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Comment by Gracana | Hacker News Reader

They seem pretty solid in terms of their specs and certifications, but for industrial equipment I'm always worried about availability and vendor support. Can I get them shipped to a customer anywhere in the world on short notice? Will my vendor's engineers come to the plant with me to solve an inscrutable issue that has brought a machine down? Those answers are "yes" for the systems I'd be replacing, and almost certainly "no" for this thing, however cool it may be.

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Both the hardware (base board schematics) as well as the software are open source. Let's say Kunbus goes down the drain and you hit an issue. Best case someone in the community has already fixed it. Worst case you'll have to hire a decent consultant. Show me another PLC that affords the same kind of vendor independence.

As to availability, the hardware is manufactured and assembled in Denkendorf, Germany, so the supply chain is short. The Foundation guarantees availability of the Compute Module 1 and 3 until at least January 2023.

Well, I really like the idea of a standard open source industrial control system. If we ran into vendor/supply issues, that would give us options. But this industry (or at least the pocket of it that I work in) is very conservative. It's like the old "nobody got fired for buying IBM."

Hmmm. I'd be curious to know who ends up using these devices. Maybe I could apply to work for them. :)

Traditional German manufacturers scrambling to get their foot into IoT, but also various international companies. The RevPi modules pop up at places you can't imagine. Before long there's going to be Linux in every electric cabinet. In other news, Linux world domination is progressing according to plan.

Hi there, I'm project manager of Revolution Pi and would like top inform you that you could see the RevPi branded as "industrial Pi" oat the PILZ booth at Hannover Fair. This is just one of our big customers. Many leading companies have already started to port their solutions on out RevPi, e.g. TeamViewer or GTI Control (HMI solutions). There is no doubt that this project has hit the nerve of those generation of engineers who have waited so long to get rid of propriety solutions of "big S"... That's why we called it "Revolution"...

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