I Did It...I Jumped Ship

Tom Jenkins said:

And, frankly, I have found their manuals far superior to Siemens and some others.

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geniusintraining said:

2nd that...

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Congrats. Change can be scary but it can also be exciting. hope it works out good for you.
I recenty switched employer as well. Less Allen Bradley. more IEC 61131 programming. And I like it. new equipment can be a little scary but all you need to.do is learn the quirks and then you should be golden as the priciples are all the same. Anyways good luck

I agree change can be scary.
Automation Direct is good. I like the Do-More and the ease of use for communications. Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP, Ethernet IP, RS232 etc. all on board...

Pun intended.

Hi guys,

Sorry for the late reply, got busy yesterday and today and have not had a chance to sit at the computer.

Thank you all for the well wishes, advice and links, I will have a good look at them tonight after shift.

So far I am very happy I made the move, the boat and people are all great, the food on here is at least 4 star and I have much better internet access over here, I can get Streaming Video, Youtube and such so that will help while learning this new platform.
And so far NO BUBBA DARRYL in sight. (LOL)

Again thanks to you all and I am sure I will have many more questions in the near future about A.D.

(And no I am not on a Crabber and you have never seen me on TV)

BCS

Do you need any type of maritime license to work on a vessel as an electrician. I understand there are some very big differences between electrical work on terrestrial environments and on board. Sounds like an interesting job. I think I would rather work on a cruise ship though.

zach_zachary1@yahoo said:

Do you need any type of maritime license to work on a vessel as an electrician. I understand there are some very big differences between electrical work on terrestrial environments and on board. Sounds like an interesting job. I think I would rather work on a cruise ship though.

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On these vessels you do not really NEED a maritime license to work as an electricain (we are considered UNINSPECTED so only the Captain, Mate, Chief and Assistant Engineer and 2 Deck Hands NEED to have licenses, but many more of us do have our Maritime Credentials even though we don't NEED to) the Companies that own these boats do prefer that you do have some type of electrical license before they hire you on and then once you get enough sea time they do encourage you to go and get your MMD and Electrical endorsement from the Coast Guard.

Working on a cruse ship would be nice...Clean environment that does not smell of fish, lots of pretty ladies walking around (and working with you as crew members :nodi: ), you get to see interesting ports of call, you have your own bar and recreational areas and can party the night away when you are off shift.
But they don't pay that well and they expect you to work 9-10 months a year.
(And over the 9 - 10 months you are there you have spent all your money at that bar I just told you about and on all the pretty ladies when you go to the interesting ports of call)

I guess with those kind of perks you would not mind working 10 months a year and being broke at the end of it all.

On here you have to work in some pretty ugly spots at times that are not so clean.....there are NO pretty ladies walking around (there are some females on board but......you get the picture)........you only see the Bering Sea and Dutch Harbor....(Which is not such an interesting port of call after you have seen it 50 times).....you can not have even 1 beer the entire time you are out here, even when you are offloading in Dutch.....they will FIRE you and quick if you do.
The weather can really get bad at times and you get tossed around like you are in a washing machine when it is bad.
But .....the money is good and I get time off in big chunks to live my life and enjoy my family.
So all in all.....its not bad....I like it.
(And I am gone long enough for my wife to really miss me when I am away, and home just long enough not to get on her last nerve.....It's like having 3 honeymoons each year (each time I return home)....not bad for a guy thats been married for 19 years next month. )

I would say that is the hardest thing about being out here....you have to be single or have a very good wife that you can trust at home.
Almost everyone you meet out here is divorced (some several times) or will be getting divorced soon. (lots of Dear John letters get received each season)

The biggest difference I can tell you between working here and working on land is....its just you....no matter what breaks, you need to be able to fix it and have had the foresight to make sure you have enough parts on board to keep this ship in production 24/7.....they don't tolerate down time well and no one is going to drive over and help you or run down to the supply house to get you something. (You can get help from PLCS.net though...:site: )
You need to be pretty well versed in a lot of areas, have good trouble shooting skills and be able to adapt and learn fast in the areas you are weak in.

