The never ending story of companies spending $200 on software hours to save $100 on hardware.
Oh no, this will cost thousands more.
This isn't even the best part. The 8 motors on the machine are a weird movifit fdc that is prone to comm failure and just plain weird to get running.
And then for some reason we have about 16 other motors on pumps using 2 different 485 to ethernet converters.
ANNNND the whole machine is wired with the cheapest ethernet cable available at lowes.
Not shielded and installed in parallel with high voltage lines.....and no reliable grounding.
Annnnnnd it is all months behind schedule when I walk in and everyone is in a crazy hurry for everything to just work and the boss can't understand why the programming takes so long.
Annnnd 3 other programmers have worked on it and left for various reasons.
So I have too much code to throw away and start over and none of it actually works and most of it is just not right. Like full of structs that can't be easily addressed, which should be UDTs.
Annnnnnd boss keeps wanting to make things move so they can have mechanics working on anything that doesn't work right.
Annnnd they want daily meetings for an hour then several unofficial meetings randomly spread throughout the day where the boss wants to understand what the holdup is and also wants to join in the problem solving process because you know....programming is simple.
I still think it is amazing how after 30 years, every job still manages to use some combination of stuff I have never seen before.
You would think that at some point people would have settled on 3 or 4 basic approaches to standardizing automation systems.
Why do we keep letting mechanical engineers design control systems and select parts? Stay in your lane.
Why do these parts even exist? Why do we need millions of drives and so many control options and protocols? Just stop using serial comms people.
And stop using un-shielded comm cable in wire trays next to 480VAC.
Stop waiting until the end after fighting through unending issues to add ground rods. Lets spend as much time and effort as we can to delay installing the ground system. Then complain about the cost of the delays.
Oh yeah and the heaters use some manufacturer home made looking ethernet protocol adaptor that sort of works and has zero tech support.
Siemens profinet cable is "on order" meanwhile, I am supposed to debug code and write code using ethernet that sort of works most of the time.
I love it.
Now I need a keyboard with some stuck keys...and a PS2 plug.