Learning Allen Bradley

mbferrari

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Join Date
Nov 2004
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I have programmed Fanuc 90-30 plcs for several years. I bought an Allen Bradley Pico and a ML1000, and have the software for them. Is this software anything like the bigger models? Could I learn these, and be able to go to a new job and get by on Allen Bradley until I really learned the new programs well?

I think our plant is closing soon. Our GE distributor says no one else around here uses Fanuc, and he gave me several leads,but all use Allen Bradley.

Thank You

m
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As for the programming structure all of the AB SLC500 series are programmed the same. If you can program a ML1000 you can program a SLC 5/05. There are some differances of course some of the instruction for the 5/05 can not be used on the ML1000 but for the most part as far as timers, counters, internal bits, inputs, and outputs they are mostly the same except for some addressing issues on the inputs and outputs but you can figure that out in little to no time. When I was in college 90% of the programming that we did was on the ML1000 and I feel totaly at ease working on a larger SLC model.
 
well ... there's Allen-Bradley ... and then there's Allen-Bradley ...

Greetings mb,

if you already have a MicroLogix and the RSLogix500 software, then be thankful ... you’re miles ahead of most people who are just starting out with Allen-Bradley ... most only have the books ...

but ... if you’re looking forward to job opportunities using Allen-Bradley, then I suggest that you snoop around the contacts that you mentioned for local employment ... many (most?) plants who use Allen-Bradley have at least one or two PLC-5 systems in use ...

good news:

once you’re comfortable with RSLogix500 and the MicroLogix/SLC-500 systems, then you’ll have a BIG head start on the larger PLC-5 and the RSLogix5 software that it requires ...

but ... not so good news:

there will still be at least a couple of things that you’ll want to get a handle on before you go on an interview where PLC-5s are involved ... see this post about the differences ...

please do NOT let anything here scare you off ... we can – and will – help with anything that you come up against ... and you won’t have to invest a lot of money in the process ... but you have to know enough about what you don't know to ask for help ... so stay in touch and keep us posted on how things are going ...

as for the Pico ... don’t throw it away ... but put it on the shelf for now ... I can’t imaging any prospective employer (at least in an industrial plant setting) being overly impressed with someone’s knowledge of anything this small ... spend your time with the MicroLogix and the RSLogix500 software until you’re very comfortable with them ... then come back and talk with us about the next step ...

good luck ...
 
And then there is Allen-Bradley.

You might find out your future employers are using the controllogix platform. This could put a very large kink in things for you. Although the look and feel of the programming software between all of the AB packages is the same, the controllogix is a completely different animal. The addressing and free form programming can send you spinning at first. Good luck.
 
I learned on the PLC-5 system and had some training on the Control Logix platform and ended up writing programs for Keyence processors. I also work a little with RS Logix500 and RS Logix5, for Micrologix and PLC-5 respectively. Even between the different brands it appears that the instruction sets are very similar. I was able to take the PLC-5 training and apply it to a totally different brand of PLC, it did take time to get used to it though.

The greatest initial difference in the RS Logix 500 and the larger PLC-5 system appears to be in addressing and communications. The PLC-5 system uses a PCMK card and cable and the Micrologix uses a different type of cable out of com 1 on my laptop. Both RS Logix500 and RS Logix5 use RS Linx but they each use a different communications driver.

I highly recommend the PLC book advertised on this site, it helped me a great deal.
 
abt encoder

hi this is parag again.


i want to interface a encoder with slc-5/04.
could u plz tell me how exactly encoder works?how to interface it with plc.
plz tell me.


thanks in advance.
-parag
 
I have programmed Fanuc 90-30 plcs for several years. I bought an Allen Bradley Pico and a ML1000, and have the software for them. Is this software anything like the bigger models? Could I learn these, and be able to go to a new job and get by on Allen Bradley until I really learned the new programs well?

I think our plant is closing soon. Our GE distributor says no one else around here uses Fanuc, and he gave me several leads,but all use Allen Bradley.

h

If you have programed any PLC for several years, you understand logic by now.

All you need is platform specific knowledge. Wire up some lights and switches and make them do stuff, just like the first time you used GE.

RSLOGIX is worth as much attention as the programming software. The comms in AB is the only part that ever gave me any headaches.

There are several dead ends and black holes in RSLINX.

Good news is, the SLC500 is very similar to the AB5 some differences but not like a whole new world.

RSLOGIX is a whole new world but it looks very similar.

The good good news is AB is so well documented you should have very little trouble.

Get the instruction list for SLC500. (online at AB.com) Its rather large so dont hit print. Has every instruction fully explained with examples. I used to just read through it and try to image how some of these instructions could be used.

The basics are the same in all PLCs.

The memory addressing is easy and straight forward in AB. No manual data typing.

You can drag and drop and copy paste most things.

I would suggest you take something you understand how to do in GE and do it with the AB.

There is also a PLC sim for under 50 dollars , that looks and works alot like AB.

http://www.thelearningpit.com/

and it has a 15 day free trial.

One thing you will find different is the AB habit of locking the in/out addresses to the physical location of the hardware in / out. Something I like very much. As I recall in GE you can make an output any address and you have to define the address range of each card in the HW config.

I see where this might be useful once or twice, but I never understood how it was needed. I see where you could remove a card or use a different sized rack to run the same program by altering the address range of the cards , but how often do you do that?

I always enjoyed being able to go from the output address on the screen directly to the actual piece of hardware where said out was connected.

Anyway, you should be fine. As long as its not RSLOGIX.

I have heard it is much different, I have only seen it a couple of times. No time to play with it yet.

Good luck
 

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