I guess I have just gotten lucky over the past 9 years...LOL

Regards,
BCS

Ron Beaufort said:

good luck on your new job ... as for the Automation Direct platform, personally I like the little controllers – and I'll give you two pieces of advice ...

first of all, read the first four posts in the following thread to see the BIG differences in how AB and AD handle their "retentive" operations ... that's Latch/Unlatch vs. Set/Reset ...

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=71786&postcount=1

then explore AD's Stage Programming for programs which have a "sequential" type of operation ... the following post might help get you started ...

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=41722&postcount=15

again, good luck – and be safe ...

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Hi Ron,

Thanks for the links, that is the type of gotchas I want to know about ahead of time, don't think I would have caught that on my own right away.
(Probably would have learned that one the hard way if I had not read your post)

Really good stuff, thanks so much.

Its late and I am going to rack out now, will look at the other links that were sent tomorrow.

Good night.
BCS

Good luck with the new job.

Nick

Hey BCS, good luck. I have talked to you before, last year. I was in Florida (I have to update my profile too)
I had worked for Trident several times, and worked in the power plant at Unisea in Dutch. Biggest processor I was on was the Ocean Phoenix, steam powered. Was Chief Engineer on the Scandies Rose crab boat for a while.
We had an AD plc in a press we had on my last job, used it for operating a transfer die. Don't know a whole heck of a lot of stuff about them, so I can't help you there. Stay safe, my friend.

Congrats and good luck!
I think Outputs are Octal 0-7

Good luck with the move.

Do not hesitate to utilize AD's tech support. They are top notch in my opinion. Also, jump on over to their forum. Just like here, everyone there is very helpful.

I've used the older DL line and more recently the Domore. The DL line is sufficient with most automation, but I definitely prefer the Domore. They were developed by a company called Host Engineering. They also have a forum which the President of the company spends a lot of time helping and listening to their customers.

Good luck - sounds interesting.
You might find out soon is it correct what Hemingway (probably) wrote: "In every port in the world, at least two Estonians can be found". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-diel/what-hemingway-said_b_183271.html

PS
Over here we prefer it as ""In every port in the world, at least one drunk Estonian sailor can be found".

Depending on the specific product line of AD PLCs, one of the first things that you may encounter on the learning curve is the Trying to AND above a JOIN.
If you do not already know, see this and this thread at the AD forum.

geniusintraining said:

Knowing you, you will do just fine... but best of luck anyway!!


Bernie's site helped me also when I made the switch, send me a email and I will send you a link to download the lessons we have, I dont have your new email to your new job

I love being on the water.... but I also love being able to get off

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Hi Mark,

Just got a chance to download the lessons you sent me, looks like a lot of good info there, I will start poking through it each night after shift and in the next couple days I hope to find time to set up a DL PLC and a C-More on the bench and start seeing whats-what first hand.

Being new on here I am trying to stay busy and keep moving so it doesn't look like I have my backside parked in a chair all day, so I haven't had a ton of time to play yet. But I am going to make time here soon.

Thanks for the download and hopefully we will talk again soon.

Regards,
BCS

kwade said:

Depending on the specific product line of AD PLCs, one of the first things that you may encounter on the learning curve is the Trying to AND above a JOIN.
If you do not already know, see this and this thread at the AD forum.

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Hi Kwade,

Thanks for the links, seems A/D has lots of little quirks that are going to take some getting used to.

I have not even touched a controller yet, just poked around in the software looking at some projects that are already done and reading on the A/D forum.

AND......I already want my LOGIX back......

BUT....this too shall pass and I will get the hang of it and find my new groove with A/D.....this I am sure of.

Thanks again for your help and I am sure we will talk again soon on other issues.

Take care
BCS