PLC applications

Sir,

I'm an Engineeing student,doing my third year, interested in the field of Industrial automation.I've been searching for a very good application of PLCs in the above mentioned field.Could anybody help me in finding an application which could be taken as a project and can be helpful in learning more about PLCs.


thanh you

Dinesh,

You will probably want a project that will test your ability to apply what you have already learned.

There are many possibilites. PLCs are not just for turning on and off relays anymore. You will want to consider an application that uses analog I/O as well.

You might consider a diesel engine monitor, whereby you would monitor the oil pressure and temperature.

Another application might be a controller for a car wash. The digital I/O for the sequence. Analog I/O for monitoring water pressure and temperature. You could also use an analog input to measure the level of sluge in the resevoir tank using a variable resistor.

A third application, might be a home automation system, with motion sensors for outside lights, a real time clock for turning on outside lights. You could also control the heating and cooling units of the house.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

God Bless,

Stephen Luft

Contact a few manufacturers in your area. Offer them the following:

If they supply the project, you will estimate the cost of the hardware for free. And then, if the cost is within their budget, they will supply the hardware, you will program it for them for free. They may need to provide you with access to one of their engineers - not to do the project for you, but to provide you assistance and guidance as needed.

This is a win-win situation - they get a system for the price of the parts (which is usually about 50% of a project), you get a REAL education. They might even be able to write off the cost of the project on their taxes as an donation to education (depending on your tasx laws and their tax attorneys).

If you're really lucky (and you do a good job), you might even get a job out of it once you get your degree.

Make sure that they have a resonable budget for a project before you start work. I've seen this sort of college-business relationship work quite well, but it takes a commitment on both the school's and the business's part.

Thank you

Sir,

I'm really grateful to you for your ideas.i'll try to do one of the three ideas given by you [Mr.Stephen Luft] according to the feasibility as we have only limited resources in our institute.


dinesh

I began writing the following simply as a comment on Stephen's and Allen's replies. But then, I realized that this situation is exactly what most PLC-Programmer Wanna-Be's are up against.

CATCH-22
"How do you get experience if they won't let you work unless you've had experience?"

It's much like one of the more common problems in programming...
You can define the repeatitive loop in a process. Getting out of the loop is usually not that difficult. But how do you get into the loop to begin with?

That particular problem has to be solved in terms of the particular process - there is no universal answer.

And so it is when trying to resolve this CATCH-22 issue...

BTW, this issue does not go away simply because you've had your first experience and might actually be programming. Many Experienced Programmers go through the whole CATCH-22 thing all over again when they try to move to processes that are very different from the processes they have been working with. Programming Automatic Pickle Slicers does not necessarily mean that you can program complicated Chemical Processes.

So, on with our story...

Seems to me that Stephen's solution is more to the point... at least, as far as the original request goes.

You can "play" with those pretend-applications. It gives a certain amount of freedom to do what you want to do. The only pressure you might feel would probaly be self-imposed and determined by your school schedule.

That's a "comfortable" solution. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that approach at all.

Allen's solution is less-comfortable and more-stressful. But, the rewards of that solution can be huge! You get REAL WORLD Experience, REAL WORLD Head-aches, REAL WORLD Situation-Solving Experience, maybe a few REAL WORLD Ulcers...

But, at the end... you'll end up with a system you can point to and say... "I MADE THIS!!!" Hopefully, it would end up being something you really could be proud of! That would be a huge confidence-builder!

That would give you the impetus to continue on with other projects. At some point, you'll probably look back at your original project and think... Jeez, I sure could have done that a heck of a lot better with what I know now! "Getting Better", that's what it's all about!

Now, the real hard part of this idea is to find some place that would be willing to take a chance on you. You have to "Sell Yourself".

Be sure to be realistic in terms of what you really think you can do - start small. Small successes will give you more confidence, and will also give the guy that gave you the chance a reason to feel more confident in you.