GE Fanuc IC655APU500 Series Five ASCII/BASIC Module

Product Overview

The GE Fanuc IC655APU500 is an ASCII/BASIC Module for the Series Five PLC. It combines resident BASIC programming with serial communications, allowing the PLC to exchange information with ASCII devices such as printers, barcode readers, scales and terminals. Its program can work with PLC input and output status, internal references and register data, making the module useful where a control system needs to process or pass along text-based device information.
The module has two built-in serial ports supporting RS-232 and RS-422 communications. It also includes 32K of battery-backed RAM for its BASIC program. Communication with the Series Five CPU uses the controller’s background-communication feature for intelligent modules rather than consuming an I/O reference. 

Technical Specifications

Official product type: ASCII/BASIC Module
PLC family: GE Fanuc Series Five
Built-in memory: 32K battery-backed RAM
Serial ports: 2
Serial interfaces: RS-232 and RS-422
Selectable communication rate: 300 to 19,200 baud
PLC data access: I/O points, internal references and registers
Power requirement: 5 V DC, 600 mA
Clock rate: 9.8304 MHz
Operating temperature: 0 to 60 °C
Storage temperature: −20 to +70 °C
Relative humidity: 5% to 95%, non-condensing  

Key Highlights

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is the IC655APU500 used for?
It runs a BASIC program that exchanges information between a Series Five PLC and external ASCII serial devices.

Q2. Which devices can communicate with the IC655APU500?
GE Fanuc lists examples including terminals, printers, barcode readers and scales.

Q3. How many serial ports does it have?
It has two built-in serial ports supporting RS-232 and RS-422 communications.

Q4. How much memory is built into the module?
It includes 32K of battery-backed RAM. GE Fanuc documents separate memory-cartridge options for additional capacity or program storage.