(Part 2) Best products from r/PLC

Ah, well, part of this difference in perspective may be the career path I had -- I've been doing custom electronics off and on for the past 20 years, and a larger number of the electronics design projects I work on are self-contained devices. A different realm than industrial applications. (I also used to do IT/Networking -- in that world, everything was networking gear, servers, and storage devices.)

In some cases, when I talk about real-time, I'm talking about timing relationships that are measured in ones or tens of nanoseconds. The PLC specs I've seen so far talk about cycles times of hundreds of microseconds -- which clearly wouldn't work for those applications requiring sub-microsecond timing. Of course, not everything I do is like that. In fact, most of the work are fine for PLC cycle timescales.

At the start of my career, I worked on a "crane game" arcade machine which would have been trivial to do with a PLC had I known about them then.

It's just that I've spent most of time at a different end of the spectrum than you, I think, and I'm now trying to get a better grasp and understanding of the PLC world.

BTW, I'd love to hear about your background and the path you took to get to working with what you use.

Also, could you point me to where I can read about some of the more "high-grade" systems that you mentioned? I'd really like to learn about them. TIA!

It's an interesting point you make about "selling lots of machines". I can see how if you are selling industrial equipment, using PLC's as building blocks would be the more appropriate approach.

A 3D printer is, in many ways, similar to such an industrial machine in complexity. The most popular forms of building printers today is to use a printer controller built around the Arduino platform (or, more correctly, the Microchip/Atmel Atmega family processors that are used in Arduino). We're talking about a controller board that typically runs 3 PID temperature control loops, 5 axes of motion control, communication with a host computer, reading (and occasionally writing) data to an SD card, running a control panel with LEDs, a graphical LCD, audio, and user inputs, and incorporating the motor driver -- for $35, delivered from Amazon (just to grab the first example I found). By my estimate, at least several tens of thousands of those are sold every year now.

Would I want to run an actual industrial machine with that board? Heck no! :) (They are known fire-starters in some cases, and most of the cheap boards lack hardening that you find in superior devices.)

I have this one Ogio. It's extra cool because it has an electrical drawing on the inner liner, but aside from that it's a great backpack with useful pockets on the outside. I keep my safety glasses in one (with sunglasses in the normal spot on top because they're more fragile), an Ethernet cable in the other, and random adapters in the third. The last one will hold a good sized water bottle. It's not cheap, but it's served me well through years of heavy travel. For a while I was traveling with two laptops, and it handled the weight very well.

Concur on music helping code. I suggest soundtracks, they are purpose written to keep your interest in something but not take the focus. Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack is some of my favorite coding music.

I use two different pairs. Bought myself a Logitech G930 on a black friday special, really like the microphone automute features and controls on the ears. Were originally my work cans, currently in my home office.

My company went jabber/skype and they bought us Plantronics Voyagers. The ANC feature is surprisingly useful on these things, as is the ability to simultaneously connect with computer and mobile phone.

I keep a small bag in my main bag that I can clip to my belt. I mostly use it when I know I'm going to be working in a panel for a while but in general this covers 75% of my needs. Here's the bag.

Here is what I keep in it.

Wire Stripper / Needle Nose I haven't had these for too long but I really like them.

Small meter I like this one for a lot of reasons. One is that will fit in the bag and is good enough to use under 480 in my opinion.

Voltage Detector The meter has non-contact voltage detection, but I like this one more.

Crescent Wrench I like this one because it also has the monkey wrench on it so it's good for tightening air lines from time to time. Though in reality I don't use that feature much.

A couple larger screwdrivers #2 phillips and a flat head big enough to open panels easily.

Controls Screwdriver For terminals and such. I sometimes use the ones with the rotating end.

Flashlight These are not the best, but they're cheap and work as a penlight and they can do area illumination with a magnetic base.

I have seconds (and in the case of the meter and flashlights - a higher quality version) of all these in my main bag, but I mostly use this little pouch.

Yeah Wera the bane of my credit card. A few years ago I was working with a SI from Germany that came over with all of their tools in a Pelican case like this: Pelican Case with their company colors and logos. The pelican case had a sheet of plastic in the back with just Velcro covering the whole thing.

Then they had all of the wera 2go stuff inside Velcro to the back and each other.

2 of these: High Tool

4 of the pouches: Quiver

Their tools then were neatly organized into each section and it was amazing, next time they come I am getting pictures. I wish I had the money to blow on a tool setup like it.

