Understanding the Remote I/O Market

Until about 3 months ago one of my volunteer activities was to work with the Fieldbus Foundation in the development of the specifications for their High Speed Ethernet (HSE) Remote I/O project and the biggest concern we had and were unable to get a firm answer was the demand for an HSE backhaul based Remote I/O solution. We all knew that there were a wide range of options on the market from single module units with 4 – 8 I/O to those using other protocols such as Ethercat with hundreds of signals per station. Unfortunately, we could not find the information we needed that would have helped justify the development of commercial product using wired backhaul so some of the companies participating the specification development chose not to build prototypes – fortunately enough participants did so the specifications have now been released.

Now that I am no longer ‘affiliated’ with my former employer and my good friend Jim Russell was willing to share the distribution list for ICEnews http://www.iceweb.com.au/icenews/index.htm with me I have decided to do a bit of research in this area myself by distributing a survey earlier this week. Hopefully you will take a few minutes and help us better understand the Remote Input/Output market by taking the Zoomerang survey below.
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C6TUM2YAQ/

Some of the questions are lengthy but the entire survey is less than 20 questions and should only take you about 5-10 minutes. At the end of the survey if you desire you can enter your name in a draw for a C$100 Visa Gift card.  The survey will close 08:00 Mountain Time April 18 and the draw made at the close of business that day. The winner will be contacted directly and announced in the May issue of ICEnews and a synopsis of the results will also be made available in that same issue as well as a post to this blog.

Thank you for your help. - Ian