MPC has significantly more application memory, 2 copies of firmware, removable terminal blocks, and eth1 and eth 2 flashing status lights. RPC’s have the extra com bus for various io modules, modbus integrations, and BACnet MSTP. RPC, also have built in Bluetooth.
One other important difference…RPC’s have an isolated power supply, and the MPC’s have a non isolated 1/2 wave power supply. MPCs are recommended to have a dedicated transformer for every controller. The RPC’s due to their isolated full wave power supplies can share transformers and load them down more fully
I had never heard this and it scared me, because we use tons of MPCs and we have plenty of panels with multiple controllers sharing transformers with other devices. I looked up the SmartX controller hardware reference guide from 2021 and it appears all the 24v controllers (MPC, MPV, RPC, RPV) use a non-isolated half wave power supply. The only one that uses an isolated full wave power supply is the RP-C-16A, which makes sense because it is 230v. The important thiing to remember is to never put non-isolated half wave devices on the same transformer with non-isolated full wave devices. Fortunately, non-isolated full wave devices are pretty rare in my experience.
I had never heard this and it scared me, because we use tons of MPCs and we have plenty of panels with multiple controllers sharing transformers with other devices. I looked up the SmartX controller hardware reference guide from 2021 and it appears all the 24v controllers (MPC, MPV, RPC, RPV) use a non-isolated half wave power supply. The only one that uses an isolated full wave power supply is the RP-C-16A, which makes sense because it is 230v. The important thiing to remember is to never put non-isolated half wave devices on the same transformer with non-isolated full wave devices. Fortunately, non-isolated full wave devices are pretty rare in my experience.
