Industrial Automation Magazine India

Phytools publishes white paper and debuts RevPi Connect 4

Published on : Thursday 12-10-2023

The rise of Revolution Pi, the leading open-source Industrial PC – introducing open source to the industrial sector.

 

 Bainbridge Island, WA – October 11, 2023 – Phytools, a leading IIoT value-added reseller, announces the publication of its first Revolution Pi White Paper,

presenting the seven-year history and technical details of this revolutionary open-source industrial PC (IPC) in an easily-digestible medium. Built on the open, customisable, and commercial-off-the-shelf premise of Raspberry Pi, RevPi ruggedises the versatile microcomputer for use in industrial applications.

IIoT-enabled IPCs like RevPi are ideal for automation, data connectivity, motion control, robotics support, machine visualisation, and many more applications. From 2016 to the present, RevPi has cemented its place in the market by incorporating features such as:

·Modular form factors

·Operating system (OS) determinism

·A wide variety of input/output (I/O) modules

·Communications gateway functionality

·DIN-rail mounting capability, and

·Extensive support for third-party software, such as CODESYS soft PLC.

 

The latest revision—RevPi Connect 4—was released in August 2023, equipped with a Broadcom BCM2711 processor and support for WLAN and Bluetooth communications. This most recent lineup addition also comes with a battery-buffered real-time clock and easier I/O expansion with a plug-and-play GUI.

Although the idea of open-source is commonplace today due to the myriad advantages it provides to end users, it was a rather exotic concept in 2016, especially in the industrial sector. Based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, the RevPi IPC is composed of open hardware and software, meeting the EN61131-2 standard.

Because of its modular structure, Revolution Pi can be supplemented by digital or analog I/O modules, and its DIN rail-mountable housing ensures easy installation anywhere. RevPi Base modules operate at typical industrial voltages ranging from 10.7 to 28.8 VDC, suitable for use onboard vehicles or in machines and manufacturing facilities, and gateway modules operate from 20.4 to 28.8 VDC.

RevPi base modules come equipped with USB, Ethernet, and HDMI connections. The two USB 2.0 sockets are each capable of supplying 500mA at 5V, alleviating the need for an external USB power supply when connecting parallel devices. The onboard RJ45 Ethernet connection is industrially hardened with suppressor circuits, and a micro-HDMI socket is included for connecting a monitor with sound output.

The RevPi delineates itself from Raspberry Pi with a portion of its operating system dedicated to deterministic control. Most PLCs in industrial settings leverage a real-time OS (RTOS) to ensure deterministic program execution through a dedicated routine, a rigorous treatment which is used to provide the robust and predictable performance necessary to avoid equipment failures and human harm.

A general-purpose PC OS is more versatile than that of a PLC because of its shareable—and usually more powerful—computing resources, which empower multi-tasking, customisation, and processor-intensive operations. However, this flexibility presents a greater risk of OS disruption if one or more tasks becomes corrupted or overloads the processor, potentially leading to delays, instability, or a complete crash.

Phytools partners with users, assisting them through the entire journey of system design, prototyping, commissioning, inventory management, and basic support, no matter the application.

 

Download the full White Paper to learn more about Revolution Pi and the services Phytools provides to fulfill user requirements:

https://phytools.com/pages/ruggedized-raspberry-pi-platforms-are-ready-for-work