difference between allen bradlly and seimense PLCs

dahnuguy said:

...This is a puzzle operatunity to help sooth the bored minds of people who are capable of doing many times what they are required to do everyday.

This is an outlet for that energy, some may even get an ego boost from getting the answer or see it as a nver ending test or game.

Even if you do it just to help others , you still get to sharpen your troubleshooting skills.

We are repling to each other as much or more so than the original poster.

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Well stated.

I for one love the challenge - I can't count the times I mulled over a problem posted and then hit on a different way of doing it many hours later or even a few days later, sometimes even after the problem has been solved I still think about different ways to do it. Its immensely helpful to see how others approach the same problems. There is a huge amount of talent on this board and some of ya'll are very smart and very clever - I learn something new here all the time.

AVR Manic said:

Has anybody programmed 1746-bas for a barcode reader and work's

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AVR Manic, this question will get lost in this thread. I suggest you start a new independent thread to ask your question, that way everyone can see it. On the LIVE PLC Q&A page click on the START A NEW THREAD button near the top left of your browser page and then post your question with a title.

Welcome to the forum.

Normally I would veer away from german equipment as "you Vill do it this way" etc. but in the case of siemens plc's they have had the right idea from the start, even in the early days it was a type of IEC (before it was even thought of), flexible the prog language sort of made sense, power & flexability was always there, however the manuals were a little difficult to follow, a lot of what's known about the power of the instruction set was kept a secret (or it seemed that way)for many years.
AB had a simple but powerful system but it was cumbersome doing it in ladder (I liked S5 statment, functions & the abillity to download anything while in run mode) makes more sense when you have a kiln that takes 2 hours to get up & running only to find out you have to stop the plc as the mods were done off line, same goes for many other manufacturers where only a small amount of code can be written on-line I hate it when you change some code & you get the message on line code is too large, stop plc & do download Ahgggg.....

JRW said:

I would never make my PLC choice on who the local supplier is.
The idea is that they actually stock parts



Of all the support groups I have ever used.........I never received what I thought was good support...........

Your local support tried to.... but it's the typical response "I've been programming PLC's for 20 years..I dont need no stickn support"

I order the parts and find the material and ask questions and while I wait for a response or wade through incorrect knee jerk answers I find the answers myself.

Again, I tried to "get you started"


The local Ab supplier is way better than the Siemens supplier, and I have gotten so many wrong answers from them I stopped asking.

"From who?"
Did you ever call the FREE hotline?

If it weren't for this forum, I would be a month back from where I am now.


"I hope you sent LD[AR2, P#0.0] a big present too"

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NOW I remember!...................sorry I forgot JRW.

I sent you and email here.

I was going to post the HMI question as a new topic.

You have the details.

No one gave me a free hotline number,

but I did use the 2 local contacts several times. One was very helpfull and timely, ........but over all the company didn't do too well. And in the end even he couldn't answer the HMI question.

I am sure it is in our application somewhere, but the standard answer just doesn't apply. If I were tech service I would request a copy of the prog on the HMI and go through it until I found it, edit it, and send the edited version back with complete documentation as to what was out of place.

That's just me though, I have to figure stuff out, can't just say dunno.

parky said:

Normally I would veer away from german equipment as "you Vill do it this way" etc. but in the case of siemens plc's they have had the right idea from the start, even in the early days it was a type of IEC (before it was even thought of), flexible the prog language sort of made sense, power & flexability was always there, however the manuals were a little difficult to follow, a lot of what's known about the power of the instruction set was kept a secret (or it seemed that way)for many years.
AB had a simple but powerful system but it was cumbersome doing it in ladder (I liked S5 statment, functions & the abillity to download anything while in run mode) makes more sense when you have a kiln that takes 2 hours to get up & running only to find out you have to stop the plc as the mods were done off line, same goes for many other manufacturers where only a small amount of code can be written on-line I hate it when you change some code & you get the message on line code is too large, stop plc & do download Ahgggg.....

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Thats one of the reasons I prefer Siemens, the ability to not only download changes whilst running but to go on-line and see what is in the PLC after findiong there are differences. With ControlLogix you cannot even compare on-line!!

At the end of the day though, both are very good PLC's.

Peter...........

It just hit me the other day that the software we use molds our aproach to problems.

Everytime you say "I can't compare the online with an offline in AB" it just strikes me as odd.

Then it hit meand it is so obvious, the softwares I have used would not do that, so I never used it and wouldn't use it even with S7 because I never developed that line of reasoning.

I see now that S7 is so different from the others that those who use the different softwares have a built in communication gap.

I edit and download with S7 and it screws up all the time. Never had that issue with AB.

In AB I make an online edit , accept the edit, compile the edit, then I can test the edit with an undo function and then make it permanent. I like the more than one step to give you an OHnoSecond to make sure.

