Reviews for CLICK PLUS PLC CPUs

I purchased this because it is the most affordable controller (PLC) that offered ethernet connectivity. It also offered MQTT capability which I was hoping to import into the Google IoT cloud. I bought it with a C2-08AR-6C option card, which I promptly slotted into the unit. I usually work with Rockwell and Siemens components, so the mechanical case felt a little flimsy to me. The plastic casing bends when squeezing on the left and right sides of the unit. Thankfully, it?s much stiffer front to back and top to bottom. The unit is also very light. The entire unit has ventilation holes on the top bottom and sides. I would suggest extra caution when drilling subpanels around this unit. Metal shavings could easily fall in. Removing it before drilling would be best. Thankfully the unit unclips easily from the DIN rail with a tab at the bottom that can be pulled down. I appreciate that buying a Click power supply is not required, and just about any 24v DC power supply can be used. Take note that the connector at the bottom of the unit for wiring power is not sized very generously. You can fit just your power supply wires in there, and nothing more. Don?t think about trying to fit two wires in the same terminal. Not going to happen. The unit also did not come with a coin cell battery for the real time clock. Make sure to add this to your order if time is important to your application. The software prompted me to create a password for the controller which I seem to forget every time I want to use it. Thankfully, It is possible to reset the password with a factory reset. While the user interface to the programming software felt relatively modern, the practice of directly addressing memory to create variables felt archaic. I am a rather young engineer and grew up learning object-oriented programming like C/C++ where a variable is given a name and the compiler handles the task of assigning it to memory. I have no experience writing FORTRAN, but that is what I imagine while picking memory addresses for variables. Additionally, the available instruction set felt rather small. Obviously coils and contacts were there, but ?extra? functionality was not simply given to you. I would suggest researching these ahead of time to learn what you are getting into. The scientific calculator, however, felt very useful and allowed variables and constants to be easily chained into a formula. As I mentioned earlier, I was hoping to send data from this unit to Google IoT cloud through MQTT messages. I was disappointed to find out, that Google requires encrypted packets which this unit is not capable of. I wish this was better advertised. If you look at the Do-More product line, it advertises MQTT(S), where I assume the (S) stands for secure (and encrypted) messages. This unit just advertises MQTT. My take is that the processor is not capable of encrypting the packets while maintaining timing for the rest of the processes running on it. If you are implementing this device in a typical factory application with a local MQTT broker, the lack of encryption may not be of much detriment to you. The broker could handle encryption before pushing to the cloud, and concern of bad actors on the local network should be minimal. AD offers a MQTT gateway that can take in Modbus TCP and convert to MQTT(S) if you really need encryption. This is somewhat harsh criticism for a device that is truly a great value. The Click platform is one of the cheapest PLCs available and does a great job at making industrial automation components available to the hobbyist. The Click Plus further adds to it with the addition of a real time clock and ethernet. I have no doubt that this is the perfect device for automating a simple machine. Additionally, the tutorials available on YouTube make this a great device for learning PLC programming on.

Can't beat this for the money. Compact CPU with inexpensive I/O modules. Only complaint is the software is a bit basic and missing some functionality that I was looking for (cannot use a variable to set the slave ID for Modbus communications, have to hard code it.) Beyond that have had very little issues with the PLC or functionality. Will continue to use in our industrial equipment builds.

I bought this unit to evaluate for the new wireless / MQTT capability. It's awesome for an IO node over Modbus, etc. The MQTT is VERY limited, I had to build the timestamp using move blocks to text drivers, and had to break my payload over several segments. It also does not support TLS authentication for clouds. I would recommend only using the MQTT to a local broker on the network for now. Otherwise, I love these units.

Great PLC, very flexible and powerful for the cost. The software is easy to use. Very useful and highly recommended.