Hi, I’m thinking of learning plc programming and controls technician. I was wondering what the day-to-day is like for this field. What do you like about it and what do you not like about it.

I’m coming from software development but the industry is going through rapid changes and mass layoffs. I’ve been jobless for over a year now so I’m thinking of pivoting to something else that can utilize my programming skills.

I got a job as an automation tech. I think my first project will be a data center but the company does a wide array of automation/controls work. I have been trying to learn everything i can about the processes I will touch and I've been practicing my ladder logic.

Is there anything I should focus on? Any tips for life on the road? Thank you in advance

I'm working on railway interlockings controllers, in particular for subways, so extreme safety requirements are not negotiable. Some interlockings are "programmed" using electromechanical relays (including in some new lines!). There's also microcontroller-based solutions (like Trackguard from Siemens) or, more recently, some vendors are advertising SIL4 compliant PLCs (e.g. Hima).

I could rant all day about the drawbacks of relay-based interlockings, but relying on specific vendors, usually with proprietary editing software for PLC/microcontroller based solutions, also have its own problems.
I was wondering, what are the technical¹ roadblocks that would prevent taking 2 or 3 basic PLCs and add a voter² to make a 2oo2 or 2oo3 system to get a system that can respect SIL4 constraints?

1. I know the technical side is only (a small?) part of the constraints. The railway industry is quite conservative, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes less so...

2. As usual for redundancy, the voter itself is a critical point so it must be very reliable (possibly also by using redundancy), but its behavior is extremely simple.

The cooling fans in the PLC cabinet to be fed from the UPS power or just normal power ?. As all know, when the main power is OFF, the load on the PLC is reduced; but still requires cooling for the CPUs, I/O cards.

What is typically followed? the PLC cabinet manufacturer says, he just provide only normal power to the Fans. I understand that normal is required only for the lights and anti condensation heater in the PLC cabinet.

No, I don't mean (necessarily) who has the best functioning, or most rugged. I mean which manufacturer has the best looking PLC and IO slices?

I want to build a controls panel for some non-critical stuff, but instead of an enclosure, I want to mount it on a carbon fiber or anodized aluminum subpanel with a sheet of acrylic mounted in front of it for a little safety. But I want it to look good as it will be visible from a high traffic path, if not accessible to it.

Most of all I want it to be striking and interesting to look at. I want it to look like someone took way too much time to do way too little, like those breaker box installs from Singapore and Poland.

Thought this was funny and that I’d share this here’s assuming no one beat me to it

Source: jambonbeurre78

My company has several Flexo printing machines and we'd love to get live data from them, press state, speed, waste & job details ect.

The company we buy the presses from charges a fortune for access to this data through their web portal. We'd love to get a live feed into a local server/SSMS to use the data how we like.

A simple ip scanner in switch showed it's password protected.

Just looking for advice/options/ Is there a type of PLC that can be routed between others to read the data passing through?

Apologies for the complete lack of knowledge or erroneous assumptions I might be making here! (am I in the wrong sub??)

Hi everyone,

​I have this complete Omron C1000H rack assembly including the CPU, power supply, and multiple I/O modules as shown in the picture.

​Since this is a legacy large-rack system, I would appreciate your expert insights on a few things:

​Thanks in advance for any advice or technical tips!

Hello everyone!
I tried to open a backup file sent by a client, but this error appears when opening it in RSLogix 5000.

What should I do to be able to open the file on my machine?

Ok so, I recently started my career (literally, i'm 2 months into my first job on this industry) in this factory with a messy network and they want to install a MES system. I have 3 network ranges and they're all distinct to that of the main router that the MES company wants to connect to. IT wants me to change the IP of 40+ devices that talk to each other and I've said multiple times that that's insane. I talked to IT about the possibility of using NAT routers but the guy seems to genuinelly not know about that. What can I do here other than change all IPs? Should I tell the supervisor about NAT routers and tell him that buying them spares us from more than likely big downtimes?