myPLCtraining Academy Customer Success Story: Brad Redden “myPLCtraining Academy is the best value training I have found for programming and automation. Now myself and the guys that I work with are officially trained and have proven knowledge.”   Brad’s Results Officially training in PLCs Has a training solution for his team Saved money over traditional options Easy access to reference material   How myPLCtraining Academy helped Brad to update his knowledge on PLC’s and train his team Courses that teach from first principles Highly responsive support team Access to relevant softwa ..read more

This post is all about connecting to an Allen-Bradley PLC using Ethernet communications.  There are 4 steps you need to take to get your Windows computer talking to an A-B PLC. Number one, you need to choose and connect some sort of cable between your computer and the PLC. That could be a serial cable or a USB cable with some of the more modern controllers, or it could be ethernet or even something else. Number two, we need to set up your computer so that it's ready to connect to the PLC. So if you're connecting over Ethernet that means setting the IP address on your computer, or if you'r ..read more

In this blog post and video, we are continuing to help you toward becoming a confident PLC programmer by introducing the programming language called Function Block Diagram (FBD) inside Studio 5000 Logix Designer... But before we get into this video, if you want some structured training courses and support to help you become a confident PLC programmer, then check out our membership called, myPLCtraining Academy.  (NOTE: we plan to release a course on Function Block Diagram inside the Academy later in 2021) Ok let’s get into this.  Function Block Diagram  This can be rea ..read more

In this blog post and video, we are continuing to help you toward becoming a confident PLC programmer by explaining a really cool feature in Studio 5000 that allows you to create reusable tag bundles.  I'm talking about User-Defined Data Type or UDTs. But before we get into this video, if you want some structured training courses and support to help you become a confident PLC programmer, then check out our membership called, myPLCtraining Academy. There should be a link below this video, if you’re interested. Ok let’s get into this.  If you don’t know already there is a really c ..read more

This article is all about connecting your computer to Allen-Bradley PLCs with serial communications. Particularly, the DF1 serial protocol from A-B. The DF1 protocol is usually used when you connect a RS-232 cable from your computer to a PLC. The typical RS-232 cable uses a 9-pin connector as shown below: Now, to be honest, A-B doesn’t even make PLCs with serial ports anymore. Most newer PLCs have a USB port and an EtherNet/IP port. But there are still a lot of older PLCs out there that have a serial port so this training will probably come in handy for you at some point ;) Plus, hav ..read more

This post is all about using Ladder Logic for programming in Connected Components Workbench. If you are new to Connected Components Workbench, I'd encourage you to check out the intro to CCW post here. Specifically, we are going to take a look at using math instructions in Ladder Logic to do calculations within CCW.  For example, let’s say we wanted to track the liquid level in a tank as a percentage. In many cases, the analog input for a tank level sensor might be scaled such that it shows the gallons of the tank.  So if it’s a 4,000 gallon capacity tank with a 4-20mA sensor, the a ..read more

Comparison instructions are important for handling analog inputs  into your PLC. Check out how to use the basic compare instructions and some cool things you can do with them! This is just a sample of the type of training you'll learn from myPLCtraining Academy and the Confident PLC Programmer Method...if you want to know more if you need to start with a little basic stuff before getting to comparison instructions then we have the perfect training method for you.  Click below to learn more. The Confident PLC Programmer Method Enjoy and I'll talk to you again soon! Stephen VIDEO TRAN ..read more

In this article we get into how to use the built in PLC simulator/emulator inside Connected Components Workbench (CCW). Let's get into it!   The CCW software is free at least the standard version is. And it's becoming more and more popular in Industry around the world for a few different reasons.  For one thing the controllers that you can program with this software are very inexpensive. The controllers are the Micro800 series controllers from Rockwell Automation Allen Bradley. And I believe they are all available for less than $1,000.    Many of the controllers come with ..read more

“How do I get a job as a PLC programmer?” I get this question a lot from my readers and students. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer to this question. But, the good news is that it is very doable for many motivated electricians and technicians to make the move to PLCs, automation and controls. And if you’re a mechanical, electrical or chemical engineer, it’s probably going to be even easier. Ok, so what does it take to get a PLC programmer job? Here are 4 things that I think you should focus on: Get involved in automation related equipment and projects at your current job (if there ar ..read more

This blog post is all about SCADA. Ever heard of it? SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It’s basically a computer-based system that provides basic control and detailed monitoring of plants and industrial equipment. The industries where you’ll these systems called SCADA are usually: telecommunications, power and energy, water/waste-water and oil and gas refineries. On a basic level, a SCADA system is just an Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) (or multiple HMIs) with connections to various automation controllers such as PLCs or monitoring devices such as power meters or anythi ..read more