Relative Beginner

[Krismatic]

Hello.....I'm the new guy on the block I'm a relative beginner to PLC's but am keen to learn. I've been a electrical maintenance engineer most of my career and have recently changed my job to a company where I can forge an openning for myself on PLC's. In my career so far, I have meddled with older PLCs such as mitisibushi, GE series ones and Siemens S5 100u &115us, but have been restricted on learning too much of them by previous employers. Now I have a chance to really get on. I wouldn't say I was completely stupid, just need an helping hand to point me in the right direction. So I apologise in advance for any questions I post, if some of you might think that was a rather basic and thick question to ask. I'm not looking to do any deep intricate programming, just to interogate PLC controlled machines. Especially when the machine has come to a grinding halt and we have to wait for days for specialist engineers to come to do just that and tell us two sensors are out of sync. Then charge us £350 for just plugging in a laptop. My aim is to try to find the problem for ourselves, be able to change a few flags if required and maybe do the odd basic mods to an existing program. (At present, any mods required are done by adding hard wired bits to inputs or outputs). Really, this has always been a bit of a hobby for me, starting in the old days with relay logic. So I would appreciate any help any of you could offer. Cheers Krismatic

[Ken Moore]

Give this site a look also: http://www.plcs.net/contents.shtml

[Andy_P]

Hello Krismatic, Like you, I started out as an electrical maintenance engineer. The way I got to grips with PLC basics was to build a small test rig to play around with on the bench. Give yourself a small, (and ultimately useless for practical purposes!) project to do. My first project that I was given was to program a PLC to perform a light-chaser routine for the workshop Xmas tree! Completely trivial, but I learned how to use timers and shift registers. It is fair to say that writing your own program is a totally different ball game from looking at somebody elses, and it will open your eyes to the requirements. Another thing that I have learned is that no question is too trivial if you don't know the answer. Everybody has to start somewhere. Good luck! Andy.

[Guest]

welcome to the forum ... no need to apologize ... bring it on ... best regards, Ron

[Krismatic]

Thank you for the welcome Guys Had to chuckle at your reply Andy..........Coz I also started by making a Xmas light array for the house on a GE Series one. (That was all I could get my hands on to play with.........But now I've discovered ebay, lol.) Successfully built a control panel for a mobile fork truck type machine at my last employers, using three Siemens Logos. Currently playing with two Siemens CPU214s, salvaged from the scrap bin. But battling with the coms. Having to use my laptop as programmer and communicating through a USB to 9pin serial adaptor and a PPI multimaster cable. (Having already found out from on here that 214s don't like USB.) Trying to link up with a S5 at work using Step 5 V7.2, but it keeps timing out. But that could be the subject of my first question when I've composed all the details. But so glad I discovered this site. Thanks Guys

[Pierre]

Do not misse also Ron Doran'S site http://www.patchn.com