PLC/Controls Engineer Path for Noob

[PLCLearning]

Hello All,

I am planning on pursuing career into PLC and controls Engineering. I have background in Chemical Engineering .

I know the softwares/tools I would like to learn are (based on terms I have heard at work) are:

1. Allen Bradley Micorlogix/compact logix/ ControlsLogix
2. RS Logix 500 and 5000
3. Factory Talk view studio HMI
4. Wonderware HMI
5. DCS/SCADA

Is there any recommended learning path I should follow.

So far I have zeroed in on

Either

A) take this course (Self paced with emulator): https://www.plcdojo.com/bundles/all-access

Or

B) Buy this package/s (Logix500 and Logix 5000 comes with training materials and emulators) https://www.plclogix.com/index.php

or

c) Buy this software: http://www.thelearningpit.com/lp/logixpro.html
(Doesnt appear to have learning material but emulator and exercises)

or

d) Buy one of these softwares, from the website: https://koldwater.com/Technical-Training-Course-Software.html#PLC_Technician

Any guidance on one of above paths will be highly appreciated. Or any other paths not mentioned above to help me get started would be also highly appreciated.

PS: Not going to be able to take In person courses this year.
- Would like structured course as all softwares/course As in above software packages.

Thanks for your kind help.

 

[Steve Bailey]

There is a lot more to the job of Controls Engineer than simply writing PLC logic and HMI screens.
I suggest before you purchase any of the software packages you mentioned, download a copy of the Automation Direct catalog or at least their product summary.
https://cdn.automationdirect.com/static/catalog/index.html
They sell a broad range of the devices you will need to be familiar with and capable of incorporating into a typical control system. Consider their catalog as the textbook for the course, "Intro to Controls Engineering; Hardware basics".

I suggest AD, not necessarily to promote their products, but because they have done as good a job as any vendor of making their product documentation accessible.

 

[PLCLearning]

Thanks for help

Thanks for help and great catalog.

However still plenty of things mentioned in the catalog which I need more familiarity with to comprehend it better.

 

[Steve Bailey]

still plenty of things mentioned in the catalog which I need more familiarity with to comprehend it better

My point exactly. Many of the items in the catalog get controlled by the PLC program. Many of the other items provide information the PLC program needs to effectively control the items it does. Study the catalog. Post questions here about the items you're unsure about.

 

[harryting]

For ChemE (I'm one), most people just "study" to become control person rather, you just express your interest with your current employer and ask to be include on projects.

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

Isn't a Chem E more valuable optimizing chemical processes? I would find a job in an engineering firm that designs things.
My brother in law is a Chem E. I doubt he has ever programmed a PLC.
Instead he supervised pulp and paper processes, oil and gas refining and making of fertilizer.


When I went to college, getting a Chem E degree was considered to be one of the hardest engineering degrees to get.

 

[drbitboy]

> Isn't a Chem E more valuable optimizing chemical processes?



Optimizing any process is valuable; the devil is in the details. Unless one is a PhD researcher, the chemistry side of most problems have already been solved, and chemical processes are only one-third mass-transfer and chemistry related; the other two-thirds are heat- and momentum-transfer, all solved by roughly the same second-order differential equations, and in the end ChemE boils down to surface area = cost.



My brother and I are both ChemEs. He ended up doing a lot of PLC (A-B plus some Siemens), VFD, and other electrical-based tasks, but his strongest suit is the process knowledge that maps well into any industry. I ended up coding tasks to process data from spacecraft.


Where we start and the degree title are not that important. Understanding the basics is far more useful (things like scaling, a topic that always surprises me to find here).


But to answer the OP, I would pursue whichever course teaches the most about non-programming aspects of R-A hardware, like configuration and such. Only a small percentage of the queries on this forum are about how to program something, because it is just not that hard*; doing the tutorial here, and an hour reading about design Patterns of Ladder Logic Programming (Google it and take the first link) gets you 80% of the way there; the rest is whether you have a coder mindset or not. Far more common are connectivity issues: configuring PLC cards in slots; messaging over networks; and the ridiculously largest group seems to boil down to "software version X does not work with hardware version Y." I am beginning to think that debugging connectivity is not something that can be taught; either you have enough knowledge of the internals so you know where to look, or you don't and you flail around (or come here) until you get lucky and save that lesson for next time.



* Programming well and elegantly is another story, and I am one who has a long way to go there. But doing it well enough to robustly get by is straightforward.

 

[Mickey]

Another less expansive option...

http://thelearningpit.com/

 

[Rson]

Isn't a Chem E more valuable optimizing chemical processes? I would find a job in an engineering firm that designs things.
My brother in law is a Chem E. I doubt he has ever programmed a PLC.
Instead he supervised pulp and paper processes, oil and gas refining and making of fertilizer.


When I went to college, getting a Chem E degree was considered to be one of the hardest engineering degrees to get.

He did say 'background in Chem E', not necessarily degreed in chem E. He could just be a student looking for a different career choice.

I'm not trying to be insulting - but if you don't have any fundamental background in electricity (such as Ohm's or Watt's Law) you should read up or find a place to take a class. It is that whole 'everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten' mentality - you will use everything in a fundamentals course. Many community colleges are doing online course offerings in my area - I'm guessing yours would be too.

Also read up on 'scaling' (Hint: y=mx+b). You will use it at some point.

 

[drbitboy]

... (y=mx+b). You will use it at some point.

"At some point."



Hahaha, love the understatement.