With S7 I make an edit save the edit and download the edit and go online and things are not responding correctly and I went around a coupl hours trying to find it.
Then I did a consistancey check everytime and it cleared up most issues but not all.

So then I started doing a save , block consistency check, then download ALL from the "Blocks" menu in the main window.

How is that simplier? Thats not online edit really.

I found that the DB for the FB I was editing wasn't updated when I changed the associated FB. .........Edit FB6 and download, I would expect the software to update the associated DB6 automaticaly...........but it doesn't.

I can't imagine a situation where I want to change the FB and NOT update the DB.

Just an example.

I have evolved a method from a system that does not fit the system I am using.

I don't think I ever used the compare function except for curiocity about how it worked.

WHy do a compare? UNless you suspect some unauthorized person made undocumented edits. That was never a concern of mine, so a compare for me would just show what variables have changed.

I start with what isn't responding as it should and examine the variables that control that device or section and go from there. I meant to ask you before why you used compare so much, I suspect your situation is much different from mine or you use some neat angle I have not considered.

I think ultimately you always feel more comfortable with one system the most. I am an end user - rather than an integrator and it helps if you can standardise on one manufacturer.

This sometimes backfires, as I have seen 200 series plc's turn up when I'm sure we spec'd 300. Just meant buying "S7micrown - d'oh!

Going back to the original post - I was once told "If you can "do" S7, you can "Do" Allen Bradley!!!

As puzzles were mentioned, solve the following to determine the difference between Allen Bradley & Siemens

In a recent telephone poll, I was asked the number of my house and how many years experience I had programming plcs from the following three choices:

1 - Allen Bradley
2 - Siemens
3 - All others

I told the caller my house number but, I set the telephone poller a quiz to obtain the other information.
The product of the number of years I have been programming for each choice is 36, whilst the sum of the years I have been programming for each choice is equal to the number of my house. The caller was unable to complete the poll and asked for more information. I told the caller the platform I have the most experience in is Allen Bradley. The telephone poller said thankyou and completed the poll.

So, how many years programming experience do I have using Allen Bradley, Siemens and all others ?

Enjoy the rest of the holiday.

L D[AR2 said:

As puzzles were mentioned, solve the following to determine the difference between Allen Bradley & Siemens

In a recent telephone poll, I was asked the number of my house and how many years experience I had programming plcs from the following three choices:

1 - Allen Bradley
2 - Siemens
3 - All others

I told the caller my house number but, I set the telephone poller a quiz to obtain the other information.
The product of the number of years I have been programming for each choice is 36, whilst the sum of the years I have been programming for each choice is equal to the number of my house. The caller was unable to complete the poll and asked for more information. I told the caller the platform I have the most experience in is Allen Bradley. The telephone poller said thankyou and completed the poll.

So, how many years programming experience do I have using Allen Bradley, Siemens and all others ?

Enjoy the rest of the holiday.

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But you didn't tell US your house number.

House number = 10?

The missing house number is deliberate. From the information provided, you can work out my house number.

4 years Ab, 3 years Siemens, 3 years other
House number is 10.

markie said:

I think ultimately you always feel more comfortable with one system the most. I am an end user - rather than an integrator and it helps if you can standardise on one manufacturer.

This sometimes backfires, as I have seen 200 series plc's turn up when I'm sure we spec'd 300. Just meant buying "S7micrown - d'oh!

Going back to the original post - I was once told "If you can "do" S7, you can "Do" Allen Bradley!!!

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And there are the plants that refuse to upgrade because they standardized on the AB5 grudgingly "just" upgraded from the AB2!!!!!!!

Or 3 engineers from 3 sections of the plant each have a favorite and could never agree on a standard for the whole plant so now you have 3 "standards" and everyone is stuck in their section because they feel incompotent when going to another brand and so refuse to move. And then you have to hire new people and specify which section they will be in based on their experience.

Or your in SC and you pick Toshiba as your standard and now you can't find anybody who wants to work in the maint. dept. Does anyone in Germany use AB?

From a bussiness angle , use the one that most people in your area are familiar with. You would then have labor, support, and parts presumably. Unless you want to train the new guys from the ground up and plan on keeping them.

L D[AR2 said:

The missing house number is deliberate. From the information provided, you can work out my house number.

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Yeah but it was so easy I thought I missed something.

I wasn't gonna post the 4,3,3 part but since someone else already did..........

I'm gonna have to make up todays slack tomorrow..........all hazy no focus..........geeeez

Ken Moore said:

4 years Ab, 3 years Siemens, 3 years other
House number is 10.

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What's your reasoning Ken ?

"To give real service you must add something that cannot be bought or measured with money; and that is sincerity and integrity."
- Donald A. Adams

Yeah if you can fake sincerity, you got it made.........