We had an enquiry from a customer running a packing line who wanted a counter that could also talk to their SCADA system, not just show a number on the panel. Their existing counter only had a single preset relay, so every time they needed a two-stage count, slow down then stop, they had to add a second timer just to make up for it.
This is where a straightforward mechanical or single-relay counter runs out of options. Hengstler’s TICO 774 is a multifunctional electronic counter with an RS232 interface built in, so it can be read out or configured from a PC using Hengstler’s own programming assistant software. It has three presets on board, a large LCD display that comes in four different backlighting colours, handy if you want a visual cue for different machine states, and it counts pulses at up to 60 kHz with a prescaler range of 0.0001 to 99.9999, so it can show the count in real engineering units instead of raw pulses.
From our experience, before we quote this, we would normally check the supply voltage at the panel, the pulse signal type coming from the sensor or encoder, and whether the customer actually needs the RS232 link for their SCADA or PLC, since that changes the wiring at the back of the panel. Hope this helps.
