What Do You Use To Program PLC's?

I have seen a variety of combinations for programming plc's at the many places I've contracted to over the years.

Generally, the engineer has a desktop and a laptop computer, Sometimes the shop has a laptop or a desktop on a cart.

The best shop system I saw was a desktop, with a form-feed printer, so the program could be easily printed in the shop.

Unofficial standard policy at that facility was to carry a blank floppy in your pocket at al times.

So, what does your operation have for plc programming computers. Check all that apply!

Feel free to mention brand names in a post, as ANOTHER poll will be forthcoming. Unofficially, several plc manufactures recommend avoiding HP and Compaq, a major computer talk show says to stay away from Micron laptops, what are your thoughts?

regards.....casey

Can't multiple vote

Do to technical (operator error) problems, can only vote for one at a time. Will try to get this fixed.

casey

You are full of questions lately.

Why?

The best shop system I saw was a desktop, with a form-feed printer, so the program could be easily printed in the shop.

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I agree with the desktop idea. I HATE laptop touch pads and joysticks. I alway use a mouse even when using a lap top unless there is no flat surface available.

Have you tried two BIG LCD displays? I don't use printers anymore.

1600x1200 LCD displays aren't that pricey anymore and they don't take up a lot of room or weigh so much that they make your monitor shelf sag.

LCD Displays

That doesn't sound like too bad of an idea.

The "cart" had the monitor on the top shelf, and was top heavy.

Dot matrix printer was on the bottom, A hard copy was to be kept with the machine, and the two better electricians wanted a copy, and I would make one also. Printing often took severalattempts, as "house power" belched occaisionally, and the printers would stop, and everything would have to start over. With 2000-300 I/O typical, on over 500 machines, the poor printers got quite a workout.

If nothing else, there was good documentation!

I was in a brick plant this summer, the shop plc programmer (kind of like a large laptop built into a suitcase) was on the floor next to the cabinet, with at least a 1/2 inch of crud, and the office laptop was balanced on a 2 inch horizontal pipe. The maintenance supervisor said the laptop had been out there about 10 days, and he needed to take it back inside. It had about a 1/4 inch of crude on it.

I decided that even being desperate, that wasn't the place for me.

LCD display does sound pretty interesting.

regards.....casey

Questions??? There are several, and there is a method to my madness, and hopefully it will all come to light in another month or too. That also means, more questions to come.

kc9ih said:

Unofficially, several plc manufactures recommend avoiding HP and Compaq...

Click to expand...

I guess I don't use any of those 'several plc manufacturers'. I have a Compaq EVO500 desktop, and recently bought an HP NC8000 laptop (thank's Arik!). Still running Win98SP2 on the desktop, and the laptop has XPProSP1. No compatibility issues with either (so far).

beerchug

-Eric

I uses a Toshiba lite laptop when I do programming out site. But most of the time in office, I used the desktop. No perticular brand because... All the computers are custom made (DIY computers are still the best to my belief.)

regards
Sherine T.

Depends

Typically all systems that have a SCADA system, have the programming software loaded on the SCADA desktop. Makes it easy to edit both at the same time.
For systems that do not have a SCADA an older Dell laptop is used (Win2k).
I also have the software on my desktop (Dell WinXPsp1). I generally do all the programming for new applications on the desktop and then use the laptop for downloading and debugging only.

The "shop" does not have access to PLC's.

I cant fill in the poll because I use both a laptop and a desktop.

I used to have a laptop only to do all the work (an exensive top model), but realising that they only last 2-3 years in the environment that I work in, we changed it to a cheap laptop for onsite work.
The cheap laptop costs only a third of the monster type I used to have.
Entrylevel laptops are good enough for most PLC work anyway, for HMI work they are good enough to make changes to existing application, but not good enough for doing all the work from start.

I do most work at home on the desktop.

A new opportunity has arisen in that we now deliver a PC preloaded with HMI software to the customer.
I take the chance to install PLC and HMI programming software on them so I have a decent PC to work with at the customer.
When finished I remove the software from the customers PC.

I had set up our system so that the shop floor had their own (shared) account on the file server, each laptop had a wireless card, and as long as they remember to save it to the server, instead of on the local machine, the latest and greatest versions were always readily available. Good for local plant personell, but not as readily available solution those of us on the road.

I use a P4 desktop for programming with a Canon BJC5500 inkjet printer that can print on A4, A3 or US fanfold. US fanfold gets the vote.

My commissioning machine is a HP XE3 running XP Home - SP1. Works really well, is heavy, rugged and robust. Has been on the floor several times and still works. Computer sales people really annoy me as all they want to carry and sell is light weight stuff. No good in a factory or building site at all. Use a Microsoft USB laser (LED?) mouse and PS2 plug in keyboard. The great thing about the XE3 is that there is a button in front of the touchpad. Press it to enable or disable the touch pad. No more typing in the wrong place.

I have a desktop and a laptop. Belkin omniview KVM switch, I usually have both running at once.

I have a 30x24 wheeled cart for the shop. Top shelf has a spot for the laptop and mouse and a print holder bar with clips. Second shelf is a hub and a wireless bridge. I can plug in several devices to our network wherever I am. (mainly PV+'s nice- I can download screens from up in my office.) Third shelf is a box full of cables. We have and old UPS sitting on the shelf, I was thinking of putting it on the cart.

There is a 11X17 printer in the inspection room that I can print to, but rarely do anymore.

I use a dell latitude laptop with XP pro.

The only problem I find is trying to find a dark hole to program in. Our plant process manager(my supervisor's boss) doesn't like seeing maintanence personnel using a computer.

We'll were a bit different because we're an OEM, but all Engineering has IBM Thinkpad T41 or T42 notebooks... Docking stations in the office and all that good stuff... I play dual roles as PLC programmer and IT staff amung other things (small company) and out of Dell, Compaq, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and IBM the IBM has been the best balance of price, performance, durability, and weight. We budget to replace computers every 3 years with old computers handed down to people who don't need to best computing power (secrataries, etc)...

This is how we do it....

Where I work we have several programming terminal. Each process line has a desktop in their power house that can access the line's PLC's or any other lines PLC for that matter. In my centeral office, we have a programming terminal so we can view any process line along with an HMI termial, think of it as "central command" we can see any of our seven lines from there. (Great for troubleshooting, dont have to leave my office area..) I also have a laptop to do the same with from my personal office. Our plc setup is a server based setup, so that is why we have so many terminals.

Andrew

I do all the programming and changes. Usually if changes are required in the field, the field tech connect a modem to the plc and the program is downloaded from my desktop.

Execpt for right now I'm trying to make a change and we'er getting com errors that are preventing me from getting complete downloads.. So off to another NEW post on that subject.