GE-FanucIC697ALG320Four-Channel Analog Output Module — Per-Channel Voltage or Current, 16-Bit, 2 ms Update, Isolated, Series 90-70 Single Slot

Product Description

What this part is

A GE Fanuc IC697ALG320 high-level analogue output module for the Series 90-70 PLC: a single-slot digital-to-analogue converter card that takes 16-bit values from the CPU over the 90-70 backplane and produces four independent analogue output signals for field devices.

One point of accuracy first, because it appears wrongly in circulation: this is a Series 90-70 module. It fits a 90-70 five-slot or ten-slot baseplate. The Series 90-30 platform uses different baseplates.

Decoding the order code

IC697: GE Fanuc Series 90-70 hardware. IC693 is Series 90-30; IC600 is Series Six.

ALG: analogue module.

320: the four-channel high-level analogue output variant. Compare IC697ALG230, which is the eight-channel analogue input module — adjacent numbers, opposite direction of signal flow.

Trailing letter: a hardware revision, as in IC697ALG320C. Revisions in this family are traded interchangeably; match the base number first.

Why per-channel voltage-or-current selection is the reason to buy this card:
Most analogue output modules commit the user to one signal type for the whole card. This one does not. Each of the four channels is configured independently, entirely in software — Logicmaster or Control — with no jumpers and no DIP switches to set.

In practice that means channel 1 can drive a 4–20 mA current loop to a positioning valve while channel 2 drives ±10 V DC to a drive speed reference, on the same card, in the same slot. Two consequences follow, and both are worth money. First, one spare part covers both signal types. Second, when a field device is replaced by one expecting the other signal type, the change is a configuration edit rather than a module swap and a rewire.

Published specifications

Channels: 4, individually configurable.

Output ranges, voltage: −10 V to +10 V (default), −5 V to +5 V, 0 V to +10 V, 0 V to +5 V.

Output ranges, current: 0.0 mA to 22.5 mA, with 4–20 mA the default.

Resolution: 16 bit with 14-bit monotonicity; 312.5 µV per LSB on voltage, 0.5 µA per LSB on 4–20 mA. No missing codes over 16 bits on voltage, over 15 bits on current.

Conversion rate: all four outputs updated sequentially, approximately every 2.0 ms maximum.

Current output load: up to 800 ohms resistive.

Isolation: output circuitry isolated from the PLC backplane; operates within specification at up to ±60 V common mode from ground.

Calibration: factory set, stored in non-volatile EEPROM. Voltage full scale 10 V ±2.5 mV; current 4.0 mA ±5 µA and 20 mA ±5 µA at 24.0 V DC field side. Field calibration is not possible.

Linearity: ±0.02 % of full scale across the whole negative-to-positive range.

Temperature coefficient: 25 ppm per °C typical on voltage, 50 ppm per °C typical on current.

Power: 1.66 A (8.3 W) at 5 V DC from the backplane, plus approximately 150 mA from the user supply for current outputs.

User field supply for current outputs: 10 V DC to 30 V DC (24 V DC typical).

Configurable per channel: report faults enabled or disabled (default enabled), user scaling points, output default on fault Hold or Off (default Off), default value.

PLC references: analogue outputs use %AQ references, one 16-bit word per channel, from a maximum of 8K words of %AQ memory.

Field connection: removable 40-terminal connector block.

Slot width: 1 slot.

Weight: approximately 1.94 lb.

The common-mode limit

The outputs are isolated from the backplane and tolerate ±60 V of common-mode voltage from ground. That is generous and genuinely useful when the field devices sit on a separately earthed skid or a floating supply. There is a constraint in the same paragraph of the datasheet that gets missed: the entire output section, all four channels, operates at a single offset voltage from ground. The 60 V budget is shared, not per channel. The common-mode voltage between outputs also has to stay inside specification, so four loads genuinely sitting at different potentials call for separate isolated modules.

Mounting data

Slot width: 1 slot on a Series 90-70 five-slot or ten-slot baseplate.

Power for the voltage outputs comes from the PLC backplane, at 1.66 A / 8.3 W at 5 V DC.

Power for the 4–20 mA current outputs comes from a user field supply of 10 V DC to 30 V DC, drawing approximately 150 mA, via a single PSPOS / PSNEG connection pair that serves all four channels. Maximum current-output load is 800 ohms resistive.

Calibration data lives in EEPROM on the card and cannot be adjusted in the field. For a spare that is an advantage — a replacement card drops in and holds accuracy with no trim procedure — and it means a card whose calibration has drifted or whose EEPROM is damaged is a repair-shop job.

Two per-channel behaviours are set at configuration time: Report Faults, default enabled, and Output Default, which decides whether a channel holds its last value or goes to a defined level when the PLC faults or stops. The Output Default setting is Off by default. On a valve or a drive reference, Off and Hold are very different plant behaviours in a fault.

Quantity and configuration

Module only, sold individually. The removable 40-terminal field connector block, field wiring, the user 10–30 V DC supply for current outputs, the Series 90-70 baseplate, the rack power supply, the CPU, and Logicmaster or Control programming software are each separate items. The photographs on this listing show what is physically present.

Interchange and obsolescence guidance

Search forms include IC697ALG320, IC697ALG320C, IC697-ALG-320, IC697 ALG 320, IC697ALG32 and IC697ALG3. Related Series 90-70 analogue modules: IC697ALG230 (8-channel voltage/current analogue input), IC697ALG440 and the wider IC697ALG family. An IC693ALG-prefix card is Series 90-30 hardware on a different baseplate.

Series 90-70 is obsolete. Ownership trail: GE Fanuc Automation → GE Intelligent Platforms → Emerson. Emerson’s PACSystems RX7i and RX3i are the documented migration path and will accept much of a 90-70 application, and the analogue module part numbers, terminal blocks and wiring all change — which is why an original ALG320 remains the cheap answer for a plant that is not ready to migrate.