Beginning plc

I'm currently a electrical apprentice, but I have been asked to if I would be interested in Plc programming, which I am ,I would like to know what would be a good laptop to use for this? I have been asked to get a Apple MacBook pro i7 however I am wondering if there is any alternative? And what sort of spec I should look for in a laptop.

You are unlikely to find any popular PLC programming software that runs natively on a Macintosh, so a virtual Windows environment like VMWare Fusion will be required.

Any ordinary modern Windows PC has enough power to run most PLC programming and HMI visualization software. In general, Windows 7 Professional is the preferred OS.

Thank you, what should I look for in a laptop? Also I have been looking at a up envy with a i7 processor 17.3' screen with 12gb ram and 1tb of storage. Is this going to stay up to date for programming?

The RAM and storage you are describing are massive overkill for automation programming tasks.

I know that my programming laptops are going to get knocked over, spilled on, covered in dust and metal shavings and generally abused on the jobsite.

So I buy one-generation-old Dell Latitudes or Precision Mobile workstations as refurbs, and outfit them with SSDs for the main OS drive and a 500GB rotating drive in an optical bay cradle. I usually install no more than 8 GB or RAM and stick with Windows 7 32-bit most of the time.

VMWare Workstation is by far the most valuable software you can buy for automation work. The benefits of having stable revisions of software that you can revert to when something breaks or patches badly are tremendous.

Varney said:

I have been asked to get a Apple MacBook pro i7

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Should you really be supplying a laptop, as an apprentice?
If you are going to be learning on your own, then not a problem with you supplying it yourself, but if you have to use it on the job, then the company should be supplying one.

If possible, retain control of your personal computer. If the company owns it, then they will insist on you having all the company bloatware and security protection software. You may find that you cannot even install a new program (or install updates to old ones) without going to the company IT department. For less stress all around, buy your own. That is why they are called personal computers.

Here, if it is a required tool, it is deductible from your income tax.

Varney said:

Thank you, what should I look for in a laptop? Also I have been looking at a up envy with a i7 processor 17.3' screen with 12gb ram and 1tb of storage. Is this going to stay up to date for programming?

Click to expand...

if your company is going to be replacing its PLC's every year then and only then will you need your laptop to "stay up to date'
in a lot of cases we are still using windows XP and VMware

Again Most of us are using Windows 7 premium or ultimate

So far what I have seen of Windows 8 or 8.1 - not very good

A touch screen is a pain in the butt

As far as RAM most of us have 4~8GB for now we will not need more.
but expandability is still a great Idea.

Apple - not really used with PLC's yet.

i7 processor - used more for gaming
I find i5 or even i3 is OK
at least 500gb hard drive
(do not allow your IT guys to split this drive - it
will cause problems later)
DVD read/write drive
- Blue ray is not required

17.5" screen - Magnificent but too big to carry around

15" is adequate

Extas - I would recommend some extras

1. Wifi Mouse & keyboard
2. 22" monitor (for CAD dwg etc)
3. some 8gb memory sticks
4. portable hard drive (backup etc)
5. Priner access

KEYSPAN USB-RS232 Converter
(avoid the cheap ones as they do let you down)

Also
I/net access will be needed
so a good virus protection software is needed

EDIT
I missread Kens Last Post

most software is still 32 bit so - you may consider swapping Hard drives (or VMware) should you need both 64bit and 32 bit.

the 64 bit programs are not easily backwardly compatible
the