For many years Control Technology Inc (CTi) has been the preferred engineering company responsible for the design, manufacturing and support of the many 'specialty modules' for the TI505 series PLC range from Texas Instruments.
When Siemens purchased Texas Instruments (Ti), arguably with the intent to establish a foothold in the USA market, Control Technology continued to manufacture the Ti 505 'Specialty Modules' and also expanded its product range to include all basic I/O cards as well.
Suppliers report that although product prices escalated, the Texas Instrument or Ti 505 PLC series (now renamed to Simatic Ti or Simatic 505) remained a firm favourite with its loyal users, in fact the install base increased significantly under these difficult conditions. Testimonials from satisfied users confirmed that the 505 PLC product range with its robust design, ease of implementation, ease of programming and proven reliability, total reduced cost of ownership will ensure that the 505 product will continue to be a favourite under the CTi brand name.
Ahead of its time
The TI505 series, which is a scaled down version of the TI565 PLC, was arguably 20 years ahead of its time when released. Its makers claim that today (around 20 years later) some leading automation manufacturers are still trying to catch up with its features, such as the automatic I/O determination in the field, the comprehensive diagnostic features, memory and system management, pre-programmed alarms and PID loops with fill in the block configuration face plates and a comprehensive instruction set that includes loop _pack and alarm _pack instructions speeding up PLC/scada communications - all of which are programmable in mnemonics with a basic type language in special functions with floating point maths capability that can run as prioritised, cyclical, time based - or event driven, allowing the passing of parameters to other special functions and subroutines.
The install base of the 505 product remains significant in the USA and many other countries around the world. Product reliability and the way the product architects have designed the upgrade migration path, means that customers can keep their costly investment in code and commissioning while changing from one generation of Ti to another.
New offerings to continue the legacy
The continued support from the thousands of loyal customers around the world and the decision by Siemens to make the product obsolete in the near future has prompted CTi and FasTrack Softwares to manufacture a CPU to replace the current range of CPUs from Siemens. CTi and FasTrack the current manufacturer of the 505 Soft-shoe (TI series programming software) have decided to manufacture and launch four new CPUs, the 2500-C100 will replace the TI545-1105, the 2500-C200 will replace the TI545-1106, the 2500-C300 will replace the TI555-1105 and the 2500-C400 will replace the TI555-1106. Anytech has backing from CTi in supporting not only the CTi TI505 series, but also earlier systems such as the TI500 and 5TI. Anytech carries stock of the 505 series components in southern Africa and can supply refurbished items for most of the 500 series.
Programming software
Anytech also offers Windows-based 32-bit programming software for the 505 PLC platform and the Siemens S5 PLC platform from FasTrack Softwares. The 505 WorkShop software can be used to upgrade 505 Soft-shoe and Tisoft with the additional features as well as allowing Tisoft users to still use the same hot keys and instruction set.
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