IDEC officially announces the discontinuation of the Micro3 and Micro3C series of PLCs effective December 1, 2004.

All distributors are strongly recommended to review existing Micro3 and Micro3C accounts and order units as deemed necessary in advance.

For replacements, please refer to the MicroSmart series of PLCs. IDEC's MicroSmart PLCs contain brick style CPU units with 10, 16, or 24 I/O terminals. There are also Slim type CPU units, available with 20 or 40 I/O and varying types of output.

The 24 I/O All-in-One CPU can expand up to 88 I/O using a maximum of four expansion modules. The Slim type CPUs accept up to seven modules; the 20 I/O modules expand to 244 I/O and the 40 I/O modules can expand as high as 264 I/O.

There are four types of expansion modules available: input modules, output modules with relay or transistor sink/source output, combination input/output modules, and analog modules.

New for this year are the AS-Interface master module and the 8 point 120V AC input module. The AS-Interface allows the PLC to communicate with slave devices such as sensors, actuators, and remote I/Os, using signals transmitted over the AS-Interface network. The 120V AC input module allows a user to apply 120V AC directly into the PLC input card. This reduces the need for additional signal conditioning devices.

MicroSmart modules are programmable with WindLDR's newly updated version 4.5, IDEC's intuitive ladder logic programming tool. WindLDR's new features include a split ladder window for easy navigation, improved tag name editor, and rung comment search. The CPU modules also feature user program read/write protection.

Programs written for Micro3 or Micro3C can easily be converted to MicroSmart programs using WindLDR software. Few modifications are required. Please contact IDEC Technical Support for more details.