Contrologix Clock laugh of the day

OMG, Our brand newly hired PLC programmer spent 3 hours in front of the computer today programming a Timer to count up 60 seconds, Using a stop watch and looking at the output coming on the computer screen he determined that a preset of 52000 was exactly one minute.

After that they asked him to program a horn to sound after one minute. It didnt work and when I looked at the output I found the OTE Instruction in two seperate places. When I asked him WHY? He replied, You have to have one to turn on the Horn and one to turn it off, Dont you?


What should I do with him.

Just make sure his OTE Instruction in two seperate places.

BTW, ask him if he ever posted a traffic light question on plcs.net!

regards.....casey

bobwithdana said:

What should I do with him.

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Is he above you in the pecking order? If he is just let him sink, but don't let him do anything that could get someone hurt. It doen't sound like he'll last very long!

Ask him to program a one button flip/flop... That ought to keep him busy for a few weeks.

Who hired him?

Or, a more serious answer might be to leave a copy of Phil's book on his desk or the Allen Bradley Micro Mentor book.

What on earth is a preset of 52000 have to do with a minute timer ?

Many new hires are on probation for 30-90 days. During this period, it is much easier to let someone go. If this is the case, now's the time to take action.


Ken

Hmmmmm.....i wonder if this person is someone i'm acquianted with too? nah, probably just a coincidence.....

danatech

bobwithdana said:

When I asked him WHY? He replied, You have to have one to turn on the Horn and one to turn it off, Dont you?

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Sounds like a CNC guy. Usually when you have an M code, you have to turn it on and then turn it off.

What kind of experience did the guy claim? I shudder when I think about my first project. Then I shudder again.
However, after 10 years the loader I programmed is still running.

bobwithdana said:

What should I do with him.

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If he is a rookie then you have an obligation to train him. Point out his mistake. (It's OK to laugh, but do it when there's just the two of you.) Buy him a copy of Phil's book and make him read it. Make him RTFM. Tell him he needs to use a timer and make him program it. Have him load his program in a PLC and don't let him go to lunch until he makes it work. (It's OK to laugh. Get him to laugh too.)

If he claims to be an experienced programmer and is being paid to fill a senior position fire his a$$.

You may very well have a diamond in the rough....Someone upstairs might have hired him knowing that he's a "programmer". He could be a very well versed programmer in many other languages and just needs a little training to get aclimated to ladder. You never know, he may be able to run circles around everyone else at your place of employment within 6 months from a programming aspect....If he's an ex computer programmer, I'd stick by his side for a while he's doing edits or desining of machine/process code or anything else that's capable of ripping an arm off. Good luck.

Mark your calander for the end of his probation period, then try to work with him. If he dosent start getting up to speed before the end of his probation period...off he goes.

You never know what you've got till you tried it for a while. One of my very best and most profitable techs never picked up a screwdriver before he stated working here. I sensed that he was driven, and smart...the rest took some time but it all paid off very well.

very well put, elevmike. i work with a young guy every day that has been a cumputer "geek" since he was probably 11 years old, and is a whiz with my laptop. but he doesn't know thew difference between a beater-driver and a crescent-hammer. he's just not good with his hands or with the tools you'd normally find in a maintenance electrician's tool pouch. at the end of his probationary period, they were about to let him go, but i thought that with his computer skills and my knowledge of the machines we have here, if they would give him another 90 days with me, he might make a good addition to our team. he's coming along great! i wouldn't want him to bend any conduit or pull any wire, or even replace a smoked motor contactor, but he has shown tremendous talent for other things, such as the logical progression of a scan cycle, and what happens at a certain point in the cycle, and what isn't happening thats supposed to happen, and most importantly, he can quickly point out "why". every time i need to go take care of a breakdown or a program modification or upgrade, i try to take him with me, to "run" my laptop while i do the "grunt" work. he's learning the nuts and bolts from me, and i'm increasing my general computer skills from him!
now, if i can just get him to remember NOT to ohm out a fuse with the power on!

danatech

Seems to me that he may very well be your next boss.