The 5501-467 redundant system supports distributed I/O configurations based on a convertible fieldbus architecture. This is much easier to use than traditional dual and multiple redundancy architectures. Fault tolerance levels can be achieved by mixing and realising single, dual and triple redundancy in the same system depending on project requirements.

The 5501-467 comes with standard plug-and-play features such as synchronised variables, redundant I/O bus control, program peer-to-peer testing, master CPU arbitration, automatic failover and advanced diagnostics. Benefits of the hot-swap redundancy software also include broad support for microcontrollers with a wide range of CPU capabilities, fault-tolerant I/O communications and automatic program download. In the event of a failover, the maximum synchronisation time error is <1ms.

Configuration procedures for the 5501-467 redundancy system have been integrated into the OpenPCS development environment. This tool enables CPU redundancy and provides the system with the required system communications and synchronisation. The software also has diagnostic functions for troubleshooting, such as synchronisation network failures, CPU configuration mismatches, I/O bus failures, missing I/O function blocks and analogue input trend monitoring.