Aspiring PLC programmer looking for some advice

[willem119]

Good afternoon everyone,

I am looking for some advice from PLC Programmers/System Integrators here on Carb.

I am an aspiring PLC SI and I would to study further to perhaps land a job a fully fledged programmer. I am currently working as a technician for a small company here in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. We do energy solutions like VSD's, high-efficiency IE4 motors and Solar Installations. I do all of the PLC work here but the projects are relatively small scale. We also mainly use ABB products because we are an Authorized ABB Value Provider. I do not have any experience with any other PLC besides ABB.

I have been doing this for almost 2 years now. I am a qualified electrician with a couple years experience post qualification. I have written my trade test in 2013. I would like to move over to PLC's/Instrumentation full-time and study further but I do not know in which direction to go.

Is there some courses I could do or should I look at maybe completing my Instrumentation Trade first.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Areola Grande]

Rockwell Automation do PLC training courses, I did one back in '08 which, whilst simple, was well laid-out and interesting.

Why not get in touch with Rockwell, Schneider Electric and see what's on offer?

 

[willem119]

Thanks [MENTION=716]UrBaN[/MENTION], I will have a look. I'm looking at Siemens and Phoenix Contact training courses as well.

 

[Phence]

When I was in that industry Siemens was one of the big manufacturers for PLCs. I don't think you could go wrong with Siemens, unless the industry you are in prefers another vendor for some reason and you want to stick with that manufacturer.

 

[SCHUMI4EVER]

Siemens all the way. Might even be lucky enough to get a ticket outa here with them. (Not that I have any clue what you're talking about XD, but back in the day when I was an immature naive little thing I always wanted to work for Siemens).

 

[Deimos42]

Most of my experience is with Siemens PLCs (lower-end stuff mostly, never had a need for the powerful PLCs but the basics stay the same). The courses are a bit expensive (and the software) if you do it on your own, better let your company pay for everything. I'm currently working on a copper mine in the DRC and most of our equipment, if not all, is Siemens.

The entire plant is run on Siemens' PCS7 (Process Control System). Very nice piece of kit. The basic course is two weeks but if you are used to any type of PLC then it would be quite easy.

Still with Siemens, they do have a lot of various courses, including Profibus/Profinet (I would recommend it if you are going to do integration on a bigger scale).

There is another company called Unitronics that make quite decent PLCs, the software is free and easy to use.

 

[willem119]

Thank you very much [MENTION=31271]Phence[/MENTION], [MENTION=38509]Mast3rBlast3r[/MENTION] and [MENTION=16941]Deimos42[/MENTION] for all the feedback. I spoke to my manager about Siemens and he said that there is absolutely nothing that's keeping us from using it. The only reason why we use ABB is because we can purchase their products at a discounted rate. I have the Siemens CPU lying around and he said he can source me a licensed copy of the software as well. So I will get right to it and perhaps try and book myself a course or two. My company does not have an issue to pay for courses as long as they can benefit from it.

 

[souljazk]

I know nothing of PLC's, but you guys might find this documentary very interesting, I know I did! In a nutshel its about what many suspect to be the US Gov, creating a zeroday to target specific Siemens PLC's in Iran, that are used in their Uranium factories...

[video=youtube;3262UcLPt8o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3262UcLPt8o[/video]

 

[stevohen]

My advice would be to try and expose yourself to as many PLC brands as possible. Learn how to learn quickly, it will be an invaluable skill in the field.

It's much more impressive to any employer if you have some experience with 5 different branded PLC hardwares/softwares, than a lot of experience in one single brand.

Anyway just to throw my opinion in, definitely need to go with Siemens if you have to choose just one!