RSLogix500 beginer

Hello everybody,

I am a part of maintanance personal in one company that produces tissue paper and also does a transformation. Although I am a mechanical engineer I am one of two employees that knows something about PLCs. After almost two years of learnig (when ever I could) I think that my knowledge of Step7 is good enough for the needs of this company. We also have three packaging lines equiped with SLC500 PLCs and the program is in RSLogix500. I think that now is the time to move on and move from Siemens to AB.

I wanted to ask you if you can recomend me some good literature and what is the best way to learn to use this software (maintanance level). I must point out that as a mechanical I hate ladder diagrams - I prefer to use CFC,FBD,STL but the RSLogix500 programing is only in Ladder as I see. Also I am wondering if there is some software similar to PLCSIM that can help me to achive my goal.

Thanks in advance.

I find it very ODD that you, with a mechanical background, find hatred for LADDER Programming! It is the best for conceptual interpretation of discrete relay driven systems! Forgive me, but I believe that the LADDER programming GUI was intended for people just like yourself! (And me too)
You are obviously more advanced than the average mechanical maintenance person to be using CFC, FBD and such!
Go to the AB/Rockwell Website and download the free version of ML RSLogix package.

Hi Krcedinac.

I dont know about the literature, but this I can tell you.

AB Ladder code is very similar to S7 LAD. I have converted a number of AB programs to S7 with only few problems. The other way ought to be similar.
I dont understand your hatred of Ladder (it is a very strong word). I came from S5 to AB, and I therefore had to switch from FBD to Ladder. After a little getting used to I now have to say that Ladder beats FBD for a number of reasons.

There is a simulator software for the SLC500 (RS Emulate 5) but it has a MAJOR drawback. It does not allow online editing (!). This more or less makes it useless for many users.
Better, get an SLC500 with online editing (*) and do your testing on that. You will learn the AB way of online editing, and you will find that it beats the Siemens way.
If you company has a spare SLC500 setup somewhere it is even for 'free'.

*: The CPU must be an SLC5/03 or better to have online editing.

ladder

Hello Jesper, SNK,

You are probably right about ladder. The truth is that first S7 program that I had to understand was in STL. Then I started to work in paper mill during comisioning where the program was written in CFC and all no library blocks in again STL and FBD. So, I never had a time and opportunity to deal seriosly with the ladder diagrams. I am sorry if I hurt your feelings with a strong word . I will get back to you with new impressions when I "enter" in the world of ladder diagrams.

Thanks for yours advices and informations.

:site:

Inside every metal-masher is a sparky screaming to get out!