Then all the open space was filled with Velcro bags or more Wera 2go pouches that came with the kits.

Swiss gear bags are great. It was new laptop time so I requisitioned for a new backpack as well. I kept it kinda small since I don't have to carry much more than a laptop, notebook and a few screwdrivers. It's fantastic a month in, one of the best bags I've had in a while.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VM8CD5H/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_Aj4UDbEQK2DJ1

Even though it's not name brand I really like the 'Cable matters cat6a rj45 field wireable' connectors I get from Amazon. They're a little over $6/end and you can buy them in a 6 pack. I use them with both cat6a shielded 10gbE links for vision and for profinet cable. They work great and are the least expensive connector I've found for the purpose..


https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Tool-Free-Termination-Connector/dp/B074HG7SQN

Next best in my opinion:

• Metz Connect (hard to find in the states)
  
• Phoenix Contact ($)

If I was parachuted into a project without Ethernet or IP troubleshooting tools, I'd nip $200 from the project budget and get:

1. A USB/Ethernet dongle adapter. Disable all the Windows protocols and services so it can be used purely for network sniffing. I like the ordinary StarTech units, which are inexpensive and robust.
   
   
2. A network tap. While you can configure some switches for port mirroring, and true passive network taps are expensive, you can get a lot of bang for your buck with a DualComm 5-port switch that has one port permanently set up as a mirror output.
   
   
3. Wireshark. Again, there are dedicated-purpose industrial analyzers on the market (I swear by Frontline Test Equipment) but Wireshark is the Swiss Army Knife of IP analysis, free and well understood.
   
   
4. A powered USB hub. You don't need those dongles and switches hanging precariously off your laptop.
   
   That's only chewed up $140 of your budget. Spend the rest on energy drinks and Funyuns.

I've never been able to find a chair that I could operate comfortably out of, but I use one of these laptop stands whenever I know I'm going to be plugged in for more than a couple minutes:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZES766/

It looks like that specific one is probably hard to come by now, but it's a pretty common piece of equipment- what you'll want to search for is, amusingly, portable DJ equipment.

I have one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001EMA80/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't entirely love it, but it's better than nothing. It's a little flimsy, but it's pretty lightweight, and just a little bigger than a laptop. I'll throw it in my checked bag when I'm flying to a job, but it's small enough to put in my backpack with my laptop once I'm there.

Control System Design Guide by George Ellis.

Amazon

Old version

This book perfectly bridges together the theory you learn in school with the practical design knowledge you need in the field. Note that it is mostly about process and motion control, not PLCs.

Here are 2 recommended from this forum. I haven't got to reading them yet but they were well reviewed.

https://www.amazon.com/Control-System-Design-Guide-Fourth/dp/0123859204/?pldnSite=1

https://www.amazon.com/Programmable-Logic-Controllers-Emphasis-Application/dp/097662592X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465689582&sr=8-3&keywords=PLCs+an+emphasis

I found this on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Workstation-Rolling-Adjustable-Poarmeey/dp/B01LO4NUN4/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=rolling+workstation+desk&qid=1556648093&s=gateway&sr=8-5

It has a good bit of adjustment and isn't too large.

I found https://www.amazon.com/Applying-S88-Batch-Control-Perspective/dp/1556177038 to be good.

Off the top of my head, besides the laptop, I got:

Basic Electrical hand tools such as wire strippers and snips

Fluke 787 process meter

Fluke clamp on mA meter

Terminal Block Screwdriver by Klein

RS-485 to USB interface

RJ45s and crimper

Dewalt DCF680 Gyroscrew driver, do not get the "newer" 682, they removed the adjustable torque clutch

I am looking into a portable stand up type desk for my laptop so I don't have to use the closest transformer or balance it on a large pipe. Anyone have experience with these (Table Tote)?

Follow the ISA-88 standard for batching. Break your operation into phases and follow the state model (Idle/Active/Held/ect...) to control equipment. Have a permissive check before transitioning to active, and program faults that will force the phase to be held. Equipment only runs when the right phase is active.

Rockwell has something in ControlLogix called Phase Manager that does a lot of the work for you when it comes to controlling phases, but it's not too hard to program your own phase state engine once you understand the model.

http://www.amazon.com/Applying-S88-Batch-Control-Perspective/dp/1556177038

I use this one. Adjustable and solid.