Why dont we have section for tutorials

Hi folks.

I absolutely love this site.Cant believe i am spending more time here than on facebook. Anyways I am fresh grad ,working in an automation company. I would really like if people could do some video tutorials or image tutorials.People here have some knowledge so it would be great if people do some tutorials.

It takes a lot of effort to make a video.

There are plenty of product related videos made with the intention of selling the product or teaching one how to use the product.

I have often wondered the same thing myself. Where I would start is a guideline to students on how to ask questions. The second is to those that do not give enough information on their equipment.

I agree with Peter that developing any training material is very time intensive - estimate 4 to 6 hours developing per hour of class time.

There is the Web. Lots of good stuff out there and a fair amount of bad. Takes time to search but compared to the old days you can do at speed of light. Old days was telephone (hour to get the right guy) and then a week for him to mail out the info.

There are some good referances here on this site
Start with Mr Melores offerings.
Ron Beaufort has top notch stuff on PLCs.

Some other sites I use and like
http://www.mrplc.com/ Have list of articles.

http://www.eng-tips.com/
More of a troubleshooting forum but still very good - especially if you use the search feature

http://www.patchn.com/index.php
Has list of articles. They could have been taken farther but what is there is good.

ON all these sites use the search feature. Unless you are cutting edge with brand new stuff other people have already run into whatever problem you have.

Dan Bentler

leitmotif said:

Where I would start is a guideline to students on how to ask questions. The second is to those that do not give enough information on their equipment.

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Good intentions, but the people described are the same ones who don't ever look at tutorials.

danw said:

Good intentions, but the people described are the same ones who don't ever look at tutorials.

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Yes but it would be a sticky such that it always shows at the top of the page and is easily referred to. Teh advantage for us is we have a canned explanation and can just say "see sticky XX"

Dan Bentler

I think people here should contribute in making tutorials. I see some people have the same questions like "how do i connect to Panelview" or How can i connect to plc5". So it would great people here can make tutorials . I know manual everything has everythin but it so fat you fall asleep lol. Anyways just my 2 cents

if you cant be arsed to read the manual what makes you think people on here should spend their free time making you another one? its diffucult to help someone whos not willing to put in the effort.
you will learn nothing if all the information is just handed to you on a plate. my 2 cents

rob allan said:

if you cant be arsed to read the manual what makes you think people on here should spend their free time making you another one? its diffucult to help someone whos not willing to put in the effort.
you will learn nothing if all the information is just handed to you on a plate. my 2 cents

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+1000
Read the manuals, and post here what you dont understand.

Hey Rob Allan, I see you are in Washington... do you work local ?

Regards

John

Hi John
No longer in Washington ,now live in Hebburn.Working local would be nice but is usually rare. I am currently working in sunny Scotland. Do you have some work I may be interested in? My current project is currently demanning so I am on the look out for something new.Id be very interested in working near home.Im sure it would cheer my missus up too.
Drop me a PM

Regards Rob

rob allan said:

if you cant be arsed to read the manual what makes you think people on here should spend their free time making you another one? its diffucult to help someone whos not willing to put in the effort.
you will learn nothing if all the information is just handed to you on a plate. my 2 cents

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I agree with Rob. You need to read the manual first. My experience has been AFTER you read the manual they will help you.

Dan Bentler

More and more I see questions about connecting a common known PLC with an obscure "cheep" device. I have ask the unanswered question myself. There are totally some common questions that could have a SWI made. Some years ago I did a (with pics) ethernet setup word doc. That never made it to the download area. I don't know how you get your stuff there.

leitmotif said:

developing any training material is very time intensive - estimate 4 to 6 hours developing per hour of class time.

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This may be a little low for quality output (at least for me). At our trade show this past April I did a 90 minute seminar and probably spent a total of 20 hours preparing. And that wasn't for a technical presentation where I would need to double check calculations and examples.

I agree with Norm. 1 hour of quality material takes about ten to fifteen hours to make. And since I do earn a living teaching, I for one am not eager to give away the material I produce for free. That would be taking myself out of business!

Kind regards,

The people that want to give away tutorials are those that want to sell you something. TI, Microchip, Analog Devices, Freescale etc have extensive libraries of app notes. They want to make it easy for you to use their chips.

I want to sell motion controllers. We have application notes, startup guides and tutorials on how to use our product.

This is just the way things are.