PLC's with free programming software?

C
Maybe I should stay out of the game longer. That's more progress than in the last 15 years. Now if they'd just do a Linux port.......

Regards
cww
 
M. Griffin,

First off, just so you know where I'm coming from, I support my own software because every thing I write stays in the manufacturing company I work for and I'm the guy who gets the first call for software issues.

Maybe myself and my colleagues have been lucky, but nobody has to support our software on second shift (we don't run a third shift currently). The amount of things that have to be tickled are slim to none. Usually the problems I see are related to a limit sensor or digital fiber not being set properly. So usually I go down there, read the same message they do and set the switch properly and the machine takes off running when I acknowledge the fault message on the HMI. Mostly this is learning the machine and the quirks it has and has nothing to do with the programming.

There have been cases (Almost always during initial debug phase of the machine) where things just halt. Alternatively a subsystem such as a motion controller is faulting but we hadn't provided debug details for every possible error on the motion CPU. So yeah, I pull up the computer, figure out what it is and restart the system to get it running. This is pretty rare.

If you are in a lights out kind of place running 24/7 you do need technical staff to keep things running. I was merely pointing out that if you design your program to diagnose and fix itself the amount of tickling goes down an order of magnitude.

KEJR
 
Hi Curt,

I am sorry to hear that the IEC developer software had aggravated your position at your last place. I am not a cheerleader for their software, I just have used it a lot. I did, however, pick the PLC for use here due to the fact that they had function block programming and structured text. Most of my code is in ladder with a healthy sprinkling of ladder implemented function blocks. I too had to talk to someone at Mitsu corporate and tell them I wanted the software and would void the support.

In retrospect I should have waited for AB/Rockwell to add the user instruction. From what I hear it would have solved all our problems and the software seems a lot more useable. I just did not want to buy a new platform for all machines based on potential vaporware promises.

There is no doubt that the IEC developer software is bizarre to start using. I found the basic editing (drawing lines, selecting instructions, etc) to be really strange at first, and it was also the first impression of my colleagues. What we did find, however, is that because of the function block approach and some other key tricks we were able to employ that we were doing far less editing than a traditional ladder program.

There are also some compiler bugs in the IEC developer that are somewhat despicable. Things like a "set" instruction inside the function block continually forcing an output on when the function block is not enabled. We found a workaround but it has compromises.

~Ken
 
J

Jeremy Pollard

To MG - thx for the kudos.. but we are all to help yes???

The software/hardware connection WAS created before, then severed (3rd party packages) and then that cut into the big boys bottom line and they got bought.

HMI is separate so it may be a bit confusing for some customers because they have software choices for everything EXCEPT PLC programming software.

So free or not, they gotta use what the hafta!!!!

Cheers from :
Jeremy Pollard, CET The Caring Canuckian!
www[.]tsuonline[.]com
Control Design www[.]controldesignmag[.]com
Manufacturing Automation www[.]automationmag[.]com
 
Top