Hey /diy/, My current job involves a lot of designing and building control systems for machines, something I came into the job knowing nothing about. I've done a pretty good job of getting up to speed, but I'm constantly finding out about better solutions and hardware and best practices that I wasn't aware of. Given that I have no formal education in automation, does anybody know of any good resources for learning more about the hardware side of things? I'd like to step my game up. Picrel, a cabinet I designed for one of our machines.
>>2875514I’m an automation guy myself but mostly controls/plc and the stuff above it. What do you mean by the hardware side exactly? Like what parts to put into a cabinet? Or more how to read/draw/designschematics?I learned most stuff on the job and google, my degree is in mech eng but decided statics calculations wasn’t my thing > cabinet I designed for one of our machinesCould be missing something but don’t you need some fuses on those 24v lines
>>2875519The schematic side of things I'm good with, it's more component selection and best practices. Case in point, I wouldn't have thought to fuse the power supplies (though I do have them on breakers). I'm also a mechanical engineer, mostly design and manufacturing, so my education in this field has all been reactive learning on the job. I guess I'm looking for resources to learn how to do this all more properly.
read datasheetsstick to the component family of one or two suppliers instead of random cobbled together componentsutilise terminal blocks and 3 phase rails of said supplierssteal the general layout of other cabinets
>>2875537In that case what >>2875540 wrote. Most companies start with some reference components/layout by the part suppliers then change some stuff because of past experiences or because the client wants it (or the ul inspector told them to). Then they call it ‘company know-how’ and don’t share it with anyone (yet they all do the same stuff).Theres NFPA79 but it’s pretty vague. I recall there was some guideline document for cabinet layouts (I think by Allen Bradley) that’s widely used but as far as I know never became a standard. It puts the 24V supply in the top left, then the PLC, then all other 24V stuff and finally motor groups or drives towards the bottom (right). In the US due to arc flash regulation you see more ‘split cabinets’ nowadays which put all the 24V stuff behind one door and all 380V behind another. Whenever you see a panel, take a picture
For now stick to what your panel shop knows how to deal with. Don't try to get clever too quick, and especially not without talking to the guys to see what they think is and isn't a good idea.If you can, spend time studying existing designs from your own employer. Ask yourself why they might have done things in a particular way and try to understand the benefits of the choices that were made, and what was done to mitigate the drawbacks.
Kind of highjacking your thread anon, hope you won't mind.Been working in a company that does robotic logistic solutions, getting tired of their server-based architecture that barely supports PLCs. It forces me to always interact with the fags at R&D who feel superior because they get to sip real coffee in the office instead of instant on site.Also I'd like to start a side-gig with my dad just for the sake of working with him before he gets too old. He can design machines but he sucks at automation.Is it a good idea to buy some used Siemens older gen PLC and get to know how to automate things ?
>>2876699> Is it a good idea to buy some used Siemens older gen PLCNo, that shit is often more expensive than retail now because factories need them. Get something cheaper that uses codesys, the principles are not very different and you’ll have money for RIOs and motor drives to test with
Does anyone have any experience with wago plc? They seem pretty cheap used compared to new
>>2877331Yes, they are cool. Also last time I checked the license to use them with codesys was free.
>>2875514>blocks eth ports>uses bare boards>no conformal coating>looks like arduino or a rabbitwtf op? explain yourself.
>>2876729>No, that shit is often more expensive than retail now because factories need themtruth - i'm out here selling old GE9030 cpus for $40k a pop becuase mines dont want the down time to upgrade
>>2878024>GE9030 cpusIsn't it compatible with PAC systems RX3i?Or... they just didn't know
>>2878597>compatiblememe word, the applicarion software works with the shipped controller and the shipped firmware version. Everything beyond is up to luck
>>2878602Well, and there's comes to a need competent engineers that can handle hardware and software migration job
sup fellow PLC chads?
>>2878612That is one odd cabinet, what does it do
>>2878615it's in an mcc room so I think it mostly handles physical I/O to a bunch of drives for a couple membrane systemsnot 100% sure though it's the first time I ever opened it when I took the picture.I have lots of random pictures of panels at work.most horrifying or strange in their own ways
how do i get into this field? is the pay decent? how physically demanding is it? I am currently a 25 year old commercial electrician with 7 years experience, going to school to get my journeyman card, and make around $70k a year. my job is destroying my body, and i want to get into something a little more specialized and less labor intensive. in school, we are learning about motor control theory, and learning how to read and write diagrams, but i have zero experience with PLCs.
>>2876699AutomationDirect click PLC’s are cheap and a godsend. If you like coding I prefer the OpenProductivity arduino PLC (mkrZero/SAMD21 based CPU). But click PlC is the best for newbies.
>>2878655Are you licensed? It should be easy to jump into industrial electrician maintenance work.
Did any of y’all ever try the codesys raspberry pi stuff? I’m looking to make a ‘demo setup’ that’s as cheap as possible. The idea is I’ll put codesys runtime on an rpi and run modbus-TCP RIOs so that I can always upgrade either side to something more sophisticated.
>>2878655What's a PLC? To follow up on your question to anyone else, what is "industrial automation" to begin with? What's the pay and how do you get into it? Like what are the pre-reqs? Is it EE majors specializing? Robotics?As far as YOU: What do you even do - basic wiring for offices and houses?>>2878612Wtf is PLC?>>2881795What is codesys? What else are you going to use besides Rasp Pi (if you need machine vision and/or compute past loop), Arduino if you need a basic ass loop, and Jetson Nano if you need hardcore machine vision?What do you guys even automate? So many fucking questions.
>>2881801Modbus rios for a scale model automated greenhouse. In normal life I mostly do packing lines, palletisers, waste sorting and sometimes water treatment
>>2879780> OpenProductivityProductivityOpen right? Would have been cool if the base unit would at least have the GPIO terminals on the front because now if you want ethernet (on the left), you can’t have GPIO. And I think they’re hella overpriced for arduino based
>>2881801programmable logic controller
>>2879780>>2881795so how do these platforms deal with historization, distributed hmi and other modern processes, or are they just stand alone single skid trash? do they support sil level io? what can one actually achieve with such meager specs and shaky, undercooked platforms? i work at a continous 500k/hr production process with hundreds of dcs/plc devices give me a reason to consider such things.
I just scavenged a Siemens PXC22 and PXM10.Anyone got some interesting ideas what to do with them?I wanna get into PLC and automation but I don't know what to automation at home with it.
>>2881864It’s not for a big plant, I’m looking to develop/sell a custom solution to local greenhouse farmers and want to do some testing and demo stuff first before deciding on a plc. It is more than fine for that> shaky, undercooked platformsCodesys is pretty good, wago runs it, Beckhoff does, and lots of others do too> i work at a continous 500k/hr process with hundreds of dcs/plc devicesvery cool
