Rockwell Training....Disappointed

[hagos]

Ab

My experience with AB goes back to the year 1985 where I attended a course on the old PLC3 followed by the Advisor 2 (the first ever true SCADA for AB that time).

I would admit that it was a real great experience where the two courses were very GREAT.

I continued getting training courses in AB then lately Rockwell up to the year 2003 with a boosting outstanding training level, & I would say thanks to all those instructors whom conducted the trainings.

In the year 2004(and up to now) I switched to a company that uses Siemens products, once again I underwent a series of trainings on Siemens products

Conclusion:
===========
In my opinion AB best.

 

[realolman]

I think that factory talk and panelview leaves much to be desired and has a lot of problems... It ain't SLC 500s I doubt anyone will fix it before they send it back

I think Rockwell needs to overhaul them ... It doesn't surprise me that someone would have problems with it. I believe the most important thing to Rockwell is preventing the user from installing it on more than one computer and whether or not it actually works is of secondary (or thirdary or fourteenthdary) importance to them.

I got the impression that the OP was just stating the facts with no malice, and when you charge what Rockwell charges for software that has as many problems and is as UN-intuitive as Factory talk is, you deserve a public critique...

I don't use it on a daily basis and I imagine I would have less trouble with it if I did, but I'll be darned... I'll bet I spend thirty times the time trying to fix version, activation, upgrade etc etc. problems than I do for what I want to use it for.... to control machinery.

I got people coming for other HMI's, and by durn, if I can find one that is even somewhat reasonable to buy and use, Panel view and Factory talk will be history

 

[Operaghost]

I realize PV+ and FTView have their issues. THIS problem had nothing to do with either. This was an issue with computer (re-)imaging.

OG

 

[bce123]

bob1371, I wish I had your problems seems like a low stress life your living. If I was in your shoes I would of had this worked out the last day of the class without degrading anyone. If not I would Just move on and find a virtual training center where there are no humans to make mistakes. this post sounds like My grandkids whining about their day and has NOTHING to do with PLCs.
MY 2 cents

 

[OkiePC]

My experience with rockwell training has been outstanding. There were hiccups, and they must sometimes slow down to the audience level and cut short stuff that advanced users may want to dig into.

My experience with FTView has been horrible. I loved RSView32, and find Panelbuilder32 functional after learning some basic methods and a variety of communications possibilities.

realolman,
The G3 is the solution to your hardware based HMI and look at Inductive Automation Ignition for data historian and PC based SCADA needs.

just my opinion.

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

We modeled our training after Rockwell training

Our training manuals are pretty much do this and that should happen kind of like the Rockwell training manuals we have see..
For the most part I think Rockwell does a good job.

The unforgiveable part is sending a rookie to do the training.

The guys that do our training have all had field experience and do tech support. It is the trainer that makes the training. If a piece of equipment is broken in shipment all is not lost. Doubling up is not a disaster infact sometime two heads are better than one.

 

[shawn_75]

Setting the who and what aside, he paid for a service from a reputable company and received less than acceptable service.

Imagine being an owner of a company that brought in an outside technician to work on some of your equipment. If that technician spent a great deal of time getting his own equipment to work prior to fixing your stuff you'd be a little less than satisfied when you were paying the bill for the hours the tech was spending fixing his stuff.

I could forgive the technical issues on the first day but not the second.

Shawn

 

[surferb]

I know there are a lot of Ignition users here. Inductive Automation just had a webinar on what they're doing to improve and maintain their quality of training and technical support. You can skip past the first few minutes about the company. I think that all the companies can take positive tips from the approach. My favorite part is the close relationship between: tech support, training, and the actual developers by design.

http://inductiveautomation.com/videos/video/60

 

[Craig Spinharney]

As a former Rockwell Instructor, I can vouch for what Ken Roach and Operaghost are saying. Early on, it was hard to make excuses for what was often glitchy software but it also gave rise to ways to bypass catastrophes based on experience with the product. As long as I was up front with my students with respect to software glitches, my own limitations with specific product/application knowledge, and knowledge of upcoming patches/fixes, I avoided major classroom meltdowns.
FactoryTalk was treacherous for awhile with entire re-imaging sometimes a requirement. Once most of the major known bombs were removed with the evolution of the software things sailed smoother.
Having said that, I never took negative criticism personally. If it was indeed a shortcoming where I was deficient, I took steps to assure that it never happened again in a future class.
The Rockwell Instructors I worked with over the years were some of the most competent and confident I'd ever known.

 

[RocketTester]

Unlike some, I appreciate this post. I learned a lot from the comments. My company has paid for $0.00 for training. I learned TwinCAT, Contrologix, and Delta's RMCTools by sitting down and using them. The problem is there are certainly many more features I don't know about since I didn't stumble across them, and I may be doing things inefficiently or via legacy methods. Factory training is best when you have a little experience so you can relate to the information ("been there, done that", "wow, didn't know you could do that").