Hello everyone ,
Our factory is commissioning a cell with four robots, all piloted by KRC4s.
We have two KRC4's with the internal safety relay board (X11), and two with no internal safety boards which had been previously configured to a Profinet PLC (these controllers are using KSS 8.5.8).
We're trying to figure out a simple, low cost Beckhoff solution to act as the safety PLC for the cell. For now, PLC will only provide signals for the two robots without X11 plugs, but later we will remove the internal safety boards and have the robots take safety data from the PLC.
Our problem is, we are primarily searching on Ebay for used IPCs and we're unsure of the licensing process to configure the IPCs on Twincat3. I've read through plenty of IPC manuals on Beckhoff's information portal, and even read through their licensing section, but it's not clear whether every IPC must be licensed once purchased. Some device descriptions in the manual make it seem as though they come licensed for communication in Twincat3.
We intend to form the communication network over Ethercat.