allen bradley to siemens

irondesk40

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Jan 2008
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attended a getting familiar with the new siemens tia portal and the rep said there was a document that there was a class that siemens taught that was allen Bradley to siemens.
has anyone been to any of these? They are very expensive and wonder if they are worth attending. The main reason I ask is because in the one day event I attended if I remember correctly there was at least 4 people who said they had been recently to a three day class that was programming in step 7 in ladder and I hate to say it but they appeared to be just as lost if not more lost than I was at the getting familiar with Siemens Tia portal ver 12. Siemens seems like it is pretty good but have done allen bradly and Omron and Mitsubishi and Idec and Automation Direct quite a bit over the last 30 years and none of them seemed as confusing as the Siemens. I challenged the guy giving on the one day event I attending at the end of it when he was open for questions to simulate the allen Bradley SCP (scale with parameter instruction and he could not find it in the new Tia portal. Said he knew there was something equal but was not able to duplicate it. He did say you could create your own SCP if needed. Well that is okay, I guess, but to me allen Bradley and Omron both have the instruction so if the siemens is so great then why do you have to create everything? Just my thoughts at the moment. Just finally getting a chance to look at the Siemens this week and at the moment it may be powerful but could not get over the fact the instruction leading the class kept saying now in siemens they have made it better and you can can now do this or do that and all I could think of was - heck, been able to that with allen Bradley for years. Hope I will feel different in a few months but actually spoke to a integrator last week and asked him if he did a lot of siemens projects and he said no, that he was spending a lot of time redoing controls that was done in siemens by other integrators because after it was all done the folks in the plants found it too difficult to understand and be able to maintain and troubleshoot if you did not attend training at thousands of dollars for each maintenance tech that went.
 
Hi
I think you have found that if your fairly experienced in any platform, a course in any other tends to be very basic and that the instructors are used to dealing with noobs who don't ask hard questions

Good luck with your Siemens learning curve
 
Iron
I'm sure the instructor showed you the "calculate" instruction
This is available in the s7 1200 and 1500.
Not in the s7 300.

In the s7 300/400 fc105 and 106 is used but these are for scaling analog values. A programmer could use SCL (structured text) to write something similar.

So did you leave the class with the understanding of an OB, FC, FB , DB and UDT?
If not, the concepts were not explained to you or you missed it
 
Last edited:
Iron, The difference from one platform to another is just terminology and "fat finger skills". The only thing more fun to helping an AB guy learn Siemens, is watching a Siemens guy learn AB . . .
 
Iron
I'm sure the instructor showed you the "calculate" instruction
This is available in the s7 1200 and 1500.
Not in the s7 300.

In the s7 300/400 fc105 and 106 is used but these are for scaling analog values. A programmer could use SCL (structured text) to write something similar.

So did you leave the class with the understanding of an OB, FC, FB , DB and UDT?
If not, the concepts were not explained to you or you missed it

thanks, yes he went over the best he could in the time frame, everyone was nervous about a winter storm we had coming in and seemed more interested in leaving early so I did not ask many questions. I understand you can write something, but that is my point, if siemens is so great then you should not have to create anything. Been doing a lot of allen Bradley and Omron and have never had to create anything, it is just there to use so you can go on and get the job done quickly. Not *****ing, just surprised that all I have heard is how great siemens is, but all the contractors I have talked to say yes they use it if they have to but they hate it. I hope I get to the point that I think it is as good as AB, but from what I have looked at so far and I made the statement in the class and could tell it was not something I should not have said, but it just seems like AB has the act together better. I am sure if you some kind of great math type person you may just get a big sense of doing something to create your own things, but a lot of us are not what you would consider math wiz folks, even though I do have two sons with masters degree in math and yes I do ask them how to calculate things from time to time but with AB the instructions just seem smart enough I have never had to create anything. Had a coworker who got a kick out of being able to take the extra time to create his own compute instructions and spend a lot of extra time getting them to work, but I could do the same thing just using the math instructions already built into AB and a lot quicker. Well that coworker is now no longer with us, was told he took too long to get things done. He use to sit at his desk and spend a lot time trying to do fancy compute instructions and it caught up with him.
 
Again your previous posts said you are using the s71200
The calculate instruction is the closest equivalent of the ab compute
So I take it that this was shown to you?
 
Irondesk40

You should be flexible and willing to learn new things
I worked for the textile industry in my area.
Now it's gone.
 
Dude your so right you can take a Siemens programmer to Allen Bradley but you cannot take a Allen Bradley Programmer to Siemens!! But got to say ladder logic is an international standard but they still complain!! Time
 
Hi
I think you have found that if your fairly experienced in any platform, a course in any other tends to be very basic and that the instructors are used to dealing with noobs who don't ask hard questions

Good luck with your Siemens learning curve

Iron, The difference from one platform to another is just terminology and "fat finger skills". The only thing more fun to helping an AB guy learn Siemens, is watching a Siemens guy learn AB . . .




More Like Frustration at the poor capabilities Allen Bradley has over Siemens PLC's and especially HMI's!!
 
I worked with both AB & siemens from the early 80's, Siemens had by far a better system, however, Siemens needed deeper understanding, FB's could only be written in STL, a bit of a learning curve, however, because of the S5 instruction set it was far more powerful, the actual functions were limited unless you purchased them, some had them built in. Siemens now have moved towards OOPs, although still keep some of the lower level program ability, to people who are not low level programmers like Assembler will find it a little bit more difficult, Again 50% is learning the different platform, 20% is I do not like it because I know AB, 30% is not got the level or willingness to learn anymore.
 
Operating Engineers - general comments

When you call the hall for an operator you don't call for a Case or a John Deere or a Cat operator. If somebody is truly an operator they have an understanding of equipment and the 'hands' (talent) to run it. They'll need a little time to familiarize themselves with each machine but the bottom line is that they can get the ditch dug with whatever machine that they have to work with. Brand independence is the mark of a true operator.

The same thing is largely true of PLC programmers. It's a bad business decision to get 'brand-labeled'. It took me awhile to get over being identified as a 'Square D (Symax) man'.

Picking a PLC based upon some perception of ease of programming seems a little short-sighted to me. There are other things to consider - local distribution and support, communications protocols, parts stocking (matching existing equipment), where the product is in its lifecycle, and so on. A true programmer will take care of analog scaling in any PLC without breaking a sweat.

Remember two kids sitting on a school bus having an endless 'Ford-Chevy' argument when neither one is old enough to drive?
 
Remember two kids sitting on a school bus having an endless 'Ford-Chevy' argument when neither one is old enough to drive?


Haha mine was arguing about favorite mortal kombat character, a game my mom absolutely wouldn't let me play
 

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