Beginner-Intermediate Real-World Projects for Practice

[NickiH]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get a job as a junior automation engineer.

I know the basics of PLC programming with Rockwell and Siemens PLCs.

Does anyone have functional descriptions/specifications of some beginner-intermediate PLC programming projects that they could share with me?

I am looking to build a portfolio/list of real-world projects that I have done, to get useful practice and to build my PLC skills in general.

I have done several PLC training courses, but the projects you find in these are quite limited and trivial, and I am not sure these will give me the real-world experience I am after.

I am looking to work in the industrial automation sector, so any projects related to conveyor systems, food & beverage, oil & gas, wastewater treatment etc would be fantastic for me. If they involve VFDs (or VSDs, as they are also called), or valve positioners or weight transmitters this would also be applicable to my area.

Having said that though, I would appreciate any projects that you have at all.

To be clear, I am not after any code, just the real-world project specifications. My goal is to take a functional description of a real-world project, then write a program for it that works, by myself.

I hope that somebody is able to do this, and thanks very much for your time.

 

[ojz0r]

Welcome to the field.

I am looking to build a portfolio/list of real-world projects that I have done, to get useful practice and to build my PLC skills in general.

If all you have is the program and a simulator, how would you know if the "real-world project" actually works?
I've written tons (metric-, figuratively, tons) of code that works in a simulator but when applied to the machine/plant will not work as intended.


Just go out and hunt for jobs, the courses will tell more about your abilities than a soft real-world project. Of course it will not hurt your chances with employers if you show that you are really interested in field but i would not put that on a CV.

 

[Roju]

When I was starting I did some projects with Factory IO and PLCSim by Siemens. Did it help me with confidence in my skills ? - YES

But honestly programming machines without machines is in my opinion pointless. You really learn this by searching pages of documentation and trying to set that one value that will do the job.

Also after sending robot to wrong position and crashing some expensive **** makes you learn curve exponential.

In my opinion - look for the first job, if you are new they will just expect basic understanding of everything. If you are okay with going to projects abroad all the time, they will expect even less. Then they will send you alone to China and your only friend and mentor will be this forum.

 

[saultgeorge]

Hi, good morning and welcome to the forum!! As ROJU pointed out this forum can really be of great help.
I am self-taught pretty much with PLC and have a lot of limitations, mainly I am only proficient in Rockwell, Siemens and Rexroth. The more hardware and software platforms you are proficient with the more money one can make say from an integrator. Schneider, Omron, AD, Beckhoff, etc are really useful on a resume.
If you don't want to travel, then find a plant to get into and learn all equipment in that plant. Good electrical troubleshooting skills are a necessity; I've been on projects where I wrote the PLC program from scratch and as pointed out above nothing worked. It's vastly different from the lab on my desk to the actual equipment. There are analog sensors and transmitters that are wired incorrectly, incorrect hardware configuration, communications issues, and then the drive folks are not on site so one cannot get the drives commissioned. The list is endless. One can't sit at ones table and wait for all this to be fixed--the customer wants it running now and they don't care who fixes it. The more proficient you are in troubleshooting the more valuable you will be to an integrator or a plant. I wish you the best!! Hope this helps.

 

[Corsair]

When you learn to play the piano you spend a lot of time playing the scales over and over until they are second nature. In programming this means understanding digital logic - boolean algebra, logical reductions, demorgans transformations, etc. A background in C (real C, not plus-plus or sharp) is a big help so you get an understanding of data types, data size, structures, pointers, how instance data works, scope of data, and so on. I used to study the old Square D NorPak manuals. So many so-called 'PLC programmers' haven't got this background and it shows terribly in their work.

In the long run these things will do more for you than any specific manufacturer's class about how to mouse-click their software. I've done PLC work for 35+ years and NEVER attended any brand specific manufacturer's training although I've taught some. DO NOT follow my example as I'm not sure that it is responsible BUT DO NOT assume that going to Brand X training has anything to do with being able to write PLC code.

My father was concerned many years ago that I was getting into something that would become obsolete. It hasn't and I haven't because I spent a lot of time playing the scales. Do the same. The free PLC class outline at corsairhmi.com may be some help.