# Good place to learn PLC programming.



## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

My opinion, only anecdotal though is that Allen-Bradley is the most prolific out there unless you are getting machines / equipment from off-shore. If that is the case it could be anybody's bet what you will find in the box.

Having said that, the basic are still the same across the board... inputs, outputs, timers, counters, etc.

Cheers
John


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

gamer said:


> Whats the most common PLC brands?
> 
> Ive been looking for a course to learn and get certification to hopefully increase my exposure. Courses ive seen are very proprietary so im hoping to invest time and money in a course that will be the most beneficial.
> 
> ...


I learned on Allen Bradley, then went to work for Siemens years later. The Siemens system is TOTALLY different in that with Siemens, you MUST plan out your entire system in advance of starting ANY programming, whereas with A-B, you can start programming first and adapt it to how your system gets laid out (called "aliasing", meaning you can start writing code without knowing the physical addresses of your I/O, whereas with Siemens, you MUST know that first, and any changes requires a re-write). That makes a HUGE difference in the real world. *So from that standpoint if you learn Siemens, you can move to A-B without much trouble*, but going the other way around is hard for a lot of people in North America, where managers want to start seeing code right away and if after a week, all you hae done is decide on how the system will be laid out, they start yelling. 



On the other hand though, last I checked, A-B had over 50% market share on PLCs in North America, the next closest was Siemens at around 20%. So if you learn A-B, your value in the job market _*in North America*_ is far better.









Elsewhere in the world, Siemens is #1, A-B is #2, for what that's worth.


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

Also depends on what is in your area as to what you should be focusing on. We've got tons of Modicon, some new Schneider, a couple of ALB PLC 5's, and one site with Controllogix. A couple of the plants around here are all Controllogix and a few others are different brands of ALB. One area where we did a bunch of upgrades, they were all Horner PLC's.


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

AB 800 series PLC with limited free software to start. Go from there.

Cowboy


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

gamer said:


> Whats the most common PLC brands?
> 
> Ive been looking for a course to learn and get certification to hopefully increase my exposure. Courses ive seen are very proprietary so im hoping to invest time and money in a course that will be the most beneficial.
> 
> ...


Allen bradley beginners course is probably your best bet but its expensive and its really not for beginners. 
Buy a cheap plc with free software and learn some of the basics first or even better if you are comfortable with the hardware see if you can just get a emulator.


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## bill39 (Sep 4, 2009)

Check out the plctalk.net site.

There’s a lot of very helpful people there plus they have a generic online PLC trainer.

I wish you the best.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

Buy an Automation Direct Click PLC for $50-100. Software is free. Very easy to use. It’s similar to Modicon and the older AB PLCs. It’s made by Toyo which has been around for at least 30 years. The “ladder logic” of AB is a little simpler to use but the math instructions are much better.

This is not a toy PLC though. It’s the real thing. Many companies are using them for simple things like skid mounted equipment or say a pumping station. I’ve used one as a multiple burner oven controller. The bigger brother is the Productivity PLC which is very similar to AB Controllogix style.

That being said I’ve used them all. Siemens is positively the worst for troubleshooting for the simple reason that the basic instruction set is crap. They make it very easy though to write your own instructions so everyone writes huge libraries with lots of layers. So you have to wade through a lot of code to troubleshoot unlike the others. Even when the others have this capability (AB calls it AOI) there is still a way to view the unraveled version.

The AB 800 is a Codesys PLC. Not the easiest to use.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

paulengr said:


> Buy an Automation Direct Click PLC for $50-100. Software is free. Very easy to use. It’s similar to Modicon and the older AB PLCs. It’s made by Toyo which has been around for at least 30 years. The “ladder logic” of AB is a little simpler to use but the math instructions are much better.


Which one do think the math instructions are better ? 

I like using the ACC on the AB timers. The Clicks don't have that, so you have to do it another way.


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## jcaden (Oct 30, 2016)

The AD Click also shows the Timer accumulator value, labeled as Current value, and as TD in the address picker.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

The Click has just one math instruction but it does everything. The AB CPT instruction is pretty good especially in the Controllogix platform but it doesn’t do every math function like modular arithmetic and bit operations. AB does all those things but they are separate instructions,

The only weakness I’ve found for typical applications with
Click is that AB has always had the best timer instruction. With AB you have the DN (timer done) and TT (timer timing) status bits. Click only has one timer bit that is like the AB DN bit. But the accumulator is in the corresponding TD register so for timer 1 the “done” bit is T1 and the accumulator is TD1. So you can simulate TT by comparing the input conditions to the timer and the inverted timer bit or use a comparison function on the timer accumulator.

There are a ton of things that Click doesn’t do such as alarms (that nobody in their right mind uses), servo functions, add on instructions, and other languages but it does serial and some other I/O much easier. And it uses memory addresses instead of tags but that’s all things that the bigger brother Productivity PLCs do.

Or you can spend $3500-6000 PER copy on AB software plus $3500-40,000 on a PLC and pay many multiples on I/O. It used to be a lot easier to pirate the old floppy key system but I more. On a PLC running say an entire chemical or automotive plant AB is pretty good. But I’ve seen food plants, aggregate plants, ovens, dryers, and other equipment running on the older DirectLogic or newer Click or Productivity PLCs. And at $49 to get your feet wet, AB can’t touch that, period.

Despite the stupid smiley face ads, this is NOT a toy. This stuff is as bulletproof as AB...as in I’ve seen them buried in plant filth, half rusted out, with the hands and hay wiring of mechanics trying to do electrical work, hanging by the wiring knocked off the DIN rail, still somehow running.

Around here (Raleigh area) AB is a PITA. Not just expensive but it’s a constant struggle to deal with them.


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## jcaden (Oct 30, 2016)

Automation Direct also has a free video training series for the Click PLC. Browse their website at AutomationDirect.com


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