The pCO^XS occupies the entry-level position in Carel's 16 bit OEM programmable controller series. It provides the performance typical at high-end controllers, but in a compact package that nicely suits those applications where power and size cannot be compromised. Designed in the likeness of the pCO series' big brothers, namely pCO¹ (see information about pCO¹ here) and the top-of-the-line pCO² (see information about pCO² here). The pCO^XS is powerful and flexible, excelling at controlling small-size roof top units, precision air conditioners for telecom and data centers, chillers, desiccant dehumidifiers, air handling units, energy recovery and make up air units, compressor racks and many other applications in the HVAC and Refrigeration markets.

Thanks to EasyTools, the graphical application program development package for all Carel OEM programmable controllers, software portability is a snap. Application programs designed for other Carel programmable controllers are easily implemented to newer hardware platforms, preserving any investments made on prior controllers.

The pCO^xs features mechanical relays and solid state relay outputs (SSR, see I/O specifications here) and comes with a built-in user-interface, avoiding the expense of a remote terminal. It accepts a variety of sensors in the market such as Carel's NTC temperature sensors, 0-1Vdc, 0-20mA, 4-20mA, 0-5Vdc ratiometric transducers, and dry contacts.

Several user interfaces including display and keypad are also available in conjunction with the built-in LCD display:

graphic backlit LCD display, alphanumeric LCD display, backlit

alphanumeric LCD display, and LED display are all provided in

wall-mount or panel-mount plastic enclosures.

The graphic display models are capable of showing symbols and trends in graph form for easier data-comprehension. Icon-based languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic, or Arabic are all supported. Any of these terminals can be brand-labeled  with the OEM's name, colors and logo.

Thanks to a variety of plug-in serial cards and external gateways, pCO^XS can share data with any popular Building Management Systems (BMS) in the market. BacNet^TM, Lonworks^®, Modbus^®, SNMP, JCI's N2 Open^®, and Trend/Novar protocols are all compatible. The pCO¹ can also be connected to a modem for remote communication to a supervisor, or to send SMS messages to GSM cellular phones. Data communication to Intranet//Internet networks is also available by using a gateway that converts Carel protocol to 10Mb/s TCP/IP Ethernet^TM protocols (FTP, HTTP, SNMP).

In addition to the serial port mentioned above, the pCO^XS features a pLAN (pCO Local Area Network) port for intra-controller communication. This enables up to 32 controllers to share data together, or it can be used to expand available I/O. More importantly, the pLAN port makes achieving an intelligent distributed architecture possible: including master/slave relationships, redundancy, modular controls, and lead-lag operation can all be implemented. 

The pCO^XS's high memory capacity (1MB of FLASH RAM) stores the application and parameters permanently, preventing data loss in the event of power failure and without requiring a battery backup! Troubleshooting is made easy by logging alarms and other events, such as temperatures, status of controlled devices, and date/time into the expansion memory. ("Black Box" mode). The recorded data can also easily be transferred to a PC  (locally or via modem) and opened using Excel for analysis. Can this be true? Come see for yourself!