Seek “starter” PLC advice for a student

Hi, I have an eighth grade student who is very interested in industrial automation and would like recommendations on what kind of practical, relatively affordable hardware to buy. He has read a lot, done tutorial and uses the simulator on the AD Do-more software. He would like a PLC with at least 30inputs or outputs. He has designed a project to operate a musical instrument he is building. I would appreciate any advice you have about what kind of hardware is out there for a student like this. Thank you!

It depends which brand is his preference but I'd suggest looking on eBay and possibly searching for Mitsubishi FX. He should be able to pick an old unit up with lots of on board I-O very cheaply. You might find an SC-09 programming cable on there too.

Automation Direct has different cheap PLC's available. You can use the selection tool to chose which one you want:

https://www.automationdirect.com/systembuilder

Automation Direct also has free software and some videos showing musical effects driven by PLC's. Find them on their website.

As was mentioned before, an AutomationDirect Click PLC with an I/O brick would do nicely and is quite inexpensive.

Another option, while not a PLC, would be an Arduino Mega.

The cool thing about the ad plcs is that they are also great for real world projects. You can get 32 point dio cards for them too.

I've never used the AD controllers, but everybody says good things. Be forewarned, though, "affordable" is very relative between a factory and a student.

One other alternative for playing around would be running Codesys on a raspberry pi, although I don't know how expandable it is.

mk42 said:

I've never used the AD controllers, but everybody says good things. Be forewarned, though, "affordable" is very relative between a factory and a student.

One other alternative for playing around would be running Codesys on a raspberry pi, although I don't know how expandable it is.

Click to expand...

Pretty good, and excellent learning environment as a student can get his feet wet in all IEC61131-3 languages. You'd have to get some relay boards to work around the limitations of the gpio inputs and outputs. If you want a larger number of I/O, then move on to something like remote i/o over modbus tcp. That could go beyond affordable on a student budget though.

I'd suggest look into Horner. The x5 is in the under $600 range and is programmed through USB and/or ethernet. You would need I/O expansion which is pretty inexpensive so long as you don't need analog out. Watch out for serial-only devices as they are a pain and won't likely be very relevant by the time your young one is working in the field.
The Horner software is free and is all-inclusive. I use these in a food production facility and can assure you they withstand pressure washers to the face of the touch screen when properly mounted.

makr8100 said:

I'd suggest look into Horner. The x5 is in the under $600 range and is programmed through USB and/or ethernet. You would need I/O expansion which is pretty inexpensive so long as you don't need analog out. Watch out for serial-only devices as they are a pain and won't likely be very relevant by the time your young one is working in the field.
The Horner software is free and is all-inclusive. I use these in a food production facility and can assure you they withstand pressure washers to the face of the touch screen when properly mounted.

Click to expand...

While Horner makes a good product, they will be far more expensive than AD. The Click PLC line starts under 100 bucks and you can get a pretty loaded setup for under 200. I have used several of them in different configurations and as of now, all are still running 24/7 so in my opinion, reliability is good too. Not a "you get what you pay for" type situation.

If he is already familiar with the free Do-More software, AD seems like a slam dunk.

Can't beat the value.

I’m a little surprised this hasn’t come up yet but if your student is interested enough to look at a possible career then I’d start with Allen Bradley. They are by far the dominant player in North America and you can find inexpensive equipment, some of which can be programmed with free software.
The MicroLogix 1100’s can be found used for around $200 and there is a free version of the driver software as well as the configuration software (RSLogix Micro Starter Lite is the package). Another one to look is the Micro 800 series (not to confused with MicroLogix). Those can be found for even cheaper than the MicroLogix PLCs and the standard version of programming software is also free (CCW or Connected Component Workbench). It is however a little more difficult to pickup (learn) but at that age it might not be an issue (they are fricken sponges).
You will get a lot of opinions and there are a lot of lower cost, good PLC’s out there but if you search job postings in the Automation Industry you will find a lot of them prefer or require Allen Bradley experience and while the MicroLogix and Micro lines aren’t the dominant players in the AB world (the CompactLogix and ControlLogix hold that title), they are fairly common and a very good start into the AB world of Automation (and they are fun to play with).
One last thing, there is a lot of competition in the technology world these days and the Automation Industry struggles to find good Engineers. If your student is serious about this, I strongly recommend finding ways to help him (or her) to stay active and interested. Starting out at that age will give him/her a great head start and dramatically increase the odds of finding a great career. It sounds like you are already there so if nothing else this is a (huge) “thank you”.

I used to work for Automation Direct as a support engineer years ago and they have a program that assists with education and they donate a lot of hardware and software to schools, Boy Scouts, First Robotics teams and many other organizations.

I am not sure who is over the program now but it would be worth a call to find out what you may be able to get as a teacher/school and tell them about the student you have and you may be very surprised at how they can help.

Tim Hohmann the company captain and founder is very big on supporting education and giving back to the community and makes internal programs that support schools and education a top priority for the company.

Automation Direct's software is free, and plc is cheap.

Otherwise, I see an Allen Bradley Micro-logix for like $50 on ebay, but software is $$$

As mentioned plenty of times previously in the thread. I would go with an AutomationDirect Click and a couple of add-on IO modules unless AD is willing to provide you a Do-More BRX series for a discount or free.


Either way AD stuff is very intuitive and easy to use. A plus for a beginner.



P.S.

DO NOT have them start with Allen Bradley they are not intuitive for a beginner. Yes most PLC programming classes use Allen Bradley, but they shouldn't.


Most Computer Science classes start with C++ and it's completely stupid. People need to be able first to accomplish things, to stay interested, then learn advanced concepts and then get down and dirty in the details.



P.P.S.


I would rather have a Click PLC then an Allen Bradley MicroLogix Series any day of the week. Clicks have a much more efficiently Designed UI and they are like 20% of the price.