Continuing its Industrial IoT theme following the release of the Arduino PLC IDE. Arduino has announced the Arduino Opta, which it describes as an “easy-to-use micro PLC with Industrial IoT capabilities”. Designed in partnership with Finder – an industrial and building automation device manufacturer – it’s aimed at professional developers wanting to take advantage of the wider Arduino ecosystem.
It’s based on the STM32H747XI dual-core Cortex-M7 +M4 MCU, to perform real-time control, monitoring and maintenance applications. It supports OTA firmware updates via onboard security and X.509 Standard compliance, and there are real-time dashboards supported via Arduino Cloud or third-party services.
Features for Industrial IoT include:
- Optional support for standard IEC 61131-3 PLC “languages” (Ladder Diagrams, Functional Block Diagrams, Structured Text, Sequential
- Function Charts and Instruction Lists)
- Fieldbus integration via Modbus TCP (ethernet) and Modbus RTU (serial RS485)
- IoT connectivity via Ethernet/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth® Low Energy
- High-power relay switching (4 x 2.3 kW)
- DIN rail compatibility
There are three options: €122 for the Opta Lite (with Ethernet onboard and USB-C programming ports), €134 for the Opta RS485 (adding an RS485 half duplex connectivity interface) and €161 for the Opta WiFi (also featuring Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity).
