Ron Beaufort
Lifetime Supporting Member
this is almost certainly a wild goose chase – but I've GOT to give it a try ...
I have a question – and I'm pretty sure that there is no reasonable answer for it ... I've devoted a LOT of time and thought to this one - but before I finally give up, I'm hoping that someone on the forum can help me brainstorm an idea – something – ANYTHING - which might lead to a solution ...
let me ask it this way:
specifically, how much material? ... how many days total? ... how many days in a row? ... how many hours per day? ... how many classes? ... how many trips? ... and so on ...
here's my reason for asking:
as most of you know, about eight years ago I was given a chance to open my own one-man (and one-wife) business – offering "PLC training" ... since then, we have been blessed with success far beyond anything that I could possibly have imagined ... (there's a sermon there) ...
now suddenly I find myself 68 years old (and counting) – and I realize that I need some sort of "exit strategy" for the business – hopefully before the "counting" comes to the inevitable end ...
"Plan A" would be to simply keep right on chugging along – until I finally drop in my tracks ... I have "friends in the business" who have promised to help my little wife dispose of my lab equipment (probably piece-by-piece on eBay) – but the training business itself would almost certainly die with me ...
"Plan B" would be to sell the business to some individual who could keep it going in more-or-less the same way that I've been running it ...
frankly - "Plan A" would be my personal (selfish) favorite – but "Plan B" would be the more "responsible" way to handle the inevitable "end of the road" situation ...
lately I've started talking with a few parties who have shown an interest in buying me out – and with that in mind, I've been taking steps to "streamline" my business plan to make it easier for someone to step in and take over the operation ...
and now we've finally come to my perplexing ControlLogix question ... how in the world do you "streamline" that particular monstrosity? ...
(A) with the SLC-500/MicroLogix platform, five days of boot camp training usually provides adequate troubleshooting skills for even raw beginners to "hit the ground running" ...
(B) the PLC-5 platform is more challenging ... the students need Block Transfer Read and Write operations in order to troubleshoot analog signals ... and also the one-slot, two-slot, and half-slot addressing modes ... but even so, five days of boot camp is usually enough for most students...
on the other hand ...
(C) the new ControlLogix platform gives the programmer more "power" – more "flexibility" – more "capability" ... but ... from the maintenance technician's viewpoint - when the pump won't run at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, all of those fancy new bells-and-whistles just add to the "complexity" of getting the plant's equipment back up-and-running ...
anyway ...
below I've attached a little preview of a "menu" type approach that I've been using for several years to help my customers identify the specific pieces of the puzzle that their maintenance technicians need in order to troubleshoot their plants' ControlLogix-based systems ... (in case you're interested, the full menus are attached to my next post) ...
just for discussion, there are (so far) 109 menu items on the ControlLogix list – and 107 items (so far) on the separate list for RSLinx ... the ones marked with green check marks are all bedrock "everybody's gotta know this" type material ... for just a few "tip of the iceberg" examples:
002 – Controller Tags
006 – Continuous Task
008 – Program Tags
009 – Ladder Diagrams
016 – Messages
035 – Periodic Tasks
049 – Add-On Instructions
054 – User-Defined Data Types
060 – Trends
062 – I/O Configuration
065 – Digital Inputs
066 – Digital Outputs
067 – Analog Inputs
068 – Analog Outputs
069 – Remote I/O over Ethernet
081 – Remote I/O over Blue Hose
089 – Grinder Exercise
104 – Produced and Consumed Tags
108 – DF1 Communication Driver
and all along the way, each student must learn how to navigate the RSLogix5000 software – do EFFECTIVE searches – wire up and configure the inputs and outputs – and so on – and so on ... getting all of this done with a "hands-on" approach turns into quite a full five-day's-worth of training – even at an "intense and demanding" boot camp pace ...
(continued in next post) ...
.
I have a question – and I'm pretty sure that there is no reasonable answer for it ... I've devoted a LOT of time and thought to this one - but before I finally give up, I'm hoping that someone on the forum can help me brainstorm an idea – something – ANYTHING - which might lead to a solution ...
let me ask it this way:
if you (personally) were looking for "hands-on" training (specifically, training for "technician-level" troubleshooting on ControlLogix systems) how would YOU prefer for the training material to be packaged?
specifically, how much material? ... how many days total? ... how many days in a row? ... how many hours per day? ... how many classes? ... how many trips? ... and so on ...
here's my reason for asking:
as most of you know, about eight years ago I was given a chance to open my own one-man (and one-wife) business – offering "PLC training" ... since then, we have been blessed with success far beyond anything that I could possibly have imagined ... (there's a sermon there) ...
now suddenly I find myself 68 years old (and counting) – and I realize that I need some sort of "exit strategy" for the business – hopefully before the "counting" comes to the inevitable end ...
"Plan A" would be to simply keep right on chugging along – until I finally drop in my tracks ... I have "friends in the business" who have promised to help my little wife dispose of my lab equipment (probably piece-by-piece on eBay) – but the training business itself would almost certainly die with me ...
"Plan B" would be to sell the business to some individual who could keep it going in more-or-less the same way that I've been running it ...
frankly - "Plan A" would be my personal (selfish) favorite – but "Plan B" would be the more "responsible" way to handle the inevitable "end of the road" situation ...
lately I've started talking with a few parties who have shown an interest in buying me out – and with that in mind, I've been taking steps to "streamline" my business plan to make it easier for someone to step in and take over the operation ...
and now we've finally come to my perplexing ControlLogix question ... how in the world do you "streamline" that particular monstrosity? ...
(A) with the SLC-500/MicroLogix platform, five days of boot camp training usually provides adequate troubleshooting skills for even raw beginners to "hit the ground running" ...
(B) the PLC-5 platform is more challenging ... the students need Block Transfer Read and Write operations in order to troubleshoot analog signals ... and also the one-slot, two-slot, and half-slot addressing modes ... but even so, five days of boot camp is usually enough for most students...
on the other hand ...
(C) the new ControlLogix platform gives the programmer more "power" – more "flexibility" – more "capability" ... but ... from the maintenance technician's viewpoint - when the pump won't run at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, all of those fancy new bells-and-whistles just add to the "complexity" of getting the plant's equipment back up-and-running ...
anyway ...
below I've attached a little preview of a "menu" type approach that I've been using for several years to help my customers identify the specific pieces of the puzzle that their maintenance technicians need in order to troubleshoot their plants' ControlLogix-based systems ... (in case you're interested, the full menus are attached to my next post) ...
just for discussion, there are (so far) 109 menu items on the ControlLogix list – and 107 items (so far) on the separate list for RSLinx ... the ones marked with green check marks are all bedrock "everybody's gotta know this" type material ... for just a few "tip of the iceberg" examples:
002 – Controller Tags
006 – Continuous Task
008 – Program Tags
009 – Ladder Diagrams
016 – Messages
035 – Periodic Tasks
049 – Add-On Instructions
054 – User-Defined Data Types
060 – Trends
062 – I/O Configuration
065 – Digital Inputs
066 – Digital Outputs
067 – Analog Inputs
068 – Analog Outputs
069 – Remote I/O over Ethernet
081 – Remote I/O over Blue Hose
089 – Grinder Exercise
104 – Produced and Consumed Tags
108 – DF1 Communication Driver
and all along the way, each student must learn how to navigate the RSLogix5000 software – do EFFECTIVE searches – wire up and configure the inputs and outputs – and so on – and so on ... getting all of this done with a "hands-on" approach turns into quite a full five-day's-worth of training – even at an "intense and demanding" boot camp pace ...
(continued in next post) ...
.
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