Automation Direct Field Trip!
Last week I had the privilege of visiting Automation Direct near Atlanta. I was hosted by Chad Crowe, who does online marketing and social media for the company. He contacted me a month or so ago after my post on …
Category: PLCs
Idec PLCs
FrankPosted on
Posted in Guest Posts, PLCs, Software & Programming, Vendors and Manufacturers
6 Comments
Today’s post continues the series on PLC platforms started last year. This is another guest post from Steve Myres, who also wrote an article on Indirect Addressing. Articles in this series include Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Koyo and Panasonic platforms. I wrote …
PLC Articles – Software and Hardware
Since I started this blog in early 2011 I have written a lot of articles on PLCs. The PLC is a major part of many industrial facilities and machines, and indeed has been an important part of my career. Now …
Tagged with: Allen-Bradley, Automation Direct, Idec, Panasonic, PLCs, programming, Siemens, software
Ladder Logic 105 Scanning Solution
Last week I posted a fairly straightforward question at the end of my post on PLC Scanning. I then shared the post on Linked In as well as on my company’s Facebook page. One reason I share these posts on …
Fischertechnik and PLC Trainers
FrankPosted on
Posted in gauging, Material Handling, PLCs, The Course, Trainers, Vendors and Manufacturers
1 Comment
Just an update on my PLC Trainer project. These are two of the Allen-Bradley Micrologix 1400 Trainers along with the Fischertechnik models I mentioned in my last post. The program and documentation for the Color Sorter, shown at left, is completed. …
Ladder Logic 306: 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 …
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 …
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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 …
My New Trainers!
Well, its official. I have my first actual PLC trainers, in addition to the ones on the wall in My Little Factory. I think they’re awesome! They did take 8 weeks to build, but as more are made I think …
Ladder Logic 208: System Routine 2
Today’s post is a continuation of the series on PLC Ladder Logic I started several years ago; for more of these post click on the PLC tab at the top of the site. In particular this continues my discussion of …
Unitronics
Today’s post, as promised last week, is written by Ryan McCarthy, a reader of this blog. While I always offer to place a reciprocal link to the website of whoever contributes guest posts to this site, amazingly Ryan is neither …
My Little Factory – April 2017
FrankPosted on
Posted in Applications, Conveyors, Load Cells, Material Handling, My Little Factory, PLCs, Pneumatics, Process, Sensors, The Course, Training, vision
5 Comments
This post is the first in a series I am writing about a project I am working on, hence the “April 2017” designation. As most of my regular readers know, I have spent much of the past several years teaching …
Birth of the Programmable Controller
Today’s post is extracted from my new “generic” PLC course manual, PLC Hardware and Programming – Multi-Platform. In the manual, I also cover the origins of the computer, beginning with the Babbage Analytical Engine, all the way back in 1823! …
Tagged with: Allen-Bradley, Automation Direct, Beckhoff, General Electric, History of the PLC, Koyo, Mitsubishi, Modicon, Omron, PLC Hardware and Programming, PLC History, PLCs, Siemens