G'day,
I've been learking here for a few weeks and it's been highly informative.
I've also been programming PLC for the last three years and so now think I'm pretty good at it.
One problem though has been bugging me.
Are there any sure fire, gaurenteed methods of getting a working PLC program first time, every time?
It may take a bit to gather my thoughts - so please be patient.
When I first started out, I was with a manufacturing company that did all it's own in-house engineering. Their main programmer (and chief electrical engineer) had the following technique:
1, Design the hardware.
2, Have it built.
3, The weekend before commissioning was about to start, furiously begin writing the program.
Now the problems with this technique should be obvious, but with his years of experience and obvious talent he got away with it.
My technique was a bit different. I would begin by planning things out on paper before I began coding. This would take time up front, and was actually less successful than the old guy's method, mainly because of my in-experience.
Both of us ended up with buggy programs that needed months to get to an acceptable level. Since that time, I have been refining my techniques, but they are not there yet.
I am now working for another company that normally employs contractors for this job, and it seems that the contractors seem to be little better than my first experiences. Often I end up doing a fair bit of de-bugging of their code after they are gone.
This seems to be accepted as normal, but I am not happy with how things are going. So, to all the PLC programming gurus out there, is this normal?
Is there a better way?
Are some people able to get good, bug free code working consistanly first time?
Especially one machine is different from any other?
Are there techniques for this?
I may have rambled a bit, but any ideas or comments will be welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Doug
I've been learking here for a few weeks and it's been highly informative.
I've also been programming PLC for the last three years and so now think I'm pretty good at it.
One problem though has been bugging me.
Are there any sure fire, gaurenteed methods of getting a working PLC program first time, every time?
It may take a bit to gather my thoughts - so please be patient.
When I first started out, I was with a manufacturing company that did all it's own in-house engineering. Their main programmer (and chief electrical engineer) had the following technique:
1, Design the hardware.
2, Have it built.
3, The weekend before commissioning was about to start, furiously begin writing the program.
Now the problems with this technique should be obvious, but with his years of experience and obvious talent he got away with it.
My technique was a bit different. I would begin by planning things out on paper before I began coding. This would take time up front, and was actually less successful than the old guy's method, mainly because of my in-experience.
Both of us ended up with buggy programs that needed months to get to an acceptable level. Since that time, I have been refining my techniques, but they are not there yet.
I am now working for another company that normally employs contractors for this job, and it seems that the contractors seem to be little better than my first experiences. Often I end up doing a fair bit of de-bugging of their code after they are gone.
This seems to be accepted as normal, but I am not happy with how things are going. So, to all the PLC programming gurus out there, is this normal?
Is there a better way?
Are some people able to get good, bug free code working consistanly first time?
Especially one machine is different from any other?
Are there techniques for this?
I may have rambled a bit, but any ideas or comments will be welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Doug