PLC controlled engines

[MichiganSkip]

I just read in the sticky about cars using PLCs and was wondering what PLCs were being used. I am a PLC programmer at work and have been for some 10 years now. I always thought that using a PLC would be an easy way to control the engine. Who runs what??
Skip in Michigan

[Beyond]

Seen a guy using a AB full size rack unit for datalogging and controling fuel on a blown alky truck runs Texas True Ten Five. Theres one being used now for progressive nitrous control (small unit) http://www.koehlerinjection.com/Koehler/n2ocontrol/nitrous_controller.htm

I'm real tempted to get a small one to play with to replace some timers and some other things. Who makes a good low cost one now? We used to use the little omron, keyence, AB, etc units.

[MichiganSkip]

I know AB makes a nice little one called a PICO. One nice thing about that one is that with the software, you can actually write a program and then fire it up on the laptop and test it out first. But it's 24VDC so a guy would have to run the power to it from a seperate 24 volt source. I guess that wouldn't be too bad though A couple lantern batteries in series would probably work. Just something to power the PLC.

You can download the software here.
http://www.ab.com/plclogic/pico/picosoft.html

If you do PLC programming you'll find this interesting. Takes a while to get used to it, It's not quite like the AI or RSLogics programming but it is neat.

[Monty Mikho]

Omron makes a really nice small unit also with a handheld programmer.. I believe they run around $250 for a 9-9 input/output unit and around $250 for the handheld programmer.. You can test the rungs on that unit as well..