Parker’s Electromechanical and Drives Division North America has released Automation Manager 1.4, an update that significantly expands Parker Automation Controller (PAC) features and functionality.

While the PAC is Parker’s all-in-one machine controls solution that combines PLC, HMI, and motion control functionality into a single device, Parker Automation Manager (PAM) is the single integrated development environment (IDE) used to program it.

“Among the new features that we are very excited about is that PAM now comes embedded with Parker Servo Drive Servo Manager,” says Marissa Tucker, Parker’s Controls & HMI product marketing manager. “Users are now able to program multiple Parker Servo Drives through a single point of connection through the PAC. Since the connection is made over EtherCAT, there is no addressing or additional cabling required, significantly saving on set-up time.”

Also of note is the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), a machine-to-machine communication protocol that has seen wide adoption across the automation industry. OPC UA is considered an interoperable protocol that allows machines to exchange data easily and effortlessly between machine to SCADA, server, or between each other. Its adoption has been so widespread that many Cloud platforms have adopted it as a standard protocol, including Microsoft Azure. OPC UA is the easiest way to upgrade a factory to IIoT.

“PAM also comes with an updated Simulation Mode,” adds Tucker. “When building a machine, there is always some level of uncertainty about which devices to select and how the machine should operate. Simulation Mode in Automation Manager 1.4 completely eradicates this uncertainty, as users can develop their complete machine, including simulating their PLC Logic, Motion Control, and HMI Visualization, without having to commit to any upfront hardware or software costs.”

Other new features with this PAM 1.4 release include:

• Fully integrated Parker Drive Developer (PDD) package for the AC30 drives in PAM
• Extended PLCOpen4 support
• PAC clock can now be synced to an external clock
• Updates to the latest of Parker Libraries (PKR lib), including the ability to configure P-series and temperature control

For a full list of new features and bug fixes, download the release notes on the PAC product page: www.parker.com/emn/PAC.