New to Siemens S7

I want to learn more about Siemens S7 PLCs. Is it easy for me to learn on my own with just the manuals and a Siemens PLC? I have worked with other PLC and is familiar with ladder programming.. I hope that helps..

I am not sure how easy it is to learn or whether its possible.. Let me know.. Pri

That's how I've done it, but it's not near as easy as switching from Mitsubishi to GEFanuc to AB to Omron. I've used all those and Siemens is the most different of them all.

Out of all the PLCs you have used.. do you think Siemens is easier or does it take more time and practice? I just have a simple process to program and can make a ladder for it. How easy is it to program in Step 7 if I know the ladder?

priya_rajagopal said:

Is it easy for me to learn on my own with just the manuals and a Siemens PLC?

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There seems to be a lot of criticism directed towards Siemens manuals, buy the books written by Hans Berger and use them.

Here's a link to the books he wrote.

Paul

Nothing is easy with Siemens. I have been using it for a year and still have more trouble than I ever did with any of the others. They seem to support Statement List much more than Ladder which puts me at a disadvantage. That being said, it will do anything anyone else does if you fight with it long enough.

I used Siemens S5 for ten years before I started working with S7 six years ago, so that definitely helped me out. That said, I still think someone can pick up S7 on their own. I would suggest that you set up a little test box with a PLC and OP, and just start practicing.

And, don't be afraid of STL. Once you get the hang of it, you will never go back to ladder. Even troubleshooting is easier in STL. And, you will need fewer instructions to do a particular task, which brings down your scan time. And fewer instructions means you can write the code quicker as well.

And I concur with the Berger books; they are great. I haven't used the Siemens S7 manuals, but the old S5 ones, although they contained some great programming examples, contained just enough mistakes to really confuse any beginner.

So far this year Tim and I have done systems on GE, Modicon, Allen Bradley, AutomationDirect, and Siemens. Of all of them the worst to work with was Siemens, hands down. Tim did the programming self taught, but that has been the case with every other platform we've used over the years. The documentation was bad and the support was worse and the some of the programming structure was "unique". I didn't know about those books - maybe it would have helped. If time had permitted I would have sent him to training - I'd now suggest that to anybody for Siemens.

I agree with Tom having used most the same brands. I have the "Automating with STEP 7 in LAD" book by Hans Berger and it is quite helpful but Siemens just isn't as intuitive as the others. As far as Siemens manuals they are slightly better than useless with explainations that only assume you already know the topic and rarely any examples.

Which book you recomend to buy for sameone who first time with siemens
PLCs I know s7 have two basic models with different programming software.

ArikBY

I can't give you a personal recommendation as I do not possess any of Hans Berger books, I am aware that they are popular.

On a Siemens training course last year the training instructor had the 'automating with Step 7 in STL' book for reference. That was the book that the instructor recommended.

Paul

If you can get your hands on a S7 Step X Step CD, that would get you going. A training class would be a good start. Drop me an email with your address and I will send you a CD.