I Need PLC Pictures!

plcs

For the last few months I have been working (slowly) on my new PLC course. Before getting too far into the videos on the Thinkific site, it made sense to me to complete a training manual. Well, I completed the manual and submitted it to the publisher, and that opened a can of worms.

canofworms1This picture is an example of the kind of problems I am having. If you Google “Can of Worms”, you will find probably hundreds of images. If you then refine the image search under search tools, the options decrease drastically. This image is the only actual can of worms that showed in my search when filtering for usage rights.

I found the PLC images above on the internet and made a graphic for the manual. After submitting the manual to the publisher, they replied that I would need to obtain permission from the owner of each image; I then had my editor send inquiries to various PLC manufacturers for good PLC pictures.

My intent was to try and represent all of the “major” manufacturers in my course. So far the only companies that have responded are Automation Direct and the US division of Omron.

Embedding pictures in blog posts vs. putting them in a published work are two very different things. If something is deemed to be “commercial”, the options are very limited. This blog of course is not a commercial venture, but the manual is.

My best option now is to find pictures of control panels with PLCs in them or hope that some of the manufacturers eventually get back to me. Unfortunately this means my PLC manual is on hold.

I am asking for help from the readers of my blog and from the PLC forums on Linked In. What I need is at least one good high resolution PLC picture from each of the brands listed above. I have managed to find a couple of Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and Siemens S7 pictures, but am striking out on the GE, Mitsubishi and Modicon. So if you have some pictures of control panels with PLC racks in them, I can probably crop the PLC part out. It may not be as clean as the pictures above, but I am getting a bit desperate right now.

I also need pictures of sensors, relays, valves and various other devices. Here are a couple of the other graphics I need to replace:

anin
anout
digin
digout

So far the best response I have had when asking for help has been from Automation Direct. They have provided lots of images from their website and overall just been super helpful. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about some of the other manufacturers. Sending them e-mails is kind of like sending feedback to Microsoft; it just disappears into a black hole.

Anything you can provide will be helpful; if I use your picture I will be sure give you credit in the manual/book. Please help me out!

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About

Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.

1 Comment on “I Need PLC Pictures!

  1. Frank,

    Sorry you are having this difficulty, am sure you will work it out, and hope it does not make you late for Thanksgiving!!

    Love,
    Mom