Is it possible to learn PLC's yourself??

[sfindley]

The short answer is yes, you can learn PLCs on your own (without formal classes). My experience was 10 years in the US Navy (no PLCs) and then getting a job in a manufacturing environment with several PLCs from different manufacturers. We run with lean manning, so I had to hit the ground running. I was given formal training, which had some value, but digging into the manuals and getting hands on experience (learning on my own) has been the biggest part of my training. If you have the ability to use a PLC offline, like in your shop at work, that is the safest way to learn the basics of code.

I have been working with PLCs for 8 years now and it is STILL a very humbling experience to dig into existing code, try to understand the original code and then dig through the years of changes/fixes that others have made, especially in situations where it is 2am and everyone is watching/screaming because the mill is down.

Just remember that, depending on what the PLC you are working on controls, much damage/inury could result from your programming, so BE SURE you know what your asking the PLC to do...it will do exactly what you tell it to (not always what you THINK you're telling it to do).

 

[BobB]

Absolutely yes - I did.
However learning how to design control systems that work, interpret specifications, safety designs, selecting the right equipment to perform the task properly is a whole different kettle of fish.
I was designing control systems in the 1960s when I was an apprentice electrical fitter, and HV transformers, and welders (choke, high frequency and spot), switch boards, control panels but I had great teachers.
For many years I was in sales and management and spent a lot of time keeping up with the latest and greatest equipment and I finished up as an applications sales engineer solving peoples application problems with photo electrics, proximity switches and almost anything else you could name. I am more qualified in management than I am in my trade strangely enough.
I had to learn PLCs to sell them and taught myself. Learned a few nifty tricks with hand held programmers (they were the days - boolean) and early versions of PLC DOS based programming software. EPROMs, EEPROMs, special writers for EPROMs that were an arm and a leg, early software to PLC interface modules that were an arm and a leg, ASCII processor cards that had to be programmed in basic, write your own Modbus interface software - geez it is easy these days.
Bought an IBM compatable and it cost me as much to upgrade the hard drive from 5 meg to 10 meg as the original computer cost.
Taught myself DOS - accidently re-formatted the hard drive and lost everything, batch files (still use them in Windows 7 to do things for me), Edlin - who remembers Edlin?
Thes days I am finding more and more programmers coming to work on jobs who have a university degree in programming of some sort but do not have a clue how a control system works. That is my great concern for the future - people with pieces of paper doing programming who do not understand machinery or control systems. If it has not happened it is only a matter of time before one of them kills somebody due to incorrect interlocking in a PLC program.
Saw one guy come close - one of my associates turned the power off before the operator got hurt as he could see the whole thing going wrong.

 

[leitmotif]

Thought about this for a while. Bob has put my thoughts in order.

1. You and only you will do the learning portion. That depends on how driven you are to learn.
2. Your question comes down to this - do you want a non qual (you) for an instructor?
3. The real education is picked up in the field in the school of hard knocks. You will never be able to get that level of training anywhere else.

Dan Bentler