Aren’t Raspberry Pis just toys for kids and home projects?

No! Currently, 70% of all Raspberry Pis are going to industrial applications, and this is expanding daily.  

Isn’t a PLC more robust than a Raspberry Pi? 

Not by any measure we are aware of! First, Raspberry Pi is manufacturing over ONE MILLION Raspberry PIs per month. By comparison, Mitsubishi Electric, widely recognized as the third largest producer of PLCs in the world, boasts about producing 13 million FX-PLCs in their first 30 years in production. Moreover, most Raspberry Pis are being produced in the UK by Sony, a company known for quality electronics.

Don’t Raspberry Pis fail due to their use of an SD card?

Only if they are configured incorrectly. Automation Solutions understands how to configure the Linux operating system and the associated hardware to ensure trouble-free service. 

Isn’t it difficult to troubleshoot programming on a Raspberry Pi?

Not in most cases. The majority of solutions we offer can be edited and monitored interactively with no-cost software. But this can also be restricted if you don’t want your customer getting under the hood. In some cases, a full-compiled and locked-down solution is what is best for the application.

I heard that most Raspberry Pis are non-deterministic.

The determinism of a control system is dependent on the operating system. To achieve the highest level of determinism, a real-time operating system (RTOS) is required, which prioritizes control tasks over all other operations. While the Raspberry Pi can host a real-time operating system, we have found that most applications do not warrant this additional expense. We routinely see non-RTOS Raspberry Pi system posting 2-3 millisecond cycle times. An inconsistency of 1-2 scans creates less than 10 milliseconds of variance in the system's response time, which is imperceptible in all but the most demanding multi-axis, coordinated motion systems.

Can you use an off-the-shelf monitor with a Raspberry Pi?

Yes! While we don’t recommend this as the standard for most applications, you can use a common HDMI monitor with a USB keyboard and mouse in a pinch! Compare this to an industrial touchscreen that can only be replaced with the same make and model, and Raspberry Pi shines as an OEM-friendly platform.