Automation Training is Hiring!
As many of you know, for the past three years or so I have been teaching PLC, HMI and SCADA classes for Automation Training, a Canadian company. During that time I have visited many places and met a lot of …
Category: Trades
Jobs in the automation field
Make vs. Buy: An Infographic from Dorner Conveyors
This is a pretty cool article and Infographic from Dorner. I used to use them a lot in the old Automation Consulting Services, Inc. and working with NAS. As they mention in the infographic and in their blog, a lot …
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Tag Structures and Dotfields
Today’s post is in response to an e-mail I received asking for my thoughts on Tag Structure. In part, George Steel wrote: Great site, thanks for all your efforts. I am working on positioning my org to move from RS500 …
The IEM Dilemma
First I’d like to apologize for a term I’ve mis-used in the past, that of the OEM. I’ve always considered manufacturers of specific types of industrial equipment to be “OEM”s, or Original Equipment Manufacturers. After looking carefully at the various …
Teaching and Consulting
Four years ago I relaunched my old company, Automation Consulting Services, Inc. as Automation Consulting, LLC. For the first year or so I spent a lot of time contracting for machine builders and engineering firms, mostly writing PLC and HMI/SCADA …
Tagged with: Automation Consulting, Automation Training, consulting, contracting, education, training
Fieldservers and Protocol Converters
Today’s topic derives from a project I have become involved in in my “spare” time. Lately I have been spending a lot more time teaching classes. My project in Miami is mostly complete, so I have been able to get …
Tagged with: AOI, BACNET, Building Automation, Fieldserver, Modbus, PLCs, Profibus, ProSoft, RTA, systems integration, UDT
Building The Machine: A Bedtime Story
The following story is from my book Industrial Automation: Hands On (McGraw-Hill, 2013). I wrote it to illustrate how a machine or production line is concepted, purchased, designed, built and delivered. This is a pretty typical description of the procedures …
The True Cost of Custom Machinery
Its been about two years since I made Mastering the Machine available on this website. For those who haven’t read it, it is a short e-book describing the process of concepting, quoting, building and installing custom machinery. I have also …
The Big Toys
Hello from Atlanta, Georgia where I am about to teach a 4 day class on Siemens’ TIA Portal. I have been away from home for two weeks trying to finish up my project down at American Beverage Depot in Miami …
Wonderware
As many of you know from reading this blog, I spend about 40% of my time teaching software programming classes for Automation Training, a Canadian company. I started out teaching the Allen-Bradley SLC and ControlLogix platforms and Siemens Step 7 …