Arduino Portenta Machine Control eyes Industry 4.0

For example, it could enable the collection of real-time data from the factory floor and remotely control equipment, maybe from the cloud, if necessary. Arduino also says that enables a range of predictive maintenance and AI use cases.

It can be programmed using the Arduino framework or other embedded development platforms.

It’s priced at €279, excluding VAT.

Arduino writes:

“The Arduino Machine Control enables industry standard soft-PLC control and is able to connect to a range of external sensors and actuators with isolated digital I/O, 4-20mA compatible analog I/O, 3 configurable temperature channels, and a dedicated I2C connector. Multiple choices are available for network connectivity, including USB, Ethernet, and WiFi/BLE in addition to industry specific protocols such as RS485. All I/O are protected by resettable fuses and onboard power management has been engineered to ensure maximum reliability in harsh environments.”

“The Portenta Machine Control core runs an Arduino Portenta H7 microcontroller board (included), a highly reliable design operating at industrial temperature ranges (-40 °C to +85 °C) with a dual-core architecture that doesn’t require any external cooling. The main processor offers the possibility of connecting external Human Machine Interfaces like displays, touch panels, keyboards, joysticks, and mice to enable on-site reconfiguration of state machines and direct manipulation of processes.”

Specifications

Based on the existing Portenta H7, with a STM32H747XI dual Cortex-M7+M4 32-bit low power Arm MCU, the spec for the board includes 12 programmable digital I/O (24V logic) and Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi and BLE connectivity.

Processor	STM32H747XI dual Cortex-M7+M4 32 bit low power Arm MCU (Portenta H7)
Input	8 digital 24Vdc 2 channels encoder readings 3 Analog for PT100/PT1000/J/K temperature probes (3-wire cable with compensation ) 3 Analog input (4-20mA/ 0-10V/NTC 10K)
Output	8 digital 24Vdc up to 0,5A (short circuit protection) 4 analog 0-10V (up to 20mA output per channel)
Other I/O	12 programmable digital I/O (24V logic)
Communication Protocols	CAN-BUS Programmable Serial port 232/422/485
Connectivity	Ethernet USB Programming Port Wi-Fi BLE
Memory	16 MB onboard Flash memory 8MB SDRAM
Dimensions	170 x 90 x 50 mm
Weight	186 gr
Power	24V DC +/- 20%
Connector Type	Push-in terminals for fast connection
Operating Temperature	-40° C to +85° C (-40° F to 185°F)

You can see it’s schematics online, via the Arduino product page.

Portenta family

The first member of the Portenta family was the Arduino Portenta H7 module (right), announced at CES 2020 – a dual-core Arm Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M4 running at 480MHz and 240MHz respectively with industrial temperature-range (-40 to 85°C) components.

It was initially targeted to enterprise and SMB customers and professional makers.