Is Mitsubishi way different from AB and Siemens?

Hi people,

Just wondering if the Mitsubishi software and programming (GX Developer)is a lot different from those in AB and Siemens.
I am concerned because I am a newly grad engineer. At my job we only use Mitsubishi PLC and drives. I have noticed that a lot of other jobs require mainly AB or Siemens. I was wondering if once I get familiar with Mitsubishi, will it be an easy transition to learn AB and Siemens or are these completely different?. Mitsubishi does not seem to be used a lot in the USA or at least I have not seen any job postings that will specify Mitsubishi as their prefered control system.

I can't speak for Siemens, but Mitsubishi is considerably different from A-B. Mitsubishi programming seems (to me at least) to be less abstract or less of a high-level language. I think that if you were to learn Mitsubishi, the transition to A-B would be easier than the other way around. For me, having a combined experience with A-B and low-level computer programming (Assembly, C, C++) allowed me to pick it up fairly quickly.

As a side note, quite a few PLC brands are similar to Mitsubishi in the way that you have to understand the bitwise operations and data types to really understand the instructions and their variations. Toyopuc, Omron, Mitsubishi are the main ones that come to mind.

Hi! First off, congratulations! With discipline and applying your skillset you'll find that Education will pay you back tenfold.


I've worked with AB plcs for over 7 years. There's a good deal of difference between the AB/Siemens/and Mitsubishi. From what I've seen of the Mitsubishi series they're simpler than the others. Though I'm biased towards AB because that's where I cut my teeth.
Lots of Japanese companies use Mitsubishi plcs, so they wouldn't be a bad thing to pick up.



good luck!!

I've worked with AB and Mitsubishi and agree with Russ that Mitsubishis are simpler, but a lot of the code functions are simpler and I don't believe the transition from one to the other would be overly significant.


Siemens on the other hand always take a little more getting used to as the layout and calling of Function blocks is quite diffrent. Also, most Siemens programmers prefer to program in STL format compared to the Mit and AB Ladder norm which can take a bit of getting used to.

If you are OK with Mitsubishi ladder then you should not have any problems with AB. Siemens is another matter altogether though. I find that the main problem with Siemens programming is that there are so many possible styles and variations which will all work and are all perfectly valid. Three different programmers could do the same job using three entirely different programming techniques. Mitsubishi do, however, make the transition easier than most as you can switch between ladder and instruction list at any time. My advice, if you want to start learning to work with Siemens PLC's, is to create a number of typical routines in GX developer using ladder and then switch to IL and look at how the code is put together. Once you can switch between the two fairly easily you should be able to learn the Siemens instructions etc. without too many problems.

Andybr

Mitsubishi is huge in Japan - bigger than Omron - in the PLC field. AB, Siemens etc are tiddlers over there. Mitsubishi is OK - the software is written in Europe I hear - so is Hitachi. I do find Omron software and PLCs far more functional and the software is way better.

AB software probably comes second with me behind Omron, closely followed by GE-Fanuc - although they are also quite different programming wise, particularly timers etc.

Siemens is a whole new ball park. The Siemens PLC is programmed and works much more like a microprocessor than most other PLCs. Most PLCs, Japanese in particular, have a lot of inbuilt error checking etc - with Siemens you have to insert the correct FBs etc. I still absolutely struggle with Siemens after working with many brands of PLC since 1989 - not inexperienced with many brands. Some I have never used though.

You really should not have a lot of trouble with AB - just have to get used to all the memory areas - that can be a pain. Cannot say the same for Siemens though - fortunately there are many people here from Europe that know Siemens inside out that can help. They have helped me before - I would have been lost without them.