on their website.
http://gefanuc.bnsi.net/eforum/forumdisplay.php?s=5711f7c3c4c0250685e7437f2c282ee8&forumid=1
Rockwell also has a forum on their website.
http://www.software.rockwell.com/forum/rslogix/categories.cfm?catid=13&zb=4947788

 

I am located in a US City of about 0.7 million people. There are stocking AB, Siemens, and Modicon sales offices here but the local GE distributor (just 1) does not stock, and their sales staff is not very knowledgable. The local AB distributors (there are three nearby) are all well trained and very knowledgable and are well stocked. Then there is Logicmaster. Ge was a late comer to the window environment and it hurt them. No 1131 programming languages, just ladder. Ive got three GEs here, good PLCs, but the company is lagging behind the times.

 

The GE controllers have not matured like the A-B line. The GE controllers are programmed in a manner very similar an early '80s controllers, like the A-B PLC-2/30. In the intervening decades the other manufactures have moved ahead. The newer controllers allow higher level programming methodologies: including first class tagging, multiple programming languages, multiple programming files, multiple data files, large memory and other advances. These advances have allowed the PLC accomplish new task that were formally out of its reach. By comparison the GE PLC has made virtually no progress.

This is not all bad news since most control projects are easily within the grasp of the old controllers. So, even though the GE controllers have made no improvement they are still sufficient for most task. However, it is a little disappointing that the GE prices do not reflect their low investment in technology.

I have heard rumors that GE is making a big investment in their controller products and will be coming out with more capable processors real soon now.

Cheers...David

 

While I am anything but a GE apologist, it's only
fair to note that they do have options other than
ladder. State Logic is one and there are I believe, others. There is a certain amount of difficulty in selling anything other than ladder due to lack of interest. The automation market seems to change with the blinding speed of a glacier, meaning you have to hang something out for a decade or so before you can expect ROI. Coupled with the extremely high cost and difficulty of changing vendors or adopting a mix, it's a very hard market to innovate in unless
you're the top dog and can mandate change. Many good products are obsolete by the time they are widely accepted. Startups and new installs are about all you can hope for, everyone else is already locked in.

Regards

cww

 

Last company I worked for used GE Fanuc only if the job depended on it. The programming was horrible compared to what A-B offered. They seemed to be years behind everyone else and not worth the time and expense. I would only take a GE job if the new software is comparable to the market leaders, I don't have the time to figure out a way around the backwardness of the programming software I used last time.

 

A little off thread, but I have an observation:

All the fancy 1131 stuff, multiple files etc etc are simply a hype when the task can be achieved by the simple good ol' LADDER language (as in the case of GE). The choice of languages and higher level programming has only given us a new level of abstraction and for some (if not most) has made life more difficult in terms of time to market, learning curve etc.

- Shahid

 

> I have heard rumors that GE is making a big investment in their
> controller products and will be coming out with more capable
> processors real soon now.

That is an interesting rumor. Are this being done in Japan?

Regards,
Ralph Mackiewicz
SISCO, Inc.

 

I don't know where the rumored work would take place. I can't even remember where the rumor came from soooo...treat it as very unconfirmed.

 

I concur. GE has dumped VersaPro (good riddance) in favor of Cimplicity Machine Edition. This program looks & feels just like VersaPro and has
very few enhancements. The only real addition is the attempt to marry VersaPro with the QuickPanel HMI software, so there is only one database. Not a bad idea, but the program is buggy, crashes, and offers no real improvements IMO. It crashed for me in an unrecoverable mode, so I will have to re-install it. It won't even launch to it can be un-installed. It also caused a BSOD on my W2K machine. Is the rumor about "new developments" referring to Cimplicity Machine Edition? Or is
some new hardware on the horizon as well?

Bruce Axtell

 

GE Fanuc is coming out with some new interesting products. These products are called the PAC 70 and the PAC 30. They are leverageing their purchase of a company called VMIC. They already have some literature on their WebSite. I personally cannot wait to try some of these products.

http://www.geindustrial.com/cwc/products?pnlid=2&id=RX7i

RM

 

Dear Shahid,

The task could be also achieved by good ol' relay technology but somehow people don't use it for anything what is more complicated then garage door My experience is that languages like SFC can shorten time to market and LADDER is not the best choice for some tasks (if not most). And I hope that most of people don't have problems with their learning curves - at least those I'm working with. Of course my point of view may be a little bit "exotic" as I'm more Siemens then let say AB but that's the way I am.

Best regards,

Jacek Dobrowolski, Ms. Sc. E. E. Software Engineer

 

In the power generation industry GE PLC's are used approx. 3 to 1 over AB's.

I personally have used and am equally satisfied with the performance and reliability of both.

I don't know what GE software packages some of you are using but I have actually found the GE package (VersaPro) certainly at par if not better than the AB (RSLogix).....at less than half the cost.

I personally would recommend GE over AB. Maybe some just need to objectively expand their horizons.

Long and short of it, there is nothing wrong with GE.

Mark Liszewski
ZTR Control Systems

 

The GE 90-30/70 infact has a very good instruction set, compared to any other ladder processor on the market.

The biggest problem is not the fundamental product once it is put in place, but the interface software, ie LogicMaster or VersaPro or MachineEdition.

Unlike AB which is popular and is the defacto standard atleast in North America because of its innovative edge, GE Software for these processors lacks a lot of simple utilities for the programmer.

From an end user experience I found, was none of the software is forward or backward compatible. meaning you cant go online into a processor with MachineEdition if it was a LogicMaster PLC...... there are some issues.

With AB u can go online with 6200/ICOM/RSLogix 5 regardless to a PCL5 in addition to a suite of comm protocols. (Logic Master also supports these...)

Very fundamental utilities like export processor image to a text file is not there in LogicMaster atleast. Therefore no import utility as well. You will need to make cut files or libraries.

If you have used the newer Control Logix generation of processors, this puts all other processors globally light years behind.
(There are still improvements and changes that an experienced or advanced user would like to see in AB ... however undoubtedly AB/Rockwell Software has come way ahead of the competition ...)

R Venkata Subramanian
Ohmsai Inc.,
ON, Canada.

 

I must say that I was not compelled to switch
Cimplicity IU (Interactive UNIX) that runs for a
year+ at a stretch with a product that crashed
repeatedly during the Demo. And they couldn't
seem to understand why!!?. I think that Windows
stuff exudes deleterious substances that cloud
the judgement. A port of IU to Linux and an
update to the excellent GUIs available now, and
they'd have a real winner on their hands. At
minimal cost. I'd even be willing to help.
Imagine what Glade could do for Cimplicity and
QuickPanel.

Regards
cww