Update – Excuses…
So I guess its pretty obvious I haven’t posted for a while… and I really don’t have any good excuses. Of course I still travel a lot, and I am still working on a lot of projects when I’m in …
Author: Frank
Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.
Ladder Logic 306a: Simulation
Today’s post relates to a new method I am using to teach some of my advanced classes. In a basic PLC training class, pushbuttons and pilot lights built into a trainer are used to complete exercises, usually in order to …
PLC Security
This post is another guest post from MRO Electric. I thought it was an interesting topic. ************************************************************************ PLC Security In The Heating Industry: Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies Closer No one understood or more succinctly described strategies and …
Manufacturing Terms, Buzzwords and Acronyms
As part of a consulting project I am involved in, I have created a list of acronyms and terms that are used in manufacturing and industrial automation. These are terms and acronyms from Lean/Six-Sigma, controls, electronics, business software and general …
MRO – Moving HMI Designs
Today’s post is a guest post on HMI programming from MRO Electric, an automation product supplier. Designing HMIs for Mobile Devices Well-designed human-machine interfaces (HMI) reduce operator error, saving companies millions of dollars by reducing down-time and increasing worker safety. …
How To Design And Build A Small Controls Project
Today’s post is a response to frustration. Some times when dealing with potential customers you waste a lot of time trying to save them money. They may want you to cut corners, spend a lot of your time (for free) …
How To Design And Build A Small Controls Project Read more »
Hands On Training Equipment
This post is both an update on the status of “My Little Factory” and an article on some new fun trainers that I am working on. As you can see in the above picture, all of the hardware for the …
Ladder Logic 403: Message Scrolling and Multiple Faults
Today’s post is in answer to a question from Bruno on my last post on Faults and Messages. Bruno asks “If two faults happen at the same time, will this procedure work?” This is a more complex question than it …
Ladder Logic 403: Message Scrolling and Multiple Faults Read more »
Ladder Logic 209: Faults and Messages
This post is another in my series on Ladder Logic. As with the other posts in this series, I am using generic logic and addressing so that it can apply to various PLCs. In previous posts in this series I …
Application: Sensor Choices 103
Today’s post concerns how sensor choices are made in real applications. I have written various posts on sensors in the past, and even participated in a Control Engineering webcast and forum last year on the topic. While I have covered …